Posted on 08/28/2017 10:38:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
One danger evacuees and first responders are dealing with along with the flooding in Houston is fire ants.
Islands of fire ants!
CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca tweeted a photo from Houston as the ants formed a protective island in the high water.
According to Orkin.com, fire ants can exist in colonies of up to 250,000 workers and will sting intruders repeatedly. Fire ants feed on animal or vegetable sources of food according to the web site.
No reports yet of anyone getting bitten by fire ants.
Tropical Storm Harvey continues to head back toward the Gulf of Mexico at a slow pace.
In its 10 p.m. CDT Sunday advisory, the National Hurricane Center reported that the storm still had sustained winds of up to 40 mph and is centered 20 miles east of Victoria, Texas, about 120 miles southwest of Houston. It continues to creep to the east-southeast at 3 mph.
That means it remains virtually stalled near the coast and continues to drop heavy rain on the Houston and Galveston areas. In the past 48 hours, numerous spots in the region have measured more than 25 inches of rainfall.
The hurricane center says Harvey’s center was expected to drift off the middle Texas coast on Monday and meander offshore through Tuesday before beginning “a slow northeastward motion.”
Civilian flamethrowers, now!
They feasted on me a time or two also. Absolutely miserable and they leave scars. It’s amazing how if one hits one of their colony’s with a rake how quickly they will swarm up the handle. I hate them.
Didn’t work for Sigourney.
It won’t work for us.......................
was that seen Chimney Rock and Post Oak? I lived in an apt complex there in the late 70’s - it was built on top of an ant hill - never COULD keep the ants out.
The naked jungle.
That’s got to sting!
Serves you right, soldier. Who said you could lay that rake down? ;-)
Damn you, Donald Trump!
I’ve seen fire ants strip a dead lizard down to bones in just a few hours.
They sacrifice themselves for the colony. 3rd
Dang, I bet you won’t forget that experience.
Real grits works better and is far less expensive. When they land on some ground and start another mound, just sprinkle a little around the mound not getting any on it. The workers take it into the mound for the queen to eat and when she does, it grows so much that the queen explodes.
In Louisiana we are well acquainted with these little guys.
Whenever it rains heavily I see a few of these islands in the yard or street.
The only thing I’ve tried that works is Ortho Orthene Fire Ant Killer.
Whenever I open a bottle of it, I feel like I should be wearing a hazmat suit.
In Louisiana we are well acquainted with these little guys.
>><<
We saw some nasty snakes at Fort Polk, LA.
I fell asleep on a nest of them at Ft. Hood once. The ants ended up in my pants. No joke. My junk swelled up to the size of a beer can. That was a pretty bad night.
A more fun way to do it is to pour molten aluminum onto the mount, not only does it incinerate the buggers but you end up with a really cool one of a kind sculpture afterwards. But also a huge hole in your yard.
If y’all aren’t familiar with fire ants then you live in a pansy area. They real, they bite, it hurts (and I’m allergic to them). I hate them.
You can sprinkle uncooked grits on the mound and they eat the grit, swell up, then explode. Totally organic.
“Easy way to kill a colony is to pour vegetable oil on to the top of the mound. “
Preferably after you just used it to fry a turkey.
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