Monday, July 1, 2013

Wondering about fire ants.

I have a lot of fire ants on my place.  They can be a nuisance and a danger.  They seem to be attracted to electricity.  They have jammed up the points on the solenoid for the pump on my well leaving me without water.  This has happened more than once.  I have seen a bunch of them dead trying to get in an electric outlet female plug.  You would think that they would learn.  There is always a bunch of dead ones, not just one or two.  Maybe it goes like this:  One ant dares another to stick its foot in the socket.  He does and it fries him as he tries to get back out and all his buddies grab hold of him to try and pull him free.  Does that sound right.

They also have the bad habit of sneaking up your pant leg.  No, not just one but a hundred or so.  No, they don't bite, at least not yet.  After the whole platoon gets in position the master sergeant yells out the order to BITE!!  And they all bite at once.  I had a friend that wound up in the hospital after a camping trip when he laid out his sleeping bag too close to a hidden ant hill.  He had hundreds of bites.  Let me correct that, he had hundreds of stings.  Yes, they do sting.  They hold on to you with their legs and mouth and then jab their stinger into you.  Oh what joy. . .

They were accidentally introduced near Mobile, Alabama and since they were from South America, they had no natural enemies and spread like wild fire.  They have spread east to North Carolina, north to Tennessee and Arkansas and west to the plains of Texas.  The only thing that slows them down is a severe drought.  Next time you go through Mobile, you can thank them for the fire ants.  Now try to not get bitten stung and have a great day, you hear?

14 comments:

  1. Did they get into the country by accident? We have thousands of horrible mistakes that people caused who unwittingly brought things here with perfectly good intentions - kudzu, birds, fish, etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they were from South America. Not sure of the pariculars, but they were not released on purpose. Any introduced species that is not native, usually doesn't have any preditors that keep it under control.

      Delete
  2. I really do believe that they all climbed on to my foot and someone gave the command to bite or sting. Actually, we don't think THOSE were fire ants, just another kind that loves to harass humans. As usual, an allergic reaction kicked in and my foot swelled way up. I didn't know they were introduced to Alabama, my first encounter with fire ants was in SC in 2004... frankly I imagine SC wished they'd stayed in Alabama.... ouch!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worked a project in N.C. and they had fire ants but they were tame compared to Texas fire ants. Here in Texas hunters leave the head of bucks on fire ant hills and in no time they have it cleaned to the bone, no flesh left at all. Yes, I know first hand that it works.

      Delete
  3. My son was a member of a drum and bugle corps and when they were performing in Texas, there was one stadium that was full of them. All of the corps members got stung up till the program was done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nasty little critters, for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  5. They have made it all the way up the Pacific coast into Washington State. Texas A&M has a site that tracks the none areas with fireants.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jill, I guess I don't have to tell him what they are like.

    HJ, Yes they are. What they lack in size they make up in numbers and venom.

    Barney, I have heard that they hitch rides in trucks loaded with sod. Sneaky little buggers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Did I ever tell ya bout the time....I breaked down on a deserted Texas country road.
    Maybe I'll tell this story in my post tomorrow....it's a good'un.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The buggers like my radio antenna too, a wire tied to a Live Oak Tree. The walk up the tree find the rope that has the wire tied to it, and walk down the wire to my porch. They do it every day.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I hate the suckers! They are all over my mother's property and are hard to get rid of :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. UT imported some kind of knats and released them in our area, natural enemy, and they had gone as far as Burnet Co. next to us, haven't checked here in a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ernest, I knew they liked electric but didn't know they liked radio waves, too. Or was that just a bridge for them to get to you?

    MsB, I guess we just have to learn to live with them.

    Trouble, I have heard of an insect that lays eggs in the fire ant's brain. Maybe it is the same bug you are talking about.

    ReplyDelete