Been there done that, all too often. The worst I ever got was while I was standing in about 2-3 inches of dry leaves in my back yard calling my dog who had decided to chase a cat into the woods. After about 3-4 minutes, I felt a fire ant sting me up near the top of my right thigh. Looking down, I found that I’d been standing in a well-disguised fire ant mound and that they had waited until there were ants all the way up both legs before they decided to sting me. I had on blue jeans and heavy work boots which I immediately started to strip off as fast as I could. I’m dancing around trying to untie my boots, unbuckle my belt to get the pants off and swat the fire ants away, all at the same time. I’m sure that it would have made a very funny YouTube video which thankfully was not around at the time. Final count was about 50-60 stings on each leg from ankle to crotch. I hate those little buggers and exterminate them as soon as I see a mound in the yard.
I don’t think there are many native or long term residents males of the SE USA that haven’t at some point experienced the fire ant dance. I have never had as many bites as Jim but I remember back about 1980 leaving a closed tire factory in Tupelo to go to lunch. I had a trainee trailing alone, he got a good laugh when I pulled he car over to the side of the road and jumped out and started swatting ants pulling my pants legs up, sock down trying to get them all. If there had been a new crew present I would not have cared. IMHO, fire ants have replaced kudzu as the worse import to the area.
Please accept my commiserations. It reminds me of the day that I discovered that fire ants had made it up to Nashville. It was the same day that I declared war on the wretched beasties.
Strangely enough I made their aquitance in way northern Maine. We were in Eastport and stopped to take the dogs out. We drove around this little park area, not seeing the sign. We walked up a little and our Cairn started doing the Mexican hat dance. Two of the other dogs started in. The big dog - nothing. I took 2 of them, raced, well tried, pre hip replacement days, and we jumped down a little incline, jumped into the salt water where I swished them vigorously!
As we drove around the circle, then did we see the sign warning of them!
Mike
I’m really shocked and disappointed to hear that Fire Ants made it all the way to Maine. Are you sure they were Fire Ants. These guys make huge mounds (for ants anyway) routinely the mounds are six inches high and about 12-14 inches in diameter. When you disturb a mound, they swarm out by the thousands to attack whoever or whatever disturbed the mound. We had red ants when I lived in New England, but never Fire Ants. That said, these little stinkers migrate fast and are very hard to stop. I’ve seen them flooded out by 2-3 feet of water and they simply make a floating island out of thousands of ants and float to dry land to start over. I sure hope that they’re not that far North.
Hi Jim,
Tried to reply but it didn’t make it, so here goes again. We did see a sign saying there were fire ants. Eastport is a small port, the area is near an industrial area, so I think it possible to have them. When we go back up in Sept. I’ll try to get over and check. This tine from INSIDE the van!
Mike
Having never been to Maine I looked up Eastport on Google Earth. That is a fairly well isolated little chunk of land. If you haven’t you should make the Dept. of Agricultural start with the state and if necessary go to the feds, aware of the ants if you think they are fire ants. Since they burrow in they might survive the winter up there, if they can be isolated and eliminated that is the thing to do. I have seen fields in south Mississippi from the air that looked like someone had planted a orchard, only it was fire ants.
Must have been red ants that attacked my ankles yesterday in Iowa. I was standing on a stream bank flyfishing for trout, I was on top of what looked like a partially degraded brushpile. I moved, but apparently not far enough. I ignored them as much as I could. I eventually had to just get into the water.
I compare fire ants to yellow jackets. A wasp sting hurts and goes away, a yellow jacket sting stays with out. To a lesser degree so do fire ant stings or bites, they tend to burn for much longer than a regular red ant. Frequently because of the density of them you will find yourself with multiple bites. I have never seen a fire ant mound as small as a red ant mound and vice verse. Down here the first time you notice a fire ant mound it will be at least 3 - 4 inches above the surround surface and seem to appear overnight. I think Jim mentioned them forming rafts and floating away during flooding. I remember a photo of where a bream had been killed supposedly by the ants and they were floating and feasting on it during flooding.
