Pesky Chinches

Water for washing often came from creeks or springs.

Have you ever heard of chinches? I learned of them through my Appalachian background. I've also run across several oral history collections that talk about them, and my mother, who came from the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, knew about them.

Clinches are small insects that resemble a tiny tick, and they suck blood too. They'd invade a house, especially during the winter, a time when those in the Appalachians washed themselves or their possessions as little as possible. In bad infestations, the chinches would even be climbing the walls. 

Normally during spring cleaning, women would wash bedding, redo mattress stuffings, and scour down the cabins with extremely hot, soapy water to rid the house of chinches. From their descriptions, I've often wondered if they weren't a type of bedbug, but I've never come across that in any of my research.

In Cleared for Planting, when Emma and her family get to Uncle

Roy's cabin, it's infested with chinches and other varmints. They move everything out, wash the walls and floor with scalding water and lye soap, and launder all the clothes and bedding. Aren't you glad this isn't something we have to contend with on a regular basis today?

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