November 6, 2006
Topic: wrath of the fire ant
Today I had a new experience. I was digging a hole close to a couple ant hills, well more like an ant city with tiny ant skyscrapers; and just as I always have in the past, I ignored the ant hills and went about shoveling dirt. I dug in part of the area where the ant hills were, even stepping on the hills without thinking about it. Everything was going well, I was getting close to finishing the hole when I began to notice a nagging prickling sensation on my hand, I ignored it until the sensation started to sweep across my body. I looked down and to my surprise there were ants crawling on my hand, and all over my shirt and on my pants, and much worse, inside my pants up and down my legs. Welts formed on my wrist where I had been bitten. I panicked and suddenly realized I was under attack, by Fire Ants! I reacted to this by flailing my arms trying to sweep away all the ants but they clung to my garments relentlessly stinging my flesh. To a co-worker I proclaimed: “I have fire ants all over!” She cautiously backed away and another co-worker suggested I wash them off with a shower. I was able to get rid of them, but not before I'd received many bites, and an important lesson: in nature, danger is not always apparent. When something as tiny as an ant can be so vicious; I will now be weary of larger bigger beasts that lie in waiting for the right moment to attack. For instance: Is that cute lovable little kitten rubbing up against me to show affection; or is it just marking me to let the other kittens know that I will be it's next prey?
