This Way To My Blog

This Way To My Blog

Monday, July 10, 2017

Do You Have Big Red Ants Where You Live?

We have more then our share here and they hurt when they sting. They fit their name, they are big for an ant and they are red in color. I haven't looked it up so I don't know if that is the proper name but I can say I have never heard anyone in south Texas call them any thing but Big Red Ants. These are the ants that Horny Toads eat. I also don't know how they could eat them without the ants stinging the inside of their mouth. The Horny Toads have pretty much disappeared but we do hear of one seen here and there at times. The Big Red ants are still up and running strong. John has several of these ant beds in his yard and my neighbor has one in his yard and the ants take a short cut across my driveway. Friday we were trying to get rid of them because they hurt and their beds make ugly round spaces in the yard where the grass doesn't grow. After I came inside I felt something stinging on my neck. I mashed what I thought was an ant. My neck hurt a lot for about an hour then I kind of forgot about it. Saturday morning there was a very big knot on my neck, as the week-end progressed several smaller knots appeared and they itched terribly. By Monday morning I was thinking the sting was infected so I made an appointment with my primary doctor. He said I have Shingles. Ummm he has always been a good doctor and I'm sure he has seen many cases of Shingles but---- I'm confused but he said there is a timeline for taking the medicine for that so I'm taking it and crème for the itching in case it is an ant sting. Humm, what do you think?

8 comments:

jack69 said...

I have been stung by fire ants, not fun but go away in a day or so. I have never had shingles, but my buddy did, and he said he suffered awful with them.

I hate it when my common sense doesn't jive with a diagnosis. But I for one, have no idea.

Traveling (I cannot remember where) but I saw some bright red dudes about an inch long (or the size of a pencil erasure and it's metal sleeve). We have some red ants here and in Florida about the size of the tip of my little finger, not the giant red ones I saw traveling. Hope you get ti ironed out, it is confusing.

TARYTERRE said...

shingles can be quite horrible from what i understand. but there does seem to be a coincidence seeing the big red ants and feeling a sting. hopefully your doctor got it right.

Sharon said...

We have some of the big red ants here, but mostly the big black 'Carpenter' ants.Then there are the tiny red ants that you don't see or feel until the sting(or bite) and it looks and feels like you have boils. I hate ants, cannot for the life of me understand what their purpose is here on earth. DH is allergic to anything that stings and swells up, has to go for shots.

DH had shingles that didn't show much, but felt awful for a couple of weeks until the meds started to work. My shingles where more like hot crease had splattered all over the side of my head, neck, and shoulder, and I had runny, pussy, raw meat ... I would guess your body can react any which way.

Sharon said...

Um, that is hot grease ...

Hootin Anni said...

I do know that shingles and ant bites resemble each other. But you said you felt a stinging bite to begin with, so I'm kinda wondering.

Here we have fire ants!! Oh lordy are they nasty.

Paula said...

We have Fire Ants here too and I've been stung many times doing yard work. The reaction to them is different then Big Red Ants. I don't feel as if I have Shingles at least so far and I hope I don't but I'm taking the medicine just in case.

Rose said...

We have a few of those red ants...I have heard them called fire ants, but they are not what comes ups as fire ants...in one of our Audobon books their common name is cow killer. And when I look that up, the images that pop up are what we see. And Roger made a mistake and got stung with the first one we ever saw and it hurt like heck.

I am thinking it is not shingles....but I am not a doctor. Roger got the preventative shot for shingles. I don't have to because I never have had chicken pox...my kids both had them and I took care of them.

My mom never had them and several of my brothers and sisters had chicken pox so we have some kind of immunity.

Leilani Schuck Weatherington said...

I hope for your sake that this is not shingles. When I saw how much a friend suffered with shingles, I spent the money and got the shot.