The Truth about FIRE ANTS

The distinct home of fire ants

Another fire ant pile that Julia gleefully poked with a stick - so you could see the resultant fire ant fiasco. Unfortunately you have to click on the photo to enlarge and then look very hard - they are quite small and hard to see in the sand.

Liam's bites about 4 days later

Soon after we arrived in Texas I wrote a post on fire ants that were moving in through Mila's window upstairs. At the time, however, I was hopelessly inexperienced in the fire ant department .... and it turned out those ants were NOT fire ants at all. For months now, I have had a nagging voice telling me to correct the misinformation that I am sure is spreading rapidly over the world wide web;).

Fire ants have very distinctive homes. Today I took a walk down the path to photograph some ant piles just for you!

On Saturday I was at work when I got a message to "Call your husband". I had expected an emergency such as "where is the cheese?" But instead Kurt let me know that Liam had "thousands of ant bites and was swelling up". Desperate to hear something reassuring about the situation that would not have me sending the whole family to the emergency room, I asked for clarification.

"You are exaggerating aren't you - he doesn't really have a thousand bites?"

"Well probably closer to 100 but his arms are red and swollen and hot, what should I do?"

I directed him to the fire ant bite cream, and after consulting with a convenient pediatrician, to some Children's Benedryl. But asked frequently ... is his face swelling? is he breathing easily?

You see fire ants are uncomfortable - they are tiny ants that can cover your foot ( or whatever offensive part of your body disturbs their world) without you noticing and then, responding to a signal all start to bite and sting simultaneously. As far as I am aware you need to get their attention by disturbing their home. Each time we have been bitten/stung ( and yes, each one of us in our family have been) it has been due to stepping on their turf (that would be the sand piles that are pictured).