ME&MYACE400
Elite Member
I will be very careful this spring as red ant holes are everywhere we are
has anyone come across any of these?
tell us your story
has anyone come across any of these?
tell us your story
Well not red but big black ones that bite or sting.
Not me, but I witnessed.
A story here to share with folks with a sad ending. Dreadful actually.
I was doing duty back in 1990/1991 in Riyad Saudi Arabia during desert Storm.
We had had a few scud missiles lobbed our way previously before this one night.
Anyway, I and a gent named Joe my subordinate were working on an aircraft.
We got the radio call and sirens sounded alarm red.
Joe was a super troop btw, quiet, very loyal person.
Anyway we jumped off the plane on the Tarmac and put on our chemical warfare suits..We took shelter crawling in a culvert that ran under a taxi way. We had been in this culvert for a while awaiting the all clear signal. All of a sudden Joe jumps up and says something is biting him all over. He then climbs out of the culvert and starting stripping off his chemical warfare suit, then his actual military uniform. Turns out he had when crawling back in the culvert he crawled in an ant's nest. They were all over him, big ants too. The ants left welts all over him.
Well, Joe and I were actually assigned to the same base back in USA. Eventually I had changed bases through reassingment.
I ran into Joe not long before my actual retirement in England. He had gotten a couple promotions. He was still the good ole quiet Joe I knew before. He was leaving Uk soon after Immet him that day.
That was the last I saw of Joe.
After retirement for AF, I would read the AF mil sites.
I saw a story and read.
Upon reading I was sickened to what I saw.
Joe was a nice gent. One day I would like to go visit his family and talk to them.
I am almost positive Joe mentioned me to them by name.
The part that upset me.
http://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/136500/airman-dies-in-maintenance-accident/
Fire ants were bad in Alabama when I lived there...A guy soon learns what to keep an eye out for...Every year, in the News, somebody would get hurt or killed by pouring gasoline on a fire ant nest, and then throwing a match...BOOM! Massive explosion! Bad idea but it happens every year...Well, those fire ants excavate some amazingly cavernous underground networks, and those gasoline fumes create the perfect recipe for disaster...
I watched some Youtube vids about guys that create some amazing art by pouring molten aluminum down inside a fire ant nest...like a sandcast sculpture!...I thought about this as a form of retirement income, something fun to do in the Winter...go out and set up and pour molten aluminum down into fire ant nests...let it cool, dig it up, hose it off, and set up a display at an Art show...
Where I live (in Western Australia) we have bull ants. They are incredibly ferocious and for some people it can take only 10 bites to kill you (no joke!).
Dad and I were out gold prospecting in the gold fields when dad got a really nice signal, but right on top of a bull ant nest. So he drove the pick into the ground and out came hundreds and hundreds of these black beasts!! The area where we were prospecting in has produced some large nuggets, so we weren't going to give up on this target. We let the ants settle themselves, and an hour later we came back armed with fly spray and a blow torch. They weren't bothered by the fly spray, so we carefully piled some sticks onto the nest, and set the whole thing on fire. 10 minutes later the ants had 'magically' disappeared, so we could finally dig out the 1oz nugget! The signal turned out to be a rusty old can at 10in.
You might mean Fire Ants.
You might mean Fire Ants. I was hunting one time, got a hit , concentrating on my pinpointing spot. Got my eye on the spot . Knelt down , set the detector down...
20 years ago, working utilities, South Carolina..
I'd just been dicking around with an overgrown gate/chain/lock, seemed to take forever, hotter than haties, huge spiders, chiggers, skeeters... Get done hop in the truck with cool AC, immediately jump on the highway...
Immediately jump off highway, commence to flying out of my truck, dancing while literally removing pants on the side of the road... Hundred or so, all over..
I'm sure it was downright hilarious to a local...
Yeah, I already knew what they were, just gotta remember.. If you have to stay in one place, look down first...
<°)))>{
sorry but that was funny reading....it reminds me of the very rare times a bee or wasp was in my bike helmet...both times no bite