Diabolical little creatures that they are, fire ants deliver their punishment in a dastardly two-stage attack. The bad news is that they hurt like a mother#$*&%. The good news is that such stings are mostly survivable, though about 1 percent of the population is allergic and can suffer severe reactions. Inevitably, this cacophonous choreography is followed by a pain. It’s weird how they seem to sort of undulate, moving as if they were alive.” Suddenly, his eyes bug out and the familiar flailing, thrashing, expletive-filled dance that is the hallmark of such discoveries ensues. Where would a person even get a pair of socks like these? Maybe they belong to the missus, although he’s never seen her in them before. Come to think of it, he doesn’t remember ever even seeing a pair of socks like these in his underwear/sock drawer before. “The Texanist doesn’t recall having put on shimmering dark red knee-high socks this morning. The common human versus ant run-in goes something like this: An unsuspecting guy, say the Texanist, is standing around at his daughter’s pee-wee soccer game when, during a lull in the on-field action, he casually glances down toward his feet. They get into homes and electrical utility equipment, they build large mounds that can damage mowing equipment, they kill newborn calves, and they cost the Texas economy a reported billion dollars a year. Nowadays, the pesky scourge that is the fire ant can be found wreaking its anty havoc everywhere.
From there, like a horde of six-footed Mongol conquerers, they marched westward (and eastward and northward), making their way to Texas (and Florida and Tennessee) in the 1950s. Hailing from South America, they first arrived, it is thought, in Mobile, Alabama, via ship in the 1930s. The red imported fire ant, as the name indicates, is not an ant species native to these parts. You may be surprised to learn that it has not always been the case that fire ants have bedeviled Texans. Alas, the only thing he’s gained from such encounters is a trove of personal knowledge, a portion of which, since he’s not fishing in South America, he’d be happy to share with you now. the red imported fire ant or, more commonly, those evil little If he had a nickel for every time he’s fallen victim to these tiny attackers, the Texanist would probably be fishing for brown trout in Tierra del Fuego instead of answering questions about fire ant bite pustules. So, for future reference, what is the appropriate way to handle a fire ant bite? Do you pop or do you not pop?Ī: The Texanist, like most every Texan who has ever spent any amount of time outdoors, is no stranger to the terrible scald of Solenopsis invicta, a.k.a. My wife insisted that this was a bad idea and that the bites should be left alone to heal on their own. You know how they turn into those little pimple-like bumps after about day? Well, I have always popped those things just as soon as they have shown up. Anyway, we got into an argument about the proper treatment of the bites.
She claims, by the way, that there are no fire ants in Canada. His mother, a Canadian, did not see it that way. Being a native Texan, I considered the event to be a rite of passage of sorts. Q: My four-year-old son recently had his first run-in with fire ants and came away with about ten good bites.
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