*^%*(&^friggin red ants.....

 

ouchie! Get some antiperspirant and put it on there, will help the swelling and the pain! Promise it works! 

and DONT pop em. By morning they wll be gone if you use it. :) I have used it since my kids were little. My granny taught me. 

OUCH!!!!!!!!

I always use mint toothpaste on bites. Funny, fabfive and I were just talking about that. 

Ouch ---- I hate fire ants. 

Ouch 

Ewww. That has to hurt. 

We have been getting bitten a lot and they are not in mounds. It's like you just randomly get bitten out of nowhere. DH does put down stuff but a) I hate to put down chemicals that my horses and goats graze on and b) it seems like the ants just go back down into the earth until it rains again. Just seems like it doesn't work. 

Have you tried corn meal? Its not as effective as chemicals, but its safe for most animals. 

OHMYGOSH that looks painful!!!!!

= [ 

Ouch, ouch, ouch!!! Soak you foot in apple cider vinegar (preferably Bragg's ACV). It will take care of the itch, and the ACV will help draw out the poison.

As for what gets rid of them, diatomaceous earth works well and is safe for all animals/you can even give it to animals as a dewormer. Must be the FOOD GRADE type, though, and not the type you use for a pool filter. 

I have forty pounds of DE sitting in my garage. I have given it to my animals and noticed no decrease in flies. Not sure about intestinal parasites because they didn't have any to start with.

And no, I haven't tried corn meal. It would take a lot of cornmeal to cover this whole place.

I think the answer is to get chickens because they will eat all insects and larvae. 

I didn't know DE was good for flies, but you can sprinkle it on fire ant mounds and it works just as good as the poison. If you horses don't have parasites, then I wouldn't think you would need to give them DE. 

Horses always carry a parasite load, it's just some more than others. But the DE is supposed to work on flies because you know how flies are with poop. When I did the DE on a mound it was like they would go underground and move a few feet and that was it. Currently we don't have mounds, but we always see them in the spring.

I did buy some insect IGR that the pest pros use, thinking we will put it down and keep the horses off it for a long while in the spring. I can't have my kids being bitten. Some of them are epi-pen allergic to insects, fire ants in particular. 

I'm telling ya'll antiperspirant works! I swear by it. Everyone had it in the bathroom and everyone uses it. It wont hurt your skin in your arm pits sure wont hurt anywhere else. try it once... its cheap and we all use it :) 

and in Texas you cant kill fireants unless you use powerful chemicals, yes might harm some things but death of a child or animal from fire ants overrules anything.

I use over n out and never have a bed in the yard, if we see one its usually on the neighbors line, and I then started doing their yards as well. 

Oddly enough we don't use antiperspirant. I use some Tom's of Maine because it doesn't have that aluminum zirconium or whatever it is. That stuff causes breast cancer. With my family history I don't need any help. 

I understand. I am one that believes everything we touch, eat, smell, drink or come in contact with causes cancer. There hasn't been one thing in our lives that doesn't have some link to cancer. I believe in just living. :) No offense just my opinion ;) 

Oh I know! I love that Tom's of Maine stuff. Everything I've ever used of theirs works great, it is just expensive. As in $5 for a small stick of it. I'm not exactly sure what it has in it, just none of the aluminum stuff. I wonder if it would work on the fire ant bites? 

might its the chemical that makes us not sweat i heard. I wouldn't suggest getting bit then trying it though LOL 

heck even the fragrance avon stuff works, the liquid roll on is the best active for bites though. 

here is an article on it in fact from a dr:)

Get rid of insect bites with deoderant. 

heres a fact sheet on the breast cancer threat you talked about.

link title 

sorry found it popped up when lookin for the link to ant bites :) 

I have plenty of extra in case anyone wants any

Send them over- DW killed all of mine! (:-( 

Ray --- A good friend of mine always recommends putting some tea tree oil on those dang ant bites! That stuff really does take the sting out quick.

You need to be extra careful they don't get infected. If you are diabetic, this is especially important. I had a patient once who was diabetic and got stung over 100 times by fire ants. Her legs swelled up huge, she had to be hospitalized when all the bites became infected. After the got the infection under control, I went daily to take care of the sores that remained - probably about 30 quarter sized sores. She said she almost died because of the ant bites. 

People don't realize how deadly the can be. We keep epi pens around here but geeze I hope I never have to use one. 

An epi pen wouldn't do any good for the lady who had the infection. She did not have any allergic reaction....in fact, she didn't even feel the ants biting. People with advanced diabetes usually have neuropathy and can't feel much of anything on the feet & sometimes on their hands. Diabetes is a horrible disease and it is pretty much preventable if people would control their diets and exercise. I know that it's not totally preventable, but mostly. 

Oh I know. I knew she almost died from the infection. I just meant that there are so many ways those darn things can get you. Eek. 

Ahhhhh --- gotcha.


Yeah, there are many ways for those stupid ants to get you. The pain of the stings gets to me from the minute they attack. I think they give out a signal and all sting at once....then the 2nd round came to do the same a little higher.

I found out recently that the Raspberry Crazy Ants are gradually wiping out the Fire Ant colonies - they are mortal enemies and the fire ants come out the loser. But, the crazy ants are bad for us because they eat the insulation around the electric wiring.