Semper Fidelis from a ground-pounding passenger, brother. budreaueye is joshing on the down-low, no harm and 'always faithful' to the cause.
Not compared with what you do here with those you selflessly assist daily, but we all help when we are able, as we should as individuals of good conscience. Thank you for the kind words, all the same, Sirhornsalot.
When I was younger and working the shallow wells from Mineral Wells and down through Glen Rose and Grandbury we'd get these guys in the lights with other bugs, and they would crawl up our clothes. They don't see well and usually shy away from folks, but whether it was a combination of vibration, lights, or noise, it would confuse them and cause them to crawl up and nip you with their little claws occasionally, no big deal. But some would panic and spray you with a weird little spray from their tails that stung a little and even gave a few guys little bruises that they said hurt. Most of us could just rinse it off and no problem, but. those that were more sensitive to the stuff, you'd see guys brushing their clothes off all night and going for the cortisone cream to rub on the spot when we had breaks; They really are harmless, but take my word, they'd make a lousy movie date if you have that allergy to them.
I don't miss that at all, the fire ants, centipedes, scorpions, poison snakes and the like. We have only the brown recluse, I've been bitten five times by them and they are nasty as hell, and you also a few black widows, but not many. Our cool, wet climate does not allow for these fun creatures, although a timber rattler will drift down from the high mountain forests now and then, but they don't stay and you hardly ever hear of anyone being bitten in this area.Definitely nasty looking critters. I had to meet one of these guys up close and personal before I could be convinced that tarantulas are fairly harmless. The things that I will never develop a tolerance for are scorpions and centipedes. When I was in my early forties, I got a three inch centipede - just a little feller - rolled up in my sock. It lodged just below the inside of my ankle bone and stayed there until I began to feel the burning from the acid that it exuded a while after I go to work. I must have killed it when I put on my sock, because I felt no wriggling around. When I took my sock off, I had a dead centipede and a three inch long quarter inch deep burn under my ankle bone. That was an ankle that had been broken playing football, so it already had early stage arthritis. The wound caused a histamine cascade where the injury site pumped out histamine that could not exit the ankle joint as fast as it was created. The doctor could not figure out what was happening. I ended up in a wheel chair for a month and on crutches for eight weeks before that. I could not walk without a noticeable limp for seven months. Let's just leave it that I do not have a fondness for centipedes!
But, I will tell you this, though, I ain't askeered of no gerbils!
The poor critters just don't like rain and cold enough to make it worthwhile. I have five distinct craters scattered from those friggin' little reclusive bastards. I show them no mercy when I see them because they show me none when they see me. Not one person in the rest of my extended family here has ever been bitten. I both see and accuse them face to-whatever-as terrorists, racists and yes, bigots, as well against Aspberger's like me, and evidence seems to support this, at least from my perspective from being repeatedly spider-ized.I had a brown recluse bite on my shoulder when I was a kid. The bite site rotted out and left a hole that did not heal for over a year.
You know, fire ants aren't as bad in the Western Travis County area as they used to be. I am not sure why but it could be for several reasons.
The University of Florida and UT did some experimentation with phorid flies from South America. They lay their eggs at the back of the head of fire ants, and the larvae get a free lunch. I did a quick web search and there seems to be several places that are selling fly/wasp predators for fire ants but they do not refer to them as phorid flies. UT did an experiment on the Brackenridge Tract Field laboratory a few years back - maybe they work.
There are also some new ants on the block. They are called rasberry crazy ants. They come from Argentina, like the invasive fire ants. I have read that they produce and cover their bodies with formic acid to counter the alkaloid venoms of the invasive fire ants and tend to act as a natural predator of invasive fire ant populations, just as they had evolved to be in Argentina. They do sot sting like fire ants, instead thy bite causing a minute sting. The problem is that the swarm. Another problem is that they invasively swarm into electrical junction and outlet boxes. I have read that they so far have been found in Texas counties closer to the Gulf Coast.
I have also read that native Texas fire ants help in controlling the invasive fire ants, but that previously, the shear numbers of the invasive fire ants had overwhelmed native colonies. Perhaps, phorid flies and who knows what other adaptations in the environment has helped to stem the tide of the invasive fire ants. All I know is that I do not see them like I did before. I have also seen a lot more red harvester ant colonies that at the height of the invasive fire ant invasion.
I really don't know much about all this, I just read enough to get myself in trouble. Come to think of it, Sirhornsalot probably knows more about this than the rest of us combined. Not trying to make work for you, Sirhornsalot, but maybe you could set us straight on the ant situation in Texas? If you have already done so in any of your landscaping threads, as Miss Emily Litella used to say, "Nevermind!"
And on that note, for those of you who do not give a damn about ants, here is a great skit by the great Gilda Radner as Miss Emily Litella! She left us way before her time.
To be fair, I'm almost always just as clear, and without marked chemical reasons, it's just the brain difference and leads me to many misunderstandings, so it is my issue, not yours, amigo. I thought of nuking them, but it cost too much and they say it's illegal to use them at home, or even import them from another place. With the depth of those monsters in Tejas it's just as well, ag would get them due to...well...agricultural pursuits (or whatever they do there), and get carried away. They're militaristic in attitude and have the campus soldiers to prove it, as you are well aware.
