Fire ants???? isn't the rule more bites than half your weight in pounds and you need to go to the hospital? I'm glad you're okay and all but that's crazy scary to this Florida girl. Remember fire ants swarm and kill people. Their bites deserve attention.
I don't know what kind they were. They were black, so I initially thought no to fire ants. But then I came home and looked up fire ants, and apparently, male swarming fire ants are black. So, I don't know. They definitely hurt a lot for several days, though, and I had a ton of swelling. The amount of ants certainly looked like a swarm. The inside of my arm from halfway up my forearm almost to my armpit was a mass of black when I looked down once I started hurting. I'm surprised I ended up with so few bites compared to how many ants were on me. They were in a bundle of hay I was carrying. It was kind of a shocking experience.Fire ants???? isn't the rule more bites than half your weight in pounds and you need to go to the hospital? I'm glad you're okay and all but that's crazy scary to this Florida girl. Remember fire ants swarm and kill people. Their bites deserve attention.
Forgive me if I'm over-explaining - we say fire ants bite, but they actually sting, injecting a venom that causes some people react very badly. The raised red welts will produce a tiny pimple in a few days. There's a serious risk of allergic reaction and secondary risk of infection when you drain the wound. Antihistamines like Benadryl can help in the early days but otherwise there's not much to be done but suffer. What you describe is the classic fire ant kills someone story. Someone new to Florida picks up a dead piece of wood in their yard, carries it on their shoulder to the curb, never realizing it was filled with fire ants who swarm down the person's arm/back. The ants use a chemical pheromone to all sting at the same time. The person brushes it off - they've had ant bites up north, no big deal - and doesn't seek treatment, only to pass away. So be careful out there! The trick we were taught in school was to kick things - like logs, bales of hay, old cardboard boxes - and give anything living inside a minute to escape. Ahhh childhood in Florida such an...interesting?... time.
Hmmmm......Maybe I will stay up north. I always wanted to be in warmer weather but maybe the cold is better then all the critters down south.
Great idea! I would definitely not live here if I had my way!
I love seeing so many fellow Pete's Dragon fans!! 
I probably should have gotten checked out, but at least I'm okay now. I had the welts and pimples, but I didn't squeeze the pimples since I'm very cautious about infections. I am allergic to almost every antibiotic I have ever taken, so several years ago, my doctor advised me to look into herbal medicine. I did, and now I tend to go that route 99.9% of the time. I had stinging nettle on hand at the barn because I use it as a supplement for my horses (good for teeth, hooves, skin, hair, allergies, digestion, arthritis, blood, etc). I know that it's also good for insect bites and stings, so I made a paste out of it and the green tea I had brought with me as my drink. No super clean water at the barn. We have well water, but have been advised not to drink it, so I didn't want to put it on the bites. So paste of nettle and green tea went on my arm and the stinging temporarily went away so I was able to spend my usual time out there. I didn't ride because I was feeling woozy, but I removed all the hay from the stalls - using a stall fork and not my arms! - and then put down diatomaceous earth on the floors because I was worried my horses would be attacked if I didn't kill any ants in the stalls. When I got home, I felt like I did when I had a reaction to cephalosporin, so I took benadryl. I continued to feel like my body was fighting really hard with itself for a few days, but I just kept treating the wounds and resting until I finally felt better. It has been the worst year for insects out there that I have ever seen. Wasps, hornets, ants, horse flies, regular flies, ticks, etc. Really bad this year. The only thing we're not dealing with seems to be mosquitoes, and I think that's because we have bats, barn swallows, and dragonflies out there.
So much better! Thank you!
One more thing in case it helps anyone else who might end up with a ton of ant bites. While I was experiencing pain, I tried several other things one at a time: tea tree oil, lavender oil, baking soda paste, and yarrow salve. The thing that offered the most pain relief was stinging nettle. So now I'm carrying a tin of stinging nettle salve in my purse from now on in case of insect bite emergencies.
