There are few critters I believe should be extinct. Fire ants are on that very short list. Killer bees made it too.
There are few critters I believe should be extinct. Fire ants are on that very short list. Killer bees made it too.
We don't run into chiggers much in South Florida and I don't know why.
We are slap full of fire ants.
My brother Sean is a tick magnet and that seems to be true of chiggers too. He gets covered and my other brothers and I don't get bit.
But, he doesn't like bug spray and I use a lot of DEET.
I'm scratching chigger and fire ant bites as I type. I'll spare you the details but my sig on one forum was, "I got chiggers on my butt I'm pretty."
Gaahhh! MY EYES, MY EYES!!! Where is the eyeball pain fork? Can you imagine a park full of these poor saps running around...
f8d8ab.jpg
220px-Chigger2.JPG
...singing and scratching in tune with these?
Genius is making a way out of no way.
When I say we are full of fire ants. I put my tent up so that my normal traffic around my tent will not have me stepping in a nest and they won't swarm my tent. Simply because there is no area large enough to completely avoid them and other hazards at the same time. But, I have not been bitten by large amounts of ants in a long time.
We camp in the dry parts of a wet swamp. So, do the ants. LOL
Batch I know what you are talking about if you have ever gone through a recently flooded area in a small boat you have probably seen the swarms of fire ants with their larva up on the trees above the water line. If you bump into the trees and vegetation they drop into your boat with you. I imagine this happens with chiggers and ticks as well but they are not as easy to see. Between that and the poison ivy "4 wheeling" with kayaks and canoes through a newly flooded forest can be "uncomfortable" ha ha ha.
Also reminds me of this old joke from about 10 years ago about "Fake" park rangers offering to check you out for ticks and chiggers:
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BTW when I was a kid it was against the neighborhood rules to shoot song birds and we were required to eat every bird we did shoot so "occasionally" we threw them in the huge fire ant mounds, by the next day only bones remained. Also the pigs would consume them even faster. I should probably not admit that but the statue of limitations is over and they cannot confiscate my pellet gun anymore, I sold it decades ago... Also "occasionally" we put our plates in fire ant mounds after eating while camping because we were to lazy to scrape and wash them, by the next meal just flicked them out with a stick and there was almost nothing to wash off. So even as a kid I found uses for fire ants. Still hated them.
Last edited by TXyakr; 08-30-2015 at 07:07 PM. Reason: added photo of joke
Swarming tents. On the list. Gotta get some more paper. There really is something dreadfully wrong when you make a statement..." there is no area large enough to completely avoid them and other hazards at the same time." That's a very telling complaint that a lesser man might mistaken for something completely normal. I would like to point at that I am not a lesser man and there is nothing normal about that. Then again, I've seen you handle dinosaurs so I know there's something not right with you. I say that in the most respectful way possible. "Not right" is a Yankee saying with a lot of meanings. (Good God, if he gets upset with me he's apt to show up with several items that are on the list)
I just put one of my business cards outside my tent. They generally avoid the area.
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
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Well technically it isn't the tent that swarms. LOL
See lots of the ant migrations you are talking about TX. But, I have never had a problem with fire ants falling out of trees. Usually that is the elongated twig ant. In fact if we are in South Florida and an ant falls out of a tree onto you. I would bet it was an elongated twig ant. If it stings you I am going to double down. LOL
They are in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. So, you have probably had the pleasure of making their acquaintance as well. Though most ants aren't that bad.
Elongated twig ant. On the list!
Yeah, I've spent a LOT of time in TX and FL. I was headquarted in both states for many years. Our corporate headquarters was in Dallas and our I.T. headquarters was in Tampa. I worked in both groups at one time or another. Florida is one of the few states where you can walk out of a hotel and go instantly blind....until you remove your fogged up sunglasses.
Humid it is. LOL
I spent a bit in Tampa. I learned to swim near Bellows Lake. I learned to ride horses right there and rode horses to see Star Wars when it came out. I already knew how to shoot archery and guns. But, competed in both for the first time up there.
I rode my first bull in on a cattle farm in Lakeland and my second and my third. Jumped my first train in Fort Meade. The freest I have ever been is in that region. We should all be dead! What a childhood!
I gotta ask and all due respect, to those that posted... just spray up with Deep Woods OFF. IT has stood the test of time and prevents, all crawling insects, chiggers, fleas, black legged ticks, bed bugs, and I just found out messes the hell out of Yellow Jackets from finding your soft areas. It has been tested by universities, the EPA, The FDA... & me! Yea I spray my shoes & pants with DWO and I dont have BB after 6 years of finding them in beds.
It is a true repellent you can spray flies directly and they dont care. It will not kill bugs based on tests here at home. it only confuses their senses. I got tapped by the third Yellow Jacket nest in one day and discovered there must be a pheromone or key-tone (insect version) of stuff on my gloves. I sprayed up and kept working. I delt with the swollen hands later-took three-four days to go back to normal.
Why would you mess around with finding something that might let you down in the woods when this is the best hands down... When I forgot to use it, I got lymes twice (Found the Bullseye's), Rocky Mountain Fever once... all in ten years. All I can say is thank you for the prescription meds...
Two women in Africa bathed in it and although they are alive they are the only people to get sick enough to end up in hospital ... But they probably needed to bathe in it. Scabies comes to mind.
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Yes this post is from the front lines... now make a decision.
“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
I have never bothered to take a picture or video of the floating mounds of fire ants after a flood because I grew up with them and it was common place. As kids we would occasionally dump gasoline into the water which also floated and light it just for the satisfaction of watching them burn after flicking a match on it. Here is a video of a mound of fire ants that got floated out and is floating. Eventually they will find dry land or a tree or something. Chiggers and ticks do the same thing if they find you in the flood water you will be miserable. I try to stay out of flood water.
In deepest, darkest Louisiana (where I am originally from), we call 'em "ant balls." I would really, really hate to bump into one. Those ants can cover you up faster than you can imagine...
Genius is making a way out of no way.
The are normally right next to the ant gloves and ant ball bats.
Originally Posted by madmax
Seriously, I let that line go and nobody but nobody ran with it.
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