Fire ants

Living in the south often means we have to deal with fire ants. I'm fortunate that they haven't invaded the particular area where I live. But when Brandon was around 3 years old, we lived on a farm in Mississippi and had fire ants in the fields and in the yard.

My Mother came to visit us for awhile. One day, Brandon was outside playing and we heard him let out a blood curdling scream. We dashed out to find him covered in fire ants. He'd found a mound in the yard and poked around in it with a stick.

Now, a fire ant sting can be very dangerous, and he looked like he had gotten stung all over. We yanked his clothes off him and sprayed the ants off with the water hose, then took him inside to see just how bad it was. Thank God, they hadn't gotten under his clothes. He wound up with a few marks on his legs and arms, but didn't have a bad reaction to them so he was ok. It scared me very badly, though, and we got fire ant bait to put on the hills.

ControlFireAnts.com gives you a plethora of information about identifying fire ants, controlling the spread, and the dangers of fire ant stings. Please, educate yourself about these dangerous insects so you can keep yourself and your children safe and healthy.