When Ants Attack

I was just minding my own business, trying to get a shot of a Swamp Darner (my first time seeing it and it was actually PERCHED!) and just as I was getting in focus, my foot suddenly caught fire.

It turned out that I had been standing on a fire ant nest and my foot was covered in the little bast– buggers, and they were biting the heck out of me. Trying not to get stung alive while carrying two cameras and fending off the hoard of mosquitoes who decided to take advantage of your distraction – all in all, not my idea of fun.

I managed to get far enough away that I could set down my cameras, and then swatted off at least 2 dozen ants which were busy stinging away, and then remove the 2 dozen or so more that were still biting and stinging my Tevas.

3 days later, I still had the welts all over the top of my foot – I’ll never forget the experience, although I can’t say I’m not wishing for a 5′-wide category 5 hurricane to rain down death and destruction upon them.

This shot is from about 20 minutes later when I returned. Sorry that the ants aren’t clearer – I wasn’t about to get closer than I had to.