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Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted
What can responsible, freedom loving, family loving, just-want-to-be-left-alone, Americans learn from the noble fire ant?

Today is the third time this year I've gotten attacked by fire ants. First time in July, while I was fending off flocks of NC's state bird, the Deer Fly, I stepped on a mound in tall grass and they got me on my right leg as high as the back of my knee. Second time they got in my shoe and stung me all around my right ankle, even through my sock. Today, five stings on the outside of the right ankle. Individually, they aren't as bad as a Yellow Jacket. But when you get stung by five or more, they can ruin a good part of your day. And when the pain over, there's not enough calamine lotion to stop the itch. Miserable little bastards.

But they teach a valuable lesson. They pretty much keep to themselves until you disturb their home. Then it's on. Half of them carry off the eggs, the other half attack and they don't stop. They have a pint-sized bang-stick in their ass and they know how to use it in defense of home and family. All of us ought to be like the noble Fire Ant.





And, by the way, this is a banner year for Fire Ants. I've never seen as many mounds in NC as I have this year. I can look out on a acre of field and count 20-30 Fire Ant mounds.


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"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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https://i.imgur.com/mKU58Wf.jpg

^Thats funny!

Seek your revenge! Hang it outside as a reminder to the rest of them that you don't mess around!

https://youtu.be/IGJ2jMZ-gaI


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"When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
 
Posts: 8322 | Location: Attempting to keep the noise down around Midway Airport | Registered: February 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
Picture of jhe888
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The worst part is that they are undesirable aliens without papers.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53118 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
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I'm not sure what eats them, if anything. There are so damned many mounds. And some of the mounds are enormous.


_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
Picture of jhe888
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Micropterus:
I'm not sure what eats them, if anything. There are so damned many mounds. And some of the mounds are enormous.


A few critters (armadillos, birds, a few reptiles, and some other insects) feed on them, but not so as to make any real difference in their numbers.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53118 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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There were two painful lessons that I quickly learned in south Florida.

1. Don't crawl under a car parked on an Fire Ant hill to change the oil.

2. When walking on Saw Grass, wear shoes.


*********
"Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".
 
Posts: 8228 | Location: Arizona | Registered: August 17, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of CQB60
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I was picking pecans this past weekend. Was bitten four times before I knew what hit me. Those little terrors work fast!


______________________________________________
Life is short. It’s shorter with the wrong gun…
 
Posts: 13796 | Location: VIrtual | Registered: November 13, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
member
Picture of henryaz
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Marshall TX has an annual Fire Ant Festival every October, unfortunately cancelled this year due to Covid restrictions. They have the obligatory parade, a chili cooking contest, and other contests such as the Fire Ant Calling contest. Smile It has many sponsors now, but was originally sponsored by Amdro.



When in doubt, mumble
 
Posts: 10778 | Location: South Congress AZ | Registered: May 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Been there as well with the little demons. But I have learned to quickly make a slurry of salt to cover the bites. Helps a lot with the pain.
 
Posts: 1746 | Location: Central Florida | Registered: August 08, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Quiet Man
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I was camping once off of Pensacola Beach. At o'dark thirty I awoke needing to relive myself of a quantity of liquid refreshment I had consumed watching the sun go down over the bay. I rolled out of my tent and felt my foot sink into a surprisingly soft bit of soil. Those little bastards lit me up. What they lack in size, they make up in ferocity.

Funny thing is we have them all over the place here and I've never run afoul of them.
 
Posts: 2590 | Registered: November 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Plowing straight ahead come what may
Picture of Bisleyblackhawk
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Micropterus:
I'm not sure what eats them, if anything. There are so damned many mounds. And some of the mounds are enormous.


We always have few large mounds of the hateful little bastages at our rifle range and I have always enjoyed kicking the top off of them before dumping fire ant killer on them...but I saw something I had never seen before on the last one I kicked...what looked like thousands all scurrying around carrying their eggs (as usual)...but within three minutes the top of the mound was covered with yellow jackets eating every egg. Being a Georgia Tech fan I decided to give the yellow jackets another feast and picked up a 6’ steel fence post and dug deep down and about ten times the number that came from the first kick...including what I took to be the queen (larger and different looking)...within minutes the yellow jackets repeated their attack and pick-a-nick Razz...it looked like something out of an episode of Animal Planet Eek


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"we've gotta roll with the punches, learn to play all of our hunches
Making the best of what ever comes our way
Forget that blind ambition and learn to trust your intuition
Plowing straight ahead come what may
And theres a cowboy in the jungle"
Jimmy Buffet
 
Posts: 10580 | Location: Southeast Tennessee...not far above my homestate Georgia | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Frangas non Flectes
Picture of P220 Smudge
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by GWbiker:
There were two painful lessons that I quickly learned in south Florida.

1. Don't crawl under a car parked on an Fire Ant hill to change the oil.

2. When walking on Saw Grass, wear shoes.


3. Don't stand in one place too long, especially without keeping an eye on your feet.


______________________________________________
Carthago delenda est
 
Posts: 17059 | Location: Sonoran Desert | Registered: February 10, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Spread the Disease
Picture of flesheatingvirus
posted Hide Post
Sweet revenge.




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI


________________________________________

-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
 
Posts: 17248 | Location: New Mexico | Registered: October 14, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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