Posted: 10/27/2011 4:13:11 AM EDT
Do they bite or sting? 
|
|
Quoted:
the bite stings This...they don't have stingers. Their bite injects something that causes the stinging. Something else I've noticed...when they get on you, they all seem to wait to bite you at the same time instead of the first one just biting as soon as he's on you. 
|
|
About 15 years ago I had a little encounter with fire ants.
My car stalled late at night in downtown Dallas many years ago. I got out and push started it..hopped back in...and drove off. 20 seconds later I felt my ankles and feet on fire, so I jumped out the car and saw I was covered in fire ants from the knees down. I brushed them off and went on with my evening. (did I mention I used to drink?) Early the next morning.... I got up to take a piss and fell to the floor. I was paralized from the knees down. My feet, ankles and lower legs were covered with ping pong ball sized blisters.. every color under the sun. This happened a week before Thanksgiving and I left the hospital a week after Christmas Wheelchair for the next three years and had to learn how to walk all over again. Wife left me, lost my house, car, career.. and most of my belongings. Was homeless for for a couple years. Yeah..fire ants bite and sting. The good news is I recovered from all that... and got to make a new life 
|
|
I saw something on the television once about a woman who was horseback riding in Florida I believe. She was thrown of the horse and was hurt to the point that she was immobile and lying atop a fire ant mound. That had to have sucked.
They are plentiful here in SC. |
|
Quoted: About 15 years ago I had a little encounter with fire ants. My car stalled late at night in downtown Dallas many years ago. I got out and push started it..hopped back in...and drove off. 20 seconds later I felt my ankles and feet on fire, so I jumped out the car and saw I was covered in fire ants from the knees down. I brushed them off and went on with my evening. (did I mention I used to drink?) Early the next morning.... I got up to take a piss and fell to the floor. I was paralized from the knees down. My feet, ankles and lower legs were covered with ping pong ball sized blisters.. every color under the sun. This happened a week before Thanksgiving and I left the hospital a week after Christmas Wheelchair for the next three years and had to learn how to walk all over again. Wife left me, lost my house, car, career.. and most of my belongings. Was homeless for for a couple years. Yeah..fire ants bite and sting. The good news is I recovered from all that... and got to make a new life WUT. THE. FUCK?!#?!#?#$ Are you serious?!?!! Good Lord, man...that is absolutely incredible. Glad you made it through all of that. That is seriously a frightening worst case scenario story. I never, ever, want to see fire ants. EVAR. |
|
Unlike many other ants, which bite and then spray acid on the wound, fire ants bite only to get a grip and then sting (from the abdomen) and inject a toxic alkaloid venom called solenopsin, a compound from the class of piperidines.
Link If fire ants do crawl onto your skin, they first bite with their mandibles in order to anchor for the thrust of the sting.
Another link.... |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
About 15 years ago I had a little encounter with fire ants. My car stalled late at night in downtown Dallas many years ago. I got out and push started it..hopped back in...and drove off. 20 seconds later I felt my ankles and feet on fire, so I jumped out the car and saw I was covered in fire ants from the knees down. I brushed them off and went on with my evening. (did I mention I used to drink?) Early the next morning.... I got up to take a piss and fell to the floor. I was paralized from the knees down. My feet, ankles and lower legs were covered with ping pong ball sized blisters.. every color under the sun. This happened a week before Thanksgiving and I left the hospital a week after Christmas Wheelchair for the next three years and had to learn how to walk all over again. Wife left me, lost my house, car, career.. and most of my belongings. Was homeless for for a couple years. Yeah..fire ants bite and sting. The good news is I recovered from all that... and got to make a new life WUT. THE. FUCK?!#?!#?#$ Are you serious?!?!! Good Lord, man...that is absolutely incredible. Glad you made it through all of that. That is seriously a frightening worst case scenario story. I never, ever, want to see fire ants. EVAR. Yes, serious ...it really happened. All it takes is wrong place wrong time... Your whole life can turnaround..and not for the better. Before this happened to me, I really took simple things for granted in life. I have a profound respect for life now, and I'm grateful for that. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
About 15 years ago I had a little encounter with fire ants. My car stalled late at night in downtown Dallas many years ago. I got out and push started it..hopped back in...and drove off. 20 seconds later I felt my ankles and feet on fire, so I jumped out the car and saw I was covered in fire ants from the knees down. I brushed them off and went on with my evening. (did I mention I used to drink?) Early the next morning.... I got up to take a piss and fell to the floor. I was paralized from the knees down. My feet, ankles and lower legs were covered with ping pong ball sized blisters.. every color under the sun. This happened a week before Thanksgiving and I left the hospital a week after Christmas Wheelchair for the next three years and had to learn how to walk all over again. Wife left me, lost my house, car, career.. and most of my belongings. Was homeless for for a couple years. Yeah..fire ants bite and sting. The good news is I recovered from all that... and got to make a new life WUT. THE. FUCK?!#?!#?#$ Are you serious?!?!! Good Lord, man...that is absolutely incredible. Glad you made it through all of that. That is seriously a frightening worst case scenario story. I never, ever, want to see fire ants. EVAR. Yes, serious ...it really happened. All it takes is wrong place wrong time... Your whole life can turnaround..and not for the better. Before this happened to me, I really took simple things for granted in life. I have a profound respect for life now, and I'm grateful for that. Holy shit! Glad you were able to recover. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
About 15 years ago I had a little encounter with fire ants. My car stalled late at night in downtown Dallas many years ago. I got out and push started it..hopped back in...and drove off. 20 seconds later I felt my ankles and feet on fire, so I jumped out the car and saw I was covered in fire ants from the knees down. I brushed them off and went on with my evening. (did I mention I used to drink?) Early the next morning.... I got up to take a piss and fell to the floor. I was paralized from the knees down. My feet, ankles and lower legs were covered with ping pong ball sized blisters.. every color under the sun. This happened a week before Thanksgiving and I left the hospital a week after Christmas Wheelchair for the next three years and had to learn how to walk all over again. Wife left me, lost my house, car, career.. and most of my belongings. Was homeless for for a couple years. Yeah..fire ants bite and sting. The good news is I recovered from all that... and got to make a new life WUT. THE. FUCK?!#?!#?#$ Are you serious?!?!! Good Lord, man...that is absolutely incredible. Glad you made it through all of that. That is seriously a frightening worst case scenario story. I never, ever, want to see fire ants. EVAR. Yes, serious ...it really happened. All it takes is wrong place wrong time... Your whole life can turnaround..and not for the better. Before this happened to me, I really took simple things for granted in life. I have a profound respect for life now, and I'm grateful for that. Holy shit! Glad you were able to recover. Thanks...me too If I had gottin help emediatly after, things would have been better, but I didn't get help until I woke the next day and the venom had burned out the nerves in my lower legs. (did I mention I used to drink?  )
Again, this was only so extreme because I had a million bites and I didn't go to the hospital till the next day. I walk pretty much fine now but I have neuropathy..buzzing and shooting pains in my legs off and on. The doctors said I would never walk again, but the nerves did grow back.
|