07-31-2014, 11:37 AM
quote:
Originally posted by punafish
Tiny ants along our walls too. They might not be LFAs but their bites are a pain. The numerous bites I've gotten don't fill with puss like in the pictures posted on various "fireant" sites; they just become red bumps that itch for a couple days. Amdro works but has to be applied regularly.
It seems all those pus pictures are "stock" photos of fire ant stings. LFA stings don't seem to blister in most people, and they seem to be over in about a week. When I get a sting, the first thing I do is brush/crush the area to kill the ant or any other ants. The sensation is unique to LFA, sort of a burning/itching/painful and sometimes almost like a small electric shock. That eventually turns into more of an itching sensation. Initially I get welts where the stings are, but those shrink down to a red inflamed area after a day or so. Sometimes they aren't much of a bother, sometimes the red inflamed area is twice the size of a silver dollar. Ice packs will usually shrink them down and assuage the suffering. Before the ants sting, they bite down to get a "grip" to thrust the stinger in, so each sting is also a bite, so really two separate injuries to the skin, and either they can sting more than once, or otherwise most of my stings have been from having multiple ants on me. It takes several seconds after a sting before you realize something horrible is happening. For me, the worst of it is over in about 4 days with complete recovery taking almost a week.
I'm only aware of two types of fire ants on the island, LFA and the tropical fire ant. I've never seen the latter. LFA are easy to identify because they are so small you can barely see them, but their sting feels 100x worse than what you would think their size is capable of.