You may remember during the extended discussion about ants and other pests that I mentioned that we usually have fire ants in this part of the country. Due to the drought we haven't had any this summer (there are advantages to a drought, I guess!) but since we got 2.5 inches of rain from the remnants of TS Fay this week, a couple of mounds have appeared in our yard.
Since they don't get all the way to Illinois I thought you might like to see what happens when you knock the top off a fire ant mound. This is an older camera so it's not great, no fancy sound, but you can really see the effects. I used a broom to break off the top of the mound while filming. The immediate swarming is quite a sight, and they are vicious biters. One of the ants got on my foot and I can still feel the sting now, about an hour later. Sorry for the strap shadow!
5 comments:
eeeooouuuu! Gives me the "willies". Hope they don't invade Illinois!
Be glad you got only one sting. I remember a few summers ago visiting at Mary's and the fire ants got into my tennis shoe. I had a lot of bites and my foot swelled, etc. People here think any big ant is a "fire ant", but they don't know.
I realize it's a bit childish, but I do like to stir up a fire ant hill sometime when I'm visiting the South.
Yep--Ada, these little buggers will indeed give you the willies, squared!!! They are on mean attack if stirred up. And their sting is not short lived. So, the best thing is to simply sprinkle a fire-ant powder sold at all Wal+Mart stores and usually they die. But the queen is really the one to annihilate.
Something strange is that we get an ant hill on occasion but I never see any in our neighbor's yard. Are we hexed(as my mother would say)?
Wow that is neat! Did you know ants are the only animal to take slaves and make war against other ants? Red ants take black ants and make them their slaves. They will also have war battles. Some will pretend to be killed and when they are taken to the other queen they will get up and kill her. They also raise farms of aphids for the "milk". Very interesting!
Aside from the profuse sweating in the summer months, fire ants are by far the worst part of living in the South. I will never forget the first time I learned that you can't pull weeds in sandles. Those little suckers hide in the rocks and you don't even see them until they are all over you feet and biting like mad! The bite hurts, and the itch last for weeks. FYI...scrating only makes it worse!!!! For an example of what it's like to get bit by a bunch see this clip. We laughed until our guts hurt when we watched this...we could totally relate! RK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwkj2ooEzbU
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