What are fire ants?

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Bear in mind that Orthene is an organophosphate (active ingredient is Acephate - look it up. It's found in many other trade names besides Orthene).

Take extreme precautions if/when you use it. Particularly ensure that your pets do not go near it - it will kill them.
 
Many fire ants aren't native and like most other non native Texans should be killed whenever the chance arises ;-) I have heard of many things from pouring coffee or boiling water on a mound to peeing on a mound being successful at at least getting them to abandon the mound. I even found one website that suggested getting a shovel and mixing up the ants from two different mounds. Apparently they will then fight each other to the death. Might want to have the video camera handy for that one!

Apparently the native guys aren't so bad as fire ants actually kill other bugs and stuff. Check this site out: Imported Fire Ant - FAQ
 
Ah, the memories of getting into those beasts... Mom always poured bleach on the bites, stopped the itching and swelling pretty quick. I had an old neighbor that would pour gasoline on his leg when he got into them, too. All my cousins laughed at me when I was little and went to Indiana and saw their ants and ran. They're bigger, they MUST hurt a lot worse than ours! Those ants, luckily, don't bite
 
My 5 year old thinks it an exciting adventure to kick over an ant pile and then run away far enough to watch the black, boiling mass come roaring up out of the ground.

Now, I teach him not to pull the cats tail, or kick dogs, but I definately encourage torturing the fire ants!
 
Here's my fire ant story..."Ants in my Pants"

Several years ago wife and I decided to do a tourist thing in St Augustine. We found a quaint old hotel to spend the night that looked fairly neat and clean. Unknown to us this hotel had a bit of a fire ant infestation.

Well, it came time to bed down for the night and I plopped my pants down alongside the bed. During the night the ants decided that my pants would make a nice home. Next morning I got up, put my pants on the suddenly I was on fire, private areas included...Yanked my pants off and hopped into the shower for some relief. Since I was stung so badly we even made a morning trip trip to the drug store for Benedryl.

When we got home, wife wrote several biting letters to the hotel...to no avail...not even a free stay
 
Bad Fire Ants!
I didn't know what a fire ant was until I moved to Florida. As a child in CA I was allergic to bee stings and went thru a long agonizing process of getting shots every week for a year for "de-allertization (sp?)" As an adult I am now in FL out washing my car one day when OUCH. I shoved my foot in the bucket of soapy water to try to get whatever it was off my foot. Within an hour I was itching like mad and covered in hives. Turns out the venom is very similar to bees but not similar enough that my shots worked on them. Add another critter to my allergy list. Bad Fire Ants.
 
A couple of years ago I was walking down south 1st street when I decided to stop in a little shop there being run out of an old house. On my way out I crossed through the yard which was apparently seriously infested with fire ants. My pants and even my shirt were covered so I stripped down to my boxers while standing on the sidewalk. Fortunately Austin's weird enough that no one really seemed to notice :) After killing all the pesky buggers left on me and shaking my clothes out I got dressed and continued on my way.

~Jess
 
I stripped down to my boxers while standing on the sidewalk. /QUOTE]

Ha ha. Have you been looking over my fence? I was cleaning my backyard of doggie presents last week, when I happened to step into some fire ant mounds (very low to the ground so I missed them). My sandaled feet were dotted along with the bottom of my pants, subsequently removed. Thank goodness for wooden fences or my neighbors would have gotten a show! My dog just looked at me curiously, wondering about my new dance or it could have been my pink undies...
 
I have had my fair share of incidents with fire ants. I almost stepped into a large mound today!

Many years ago, I stepped into a large mound in the early morning (still dark) while wearing sandals. The thing is, I had been walking through wet grass (early morning dew). The cooling sensation of the moisture masked the attack by the varmints. I didn't realize I was under attack until many seconds later. Wow! That was interesting. Let me tell ya (singular of yall).
 
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