AuburnChick's Adventures

First of all, I want to thank you all for your kind words about my little froggy surprise.  I thought I should clarify that I do not dislike frogs.  I do, however, dislike not being informed beforehand when they are going to take up residence in my clothing.  It would seem the courteous thing to do.

That said, let’s move on to the point of this post.

I had to laugh at woolandchocolate’s comment that at least it wasn’t a spider or anything that stings.

Why laugh?

Well…because I’m AuburnChick, and…well…the stinging thing…

Well, it had happened earlier that day.

See, while I was out doing my mom thing (the same time that I was also wallowing in the mud of jealousy), I was actually running back and forth between Chicky’s pool (where she’s lifeguarding) and the school, which just happen to be at the same locale but of which I drove around the building to get to each respective place because it was pouring down rain and I wasn’t about to get all wet.

Anyhoo…

One of the things I had to get from her was her drivers license.  I couldn’t request her transcript without a copy of it.

After filling out my paperwork and such, I returned to the pool to give her license back to her so she could be all legal when she drove home.

She was sitting in the lifeguarding chair, watching her charges in the pool, but her boss was standing behind the fence that encircles the pool.  Rather than make me walk around to the pool, he offered to take it through the hole in the chain link fence.

Being lazy, I said okay.

As I handed it over, we chatted a moment.

And then I felt it.

Stinging.

Oh

My

Gosh.

I looked down only to see my right foot square in the middle of a huge fire ant pile.  My left foot was halfway in as well.

There were ants crawling all over my feet…especially the right one.

I shook my feet as hard as I could to get them off; however, because I was wearing flip flops, a lot of the ants were trapped under the thonged strap.

Not good – for me, anyhow.  I don’t think the ants minded one little bit.

The feeling reminded me of the time I cleared the drain under my kitchen sink and got acid all over my freshly shaven legs.

Painful.

Chicky’s boss instructed me to come into the pool area and stick my feet in the chlorine water, which I happily did.

The water took some of the sting away, but not all of it.

I kept thinking, “Great.  Chicky is probably mad at me for infringing in ‘her’ space.”

When I explained what had happened, she understood and seemed empathetic.  She’d recently gotten stung by some of the same ants when they circled her chair.

By the time I got home, the stinging feeling had gone away, and I almost forgot about them.

Folks, if you’ve ever been bitten by fire ants, you know that the bad day is not Day #1.

It’s Day #2 – the Day After.

Oh

My

Gosh.

When I got in the shower, it felt like my feet were on fire.

The bites were raised with gook inside.

Ever the dedicated blogger, I took pictures later in the morning (after I did you the favor of painting my unattractive toes)…

You can’t see much in the picture above, but press on…

Some of my toes are almost completely covered in bites…

One area on my foot was particularly hard-hit…

That, my friends, is a nasty knot under my skin.  I tried to drain it, but I had little luck.  It makes walking a little uncomfortable.

Painful…and itchy.

I did some research to find out what I could do to alleviate the discomfort, and in the process, I learned some interesting things about fire ant bites:

• Fire ants actually sting, but first they bite you with their tiny pinchers to get a hold of your skin.
• Once they’ve got a firm grip of you, they sting you with their abdomens.  The alkaloid venom is called solenopsin.
• Each welt can consist of at least ten stings.
• Fire ants are relentless.  Once they get a hold of you, they turn in a circle, stinging you repeatedly.
• Fire ants are repeat offenders, often traveling to a different area on your skin and repeating the process.

I know that God created every living thing with a purpose, but I fail to see the purpose of fire ants.  Guess that’s another thing I’ll have to trust Him about.

So, there you have it.

It was after getting stung by the ants, that I stuck my foot into my froggy shoe house.

Perhaps it is a little easier to understand why I freaked out so badly, even though the picture of said frog is cute (and he’s still there, by the way).

I am so thankful that it wasn’t a small snake, which I had a run in once a few years ago.

That’s another story for another time.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: fire ant bites |