In 2012 I published this post about F being stung by fire ants
F clearly forgets things - she came back from the allotment on Saturday afternoon complaining that fire ants had stung her right arm (ran up inside her sleeve). Since then she has had a forearm like Pop-Eye and I am not allowed to lean on it despite the heat it is giving off.
No photos, because it is her right arm and she is right handed apparently. There is to be another war on fire ants. The one thing she did learn the last time is that they don't hang around long if you keep digging them up. Digging will therefore be high on the list of allotment activities for the foreseeable future. I believe it was at the top of the list anyway on account of the high density of cooch root that the place is infested with, and now that the infestation of ants-with-attitude has manifested itself (and there are plenty of unattended plots they could slope off to), digging will be undertaken with double vengeance.
It seems there is nothing like fire ants to motivate F to rattle things around with her garden fork.
Meanwhile, the bean fences have been erected, some lupins planted out (and immediately eaten by slugs), and parsnip seeds sown. More lupin seeds have been ordered and the 'haloes'* extracted from behind a pile of chairs in my shed. They will be pressed into service for all seedlings planted out from this point onward. It makes our garden look weird, but along with beer traps to make the slugs drunk and lazy, it is apparently better all round than poisonous stuff.
Being the nature minded cat that I am, I can only agree.
* link with pictures of little green 'haloes' in a 2016 post
Ouch! Ouch! Poor F. Perhaps you could help with the digging, Tigger, or would the fire ants turn their attentions to you?
ReplyDeleteI don't want fire ants trapped in my furs.
DeleteI didn't even know fire ants existed in the UK. Never encountered them in my growing up years. Maybe they were recently imported.. from Greece? Running away now.
ReplyDeleteThey are apparently Brazilian! Goodness knows how they got here - West Sussex and East Hampshire (where we are).
DeleteI have slug pubs in my veg plot Tigger.
ReplyDeleteVisions of slugs propping up bars - have slugs even got elbows to lean on bars with?
DeleteHave you ever been stung Tigger? Phoebe once tried to catch a bee and ended up with one paw twice as big as the other.
ReplyDeleteWhen we had bees Tasker, I got stung on the nose once (only once). Swelling was not apparent, but whenever Mr B was attending bees after that (and I always supervised), if he yelled 'run Tigger' I headed for the house at enormous speed. It usually only happened if they started to swarm while he was rummaging about in the hives.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteHad fire ants in my Aussie garden - hadn't realised they'd landed on these shores; yuk. Does Calomine Lotion help those stingy bits for F? (alternatively, chamomile poultices...) You do look so handsome marching down your garden path, Tigger mate. Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Your end of these shores might not be climatically suited to fire ants. They are apparently from Brazil so we are surprised that they even survive down here. Savlon bite and sting gel is helpful, but it is hard to say whether it is all in the mind, or how much worse it might be (if at all) if poultice had not been applied. xxx Mr T
DeleteOH NO, fire ants HURTTTT really BAD... I once was showing a house to people that were interested in buying it and had on hose, with long pants and high heel shoes. in the yard my foot went down in the bed and they were crawling up inside biting me to death. I FEEL for F.. sounds like might be allergic, a man at our church once had to be rushed to ER at hospital because both hands were bitten. be careful. we pour boiling water on the beds. also pouring grits helps but i doubt you even know what grits is over there. sounds like the garden is coming along well and you look wonderful, i kissed your beautiful face
ReplyDeleteIf that happened to F she would be a hospital case I reckon - so much swelling up and redness and blisters and stuff. You must have been in soooo much pain! Isn't grits corn processed in lye or something (or is that hominy?)? We can get all grades of cornmeal if that is grits. Don't the ants just eat is up and say thank you very much and breed more ants? xxx Mr T
Deleteoh dear, that's one thing I'm glad we don't have here and I'd hate to think how the cats would handle them.
ReplyDeleteCats are far more attuned to these things that humans - we can smell them. Humans (especially humans that need to wear glasses to see small things up close - and choose not to wear them for gardening), don't see the ants until there are so many that the scene is moving around before their eyes. By then it is too late ....
DeleteOuch. We don’t have fire ants here, well not yet. They are migrating down apparently.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried cutting the bottoms off plastic drink bottles and using them to stop the slugs. They also act like mini hot houses. You could scavenge them from bins and save them from land fill. Just reuse them every year.
We have dozens of those little green haloes that do the job. F just forgot to deploy them, but she has remembered now.
DeleteThat is my Donkey Moki - if you do a search for Donkey on my blog you can get a little movie of me navigating the streets of Piraeus on Donkey. Donkey comes up a lot in our Greek years as I went most places with F including the fruit/veg markets where I became quite a celebrity Moki. Stay well away from fire ants; you don't want those between your toes. paw smacks Mr T
ReplyDelete