Stings and Arrows

Stingers and stickers were a part of growing up in south Texas. Your mother ran you down and pried thorns out of the soles of your feet, using a needle and shushing you the whole time. It didn’t hurt much. Going barefoot made tough feet. The really bad thorns called for a bacon poultice. Remember those?

Texas has its share of spiders and scorpions and such. We were all terrified of those big hairy tarantulas taking their twilight strolls (they’re harmless). And we thought scorpions were deadly, too. No Texas scorpion will kill you but it will wake you up if you roll over on one at night. (And it’s interesting – here in Georgia I sometimes find scorpions in my house. I’ve never been stung once, during my forty years here).

Most of my childhood stings came from red ants. I guess it was because they were so fascinating to watch. They cleared a big circular area around their nest opening. My brother and I would squat down and survey their comings and goings. Trails ran out in several directions. How did an ant know which one to take? Throw a Frito into the trail and the ants would tussle over ownership – the largest ant usually won possession. And into the nest went the Frito. Maybe you’d find a horned toad feeding on red ants. (We weren’t scared of horned toads at all).

If you squatted there too long you were bound to get stung. The sting of one red ant is painful enough but doesn’t last too long. Sometimes the dog would get a sting between his toes, and that was amusing, too.

I can recall instances of stumbling on a red ant nest in the dark. The first sting might be on the back of your neck – and you soon found yourself removing clothing as fast as you could. Multiple red ant stings are no small torment.

Red ants in Texas are fading into history, possibly due to overuse of agricultural insecticides. With them go the horned toads too, although pet collectors have played a role.

I’m told that fire ants are replacing red ants in Texas.

And they are worse.

Dac Crossley
February 14, 2012

“The only truly serious questions are the ones that even a child can formulate.” – Milan Kundera

Comments

[c2 c3 herniated disc]

Rather excellent concept

[Walter Lawrence]

We lived in a white stucco house in San Antonio, and It was always a creepy thrill to go outside after a down pouring rain to see the tarantulas that had crawled up the walls to get away from the wetness on the ground. The creepy part was how many of them there were.

[Marja McGraw]

A friend of mine saw her 5-year-old son squatting in front of the ditch across from their house. He'd scream and stop. Scream and stop. She could see he wasn't hurt, so she walked over and asked him what he was doing. He said he was trying to see if he could break the ants' ear drums. Only a child could come up with that.

[Velda Brotherton]

Your post about stickers brought back lots of memories. We lived in Kansas and they had what was called goats head stickers. Evil little things, well not so little. More like big splinters with a hook on the end.
Enjoy your blog posts and the comments as well.

[Patricia Gligor]

When I think back to some of the things I did as a child, I have to laugh.
One particular story comes to mind.
There was an old stone wall at the end of our backyard, just before a huge woods. Chipmunks loved to hide between the stones. I thought they were so cute! One day, I told my Dad about how I had stuck my hand in a crevice, trying to pet one of the chipmunks. I'll never forget the expression on his face - and the warning to "Never do that again!"

[Eileen Obser]

I've only been stung twice in my life that I recall -- once by a bee and once by a wasp. And that's more than enough bug experience for me, thank you.

Interesting to read about your stings and arrows, though!

[Dac Crossley]

Yes - Pogonomyrmex - dont recall the species.

[Shirley White]

P.S. I sent your blog to my daughter and here is her response:(Shirley)
I've been encouraged to see red ants coming back. We have a big mound at the lake, and we feed them dog food crumbs and various dead bugs and fish parts. They are thriving, and I don't see much in the way of fire ants. Not so happy that I've seen a couple of scorpions, too. But what should we expect? We have cactus growing where the lake used to be. (That is Lake Buchanan. S)

I've also heard that there are horny toads within 20 miles of us. Can't wait to see that.

Linda

[Shirley White]

I have the same memories, since I was an outside kid. I do know where there is a huge red ant bed but there sure used to be a lot more of them.

I had thought maybe the fire ants had something to do with the decline of the big red ants.

[J. R. Lindermuth]

We don't have scorpions or tarantulas in Pennsylvania. But as a boy inclined to the outdoors, I had my stings from red ants and--worse--yellow jackets.
We also had our share of other types of bees, wasps, spiders, nettles and, of course, copperheads and rattlers to watch out for.

[Mike Draney]

Red ants...are those Pogonomyrmex, Dac? We had red Pogos in NM, but they were fairly rare...the common ones were the black and red P. rugosus, a species that I studied and toyed with all during my childhood. That venom really smarted! Its some of the most painful venom in North America. Fortunately, it seems to be too dry in New Mexico (outside of irrigated pecan groves by the Rio Grande) to allow fire ants to get the upper hand. Let's hope some of our native insects can remain the masters of their domains!