Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Ants in the Pants

I have always liked that James Brown song, but until this morning I had never lived it. This morning, seconds after pulling on my underwear -- the stinging started. Talk about getting hit below the belt -- have you ever had ants in your underpants?

I'm not sure where they came from -- tiny little ants with a mighty bite -- almost the same color as my burgundy-colored underwear.

Ants seem to be everywhere in the tropics -- marching up the wall, mobilizing under the kitchen table -- heading for that big bunch of red bananas.

Everything into the refrigerator!

3 comments:

Editor said...

Sounds like you have had an encounter with the very ferocious fire ant. When the stinging stops, the itching will start. It usually lasts for up to 2 weeks and you may need to treat it as the scratched bites easily become infected. These ants are EVERYWHERE in East Timor - in homes, in the suburbs, the streets and I have even seen the little blighters on the beach! In Australia, the government is so attentive to these little insects that there is a dedicated government agency that you ring up when you discover a nest and they come and destroy it. They are an environmental disaster. I thought they originated in South America and may have been introduced to ET by the Portuguese bringing them from Brazil and other colonies in the latin Americas on their ships. I started my own eradication program when I worked at TAF in Dili and I would send the guards around the yard to seek and destroy - with diesel. You might try this when you find their nest.

Radio Nomad said...

Thanks for the heads up. It does indeed sound like I had an encounter with fire ants. Will try to trace back to the nest,

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