Thursday, February 19, 2009

Another Ant Story

I was mistaken to think it as a bird nest when I looked from a distance, actually it was a capacious nest built by red weaver ants. Added more pain to the mistake when I got close for a confirmation, the red ants moved silently but quickly to my legs, when I jumped up and down tried to shake off all of them. Only my luck was with me to get rid of them before they started their attacks which would then result with a few burning and very painful bites. Otherwise I always use my saliva as an immediate cure, somehow it helps psychologically. My recommendation to your laughter is to try it out first, and please stop laughing right now, although you think it as very extreme soft.

It is advisable not to get near the tree for no purpose once the nests are spotted. There must be colonies of red ants busy wandering around. They maybe on the trunk, the branches, the leaves and even on the ground that spreads a couple of meters from the perimeter of the tree. Again, this is experience that talk, Alice may not know that.

I found a few of the nests on the tree actually. A close up look showed the leaves were bound together by the excreted silk. These weaver ant's nests to my belief must be strong and impermeable to water in order to face frequent tropical rain storms.

I rather not to talk too much and to move away fast before I got into trouble with the big red ants again. Before that, the size of the ants is measured at about 10mm in length. How big is 10mm? It is equavalent to a couple of hours of pain if you are bitten. Sorry, I can only relate the red ants to my bad experience.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ants! Of all the things I dislike living in the tropics (there aren't many) it has to be ants. i was looking in my neighbours garden today and saw some monsters.

BTW you take some great photographs.

WiseAcre said...

LOL 10mm = hours of pain. Sorry to laugh but you made it nearly impossible not to.

It's fascinating to see ant nests built in trees like a bird's nest. I'd never have expected such a thing. )and would have gotten a bigger laugh than you)

Thank goodness we don't have ants like that here. The best ours can do is make a mountain out of a mole hill :)

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

Wow, that is new one to me, ant nests in trees. Very interesting.

Rick (Ratty) said...

That is an amazing story about the ants! As others have already said, we don't have ants like that here. Our ants are harmless. Ants nests up in trees is very interesting. Those ants must be very aggressive to attack you for just being near their tree. If we had insects like that here, there would be stories about it on the TV news all over the country.

rainfield61 said...

Mike...Ants can be symbol of handwarking, yet some of them are just horrible.

WiseAcre...If 20mm = days of pain, will you then have cramps in your mouth muscle? Sorry for that if yes.

Sharkbytes...It is interesting to know the article does provide some new information to some of you.

Ratty...I have checked my TV news there was no such annoucement yet.
But ant bites are just common over here.