There aren't many things I dislike about Texas, though I could do with a little less heat and humidity (which I will take over a long cold winter), but I was reminded of one thing I sure don't like the other day: fire ants!
Bob's parents came down for a short visit this weekend. They were outside along with Bob and Jack sitting in our backyard while I was sitting inside trying to beat the heat and prevent my ankles from swelling. They set up Jack's water table and rocket (the one that gets pushed up in the air by a stream of water from your hose) and he was happily playing by himself for a while before he came running back to his grandparents whimpering a little bit.
Not too long after that I heard something to the effect of "Get the hose, he's got ants all over his feet...quick, quick...", to which I promptly rushed outside, at least as fast as a pregnant woman can waddle. Apparently there was a small mound of fire ants under the rocket and those buggers wasted no time in working up into the sandal on Jack's left foot. Luckily Bob's parents moved pretty fast too and were quickly dousing him down with the hose and stripping off clothes to get the ants off. He was crying pretty good by this time so Bob took him upstairs and put him in the bath for a while to try and ease some of the itching and stinging.
I had forgotten how mean fire ants are from my childhood days down here. They swarm out of their mounds amazingly fast and leave painful little welts (more so than your typical black ant) that eventually develop little blisters in the center over the course of a day or so. They itch and burn like crazy and can make life miserable for a few days if you get enough of them. For only getting about 10-15 bites, poor Jack's left foot looked a lot worse than it really was since the bites swell up so much. Thankfully, after an hour or two the swelling went down considerably and Jack had forgotten all about the bites. We were expecting them to bother him a lot more, but I guess since he didn't get too many he didn't seem to notice them very much that evening. I also think he was exhausted from playing with Grandma and Grandpa...
The little blisters have come up this evening, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I know it could have been MUCH worse and that some kids can have life-threatening reactions to those ant bites. I always think about allergic reactions to things like bee stings and peanuts, but fire ants were something I had forgotten about. This was just a good reminder to us to inspect our grass a little better before we set something down for him or any other child to play with!
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A couple of years ago we had a kid come by our house to sell something. We have a bench right outside the front door, but we never use the front door, so we never noticed any bees... or at least when I do look for bees, I always look up. Well, I went inside for something and heard him screaming. I opened the front door and he's running away from the house screaming and waving his arms (you know, the worst thing you can do when you're getting stung). Apparently there was a huge wasp nest underneath the bench and he sat on it and scared them. They eventually left him alone, and I don't know how many stings he ended up getting, but all I can say is that I'm really glad he didn't have an allergic reaction!
Hope all is well and that the fire ant bites go away quickly. Good luck with Ike. I know you don't want him, but I'm looking forward to some more rain. If you guys do need a place to go, you're welcome to come visit us in Dallas.
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