Fire Ants

I hear about fire ants from my husband and his family from time to time.   I don’t know what the natural habitat of fire ants is, but I’d guess “Golf Courses” is on the top of their list given the number of times my father-in-law has encountered them.  I did see them once, on the putting practice green while my husband was trying to teach my son how to putt.

Or maybe he’d given up on trying to turn my son on to golf at the age of three and had gone back to practicing himself.   My children were running all over the green and assiduously avoiding the steep drop offs at the edges of the sand traps.  

Then someone yelled.  I think it might have been my husband, who rarely yells.    But in this case he’d spotted a large amount of fire ants, larger than normal because someone small in our family had just run through the nest.

I don’t remember if we all got away safely but I know I wasn’t bitten.   I don’t think the children were either.   We went home and aside from the fire ant stories I hear related to my father-in-law’s golf rounds I haven’t thought much about them in a few years.

I don’t really know what “fire ants” are.   Are they ants that bite or are they a specific species of ants that bite where the bite feels like fire afterwards?   I’m guessing the latter but since I refuse to take advantage of the internet while writing up one of these little posts, I won’t find out until after I press the publish button.

To sidetrack seriously on this post though, the thought has occurred to me that you might be wondering why I wouldn’t look something up in advance, prior to starting writing a post, so that I might be more knowledgeable about the subject first.   Only that would involve knowing what I was going to write.    Some times, some posts, I have a particular plan.   Other posts like tonight’s I had the two words, “fire ants” written as a blog post topic.    So I start typing and what comes out, comes out.   Even this little diversion into how I write posts I had no idea I would write until the last paragraph.  

But let’s get back to the subject…

I grew up with ants and those little ant hills they make all around me.  I poked at the hills and watched as the ants scattered.    I don’t remember getting bit by one ant ever in my life.   If getting bit felt like fire you can bet your life I’d have a specially seared part of my brain that remembered it.

Yesterday my daughter ran into the house yelling that her brother had gotten bitten by fire ants.   I don’t know where they were or what ant hill they’d poked a stick into but my son came in and was in distress from his lower calves down.

I got the panoply of anti-itch products we have out and helped him slather one on after another.   In my mind I questioned if it was really fire ants until I saw several large welts appearing after a few minutes.   So we dosed him with Benadryl and let him watch a television show until dinner time.

Today the welts are gone and he doesn’t seem to be itchy.   So were they just biting ants?  Or were  they fire ants?   I don’t know, but maybe next time my children will use a longer stick if they plan on poking at ant mounds.

The Big Boy Update:  As I was dropping my son off to school today he said, “I know this might make you sad mom, but you’re not going to pick me up after school; I have a play date with Kelly”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came home with a light-up skateboard from school,   This is because we pledged money to the, “booster-a-thon how many laps can you run around the track” thing.   That may not be the exact name but the point is, you have people pledge money on a per-lap basis and then the child runs their little legs off trying to raise as much money as they can.   My daughter apparently reached a level of pledges that entitles her to a light-up skateboard.   Mind you, she has currently run zero laps because the event hasn’t yet happened.   But she’s excited enough that tonight she ran around the outside and the inside of the house multiple times, “in training”.