Fire Ants Kill Winter Texan in the RGV

jjjandrbaker wrote:

LynnandCarol wrote:
But in Texas (really anywhere) you must always watch where your feet go!

This is so true. Most of us have developed the art of constantly looking at our feet when standing or sitting anywhere fire ants are likely. It is always best to catch it when there are only one or two ants crawling on your shoes, than to wait for a sting. More often than not, a sting is a harbinger of several more to come. Anyone who has done the fire ant "get nekkid quick" dance, learned the hard way to be vigilant. I once stood on the edge of a pond fishing. I had more than 80 stings by the time my dance was over.

If you had 80 stings, I would say you came out ahead. Twice when I lived in Georgia I took an ambulance ride to the hospital due to fire ants, and in both cases it was less than 10 ants that attacked me and only for a few moments until I could brush them off. Crazy thing is, they tested me and told me it wasn't an allergic reaction - I'm just very susceptible to their toxin. Needless to say, I learned what they look like and keep fire ant poison around all the time.