jrbaja
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Ants
A couple days ago, there was rumors of a storm coming. So we went up to a friends house to help "batten down the hatches". This is an extremely
rural area and at this time of year, green, lush and beautiful.
So we are taking down bamboo wind chimes, glass bottles and every other projectile type hazard we could find and tieing things down.
The last thing was a sand sifting screen which was going under a solar panel out in the yard area. I grabbed it and put it under the solar panel and
was walking back through the tall grass to the path when I felt a sharp pain.
Thinking it was a sticker, I continued through the grass when all of a sudden, wham. Hundreds of these pains all over my feet.
And the same with my friend who was in front of me. We both had sandals on but she had pants.
So, we get to the path and are swatting and swiping and yelling !#@$%$#$! but it is doing no good. They are still attacking and coming from all
directions.
We get as many off as possible and then run up to the "house" where there are some concrete areas to brush them off. This works for a couple
minutes until the ants up there start getting on us and attacking. And they are coming across concrete blocks to get at us.
So, we are now moving around to stay away from them and getting our stuff out of there. Safety in the car! We are both in pain but now at least
safe from those pee'd off hormigas.
I have always liked ants. I see them as natures garbage disposal and a great way to clean up after thanksgiving. But now I don't.
In fact, I don't even like Indians anymore. And here's why. On the drive back to town, I was reminding my friend of how the Indians used to stake
guys out on ant hills and spread honey on them to really get the party going.
And according to the amount of pain we dealt with just on ankles and feet, well, those indians were just plain brutal!!!
So, we get down to town and are at someone elses house sitting outside in the shade when guess what?, here they come again. Not to the other people
but to my friend and I.
Now this is getting to be a bit much. Apparently, ants either leave a scent (of pain!) on their victims or their communications systems are awesome.
Whatever it is, I don't like it. Or those danged indians either!
Ice chest water and mosquito repellants repell marauding armies!!
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Neal Johns
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Location: Lytle Creek, CA
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It's worst than you think, JR. Those Baja ants are migrating, organizing, and plan to destroy us and take over the world. See below:
World War Three
Did I ever tell you about the time I almost started WWIII?
It was a quite, balmy day on an island in the Pacific. The breeze waved the palm trees gently, and as night fell, sleep came easily. All this, because
as a guest of the government, I was fed, clothed, and housed ? and they let me wear a silly little sailor suit and play with millions of dollars worth
of electronics! All I had to do was keep some radio stuff working and watch out for the Russian Hydrogen Bomb.
It was in the 1950?s, the heart of the Cold War, and those bad guys had already exploded their first A-Bomb in 1949. The H-Bomb was surely next. The
story was blowing in the wind; specifically, the high altitude winds that circle the earth. Debris from an atomic explosion would be carried like dust
around the world by the atmospheric tests used then (and now banned because of the cancer causing radiation). All we had to do was secretly collect
the ?dust?, analyze it, and Lo! Within a day we could tell what kind of atomic explosion had taken place and even how advanced the device was.
Thus it came to pass that a twenty something year old sailor had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Than night, an excited nightshift technician woke me up just after midnight and whispered that we had a hot one! I got dressed and went down to the
barbed wire protected enclosure where we had Mr. Hans Geiger?s invention recording the radiation from the dust we had collected from the tin roof.
Wow! The normal background counting from the Geiger counter was a random series of clicks not unlike the noise from a firing range. Tonight, there was
a mad, never slowing, blast of noise. The chart recorder was whipping its stylus back and forth, throwing ink all over the chart paper! Quick! We have
to get a Flash Message off to the Unnamed Agency! Has World War Three started?
But first, maybe we had better check the instrument. Opening up the Geiger counter, it was immediately obvious that an invasion was in progress. What
to do? Maybe we should remove the hundreds of small, black invaders. Don?t ask me what kind of invader, myrmecologists say there are over 10,000
different species of ants.
Post Mortem: Geiger counters have several hundred volts inside the case. Old Joe Ant was attracted to a dead bug inside the counter, made a misstep
and was fried by the high voltage. Click! Cousin Willie saw Joe?s plight and rushed to the rescue. Click! Cousin Bubba?.. you get the idea. Ants have
lots of cousins.
Postscript : The above Flash Message was never sent. In 1953, when we did detect the Russian H-Bomb, one was. Welcome to the world of Dr. Strangelove.
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
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Perhaps old Mr. Geiger
could do something in a size 10 1/2 sandal ??
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Debra
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Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
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I had a simular experience with biting ants at Gecko a couple of years ago...if the same type, they are meat eaters (not after sugar) Try putting a
line of "Comet, Ajax" or the like as a protective barrier around the house or whatever, the ants won't cross it. Trick learned in a San Diego RV park
(we don't have an ant problem in Seattle  ) It really works and cheap!
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JESSE
Ultra Nomad
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Jr, where you carrying Mxican candy in your pocket?
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burro bob
Nomad
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Location: Poblado del Ejido Plan National Agrario
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jr
What size were these ants,
Full size or the tiny little "fire ants"?
I leave a big galvanized tub of water out for my dogs to cool of in. A couple of weeks ago one of them jumped out and started to go crazy. She was
trying to rub off a whole bunch of the tiny little buggers. I just thought she had laid down in an ant hill.
The next morning as I was refilling the tub I spotted this little brown mass in the water. I fished it out with my hand thinking it was a leaf or
something.
Instead it turned out to be a ball of fire ants. Spent the next minute squashing and scraping. They were all still alive. Not even one was drowned.
These suckers can even swim. They are light enough that the surface tension of the water keeps them afloat, and those at the bottom could get oxyogen
friom the ones above.
Neal
Maybe those ants were radioactive. Did you bring home an ant farm home from "unnamed island"? I think I saw a black and white "documentary" film
about some giant ants attacking people in the desert.
burro bob
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
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The original culprits
were the small black and red combo variety. The weirdest part was that the ones in town who continued the attack were little black ones.
It is entirely possible that there were smashed mangos attracting them to our feet. Quite common for this time of year.
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BajaCactus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 663
Registered: 5-22-2004
Location: Km. 55, carretera transpenisular, El Rosario, B.C.
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Mood: Helpful
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Wow!!!
JR... that is nothing... you should see a MARABUNTA in progress.... they live nothing alive...so, you were lucky to be bitten only for a couple a
dozens....
Neil.... that is an awesome story...I can imagine all you excitement and adrenaline rushing through your veins...and only for some ants...
Great stories friends...thanks!!!
BajaCactus
"Where Baja is so much more than a dream..."
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jrbaja
Ultra Nomad
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Marabunta
Antonio, although I don't know what one is, I am assuming you have only heard about them as well ?
And as far as our ordeal being nothing, that's pretty easy to say from an oficina in Tijuana
You will have to join me in a trip into the backcountry sometime. I bet we will run into some of your family members you haven't seen before.
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BajaCactus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 663
Registered: 5-22-2004
Location: Km. 55, carretera transpenisular, El Rosario, B.C.
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Yeap!!!
You are right my friend.... I have been bitten by ants before and I know what you mean...and I would certainly not wish to see a marabunta....
I would love to go back to those parts you are in now... it has been awhile since last time I went out those places....we would do it sometime....I am
sure.....
BajaCactus
"Where Baja is so much more than a dream..."
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thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3734
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
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Mood: muy amable
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Asian Ants
Spent a night in Jakarta, en route to Irian Jaya, had a nice bag of home roasted almonds in my duffel bag on the floor.
Got up to visit the toilet, felt something strange on my leg, it stung a bit so I snatched up my towel from the bag and started swatting.
Well, the whole mob was camped out in the towel, and then the excitement really started.
Man, my leg and arm swelled up like a jungle fever. Hurt like crazy for days.
Next morning we spent a whole can of Raid on the scene, and were picking the little dead buggers out of my shorts for the next two weeks.
Give me Baja anytime!
Baja Arriba!!
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academicanarchist
Senior Nomad
Posts: 978
Registered: 9-7-2003
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Fire Ants
Be thankful they are not red fire ants, which are pervasis in Texas and are spreading. The only thing that stops them is freezing weather. They build
mounds, and it is difficult to wipe them out. There are a variety of insecticides available on the market to try to stop them. Unless they get too
close to my house, I generally let them alone because I have yet to find something that really wipes them out, except a little gasoline on the nest.
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RandyMacSC/SO
Special Correspondent
Posts: 422
Registered: 2-2-2004
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SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANTS vs. HUMANS
1. Ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints. The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly.
If man had six legs he'd have problems going to the urinal let alone trying to run.
2. Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.
Man has a tough time lifting anything more than a 12 once cervesa on weekends
3. An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells.
Man's brain is supposed to have approximately 10,000 million, so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as the average human.
Kind of explains why man usually gets outwitted by ants all the time.
3. The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days.
Just imagine if man only lived for 45-60 days.
4. The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes.
If man had the same eyes as ants, women would be smacking us all the time. Imagine trying to make up excuses for all those wandering eyeballs.
5. The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants.
Man has one stomach and if he had two, the second would be for pizza and beer storage.
6. At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold.
At night, man usually rolls over pulling the covers off his wife's side of the bed.
7. Communication: If you watch ants for any length of time you will see that they really do communicate with each other and very effectively too. Ants
communicate by touching each other with their antennae. Ants also use chemicals called pheromones to leave scent trails for other ants to follow.
If you watch man for any length of time, you'd probably wonder how we survived this long in earth's evolutionary history. If man left scent trails,
he'd be jailed for indecent exposure of his scent trail glands.
And, finally, Man is not supposed to let his antennae touch any other human other than his wife or girlfriend.
Great story jrbaja.
RandyMac
[Edited on 9-11-2004 by RandyMac]
==============================================
Ole' Irish saying (Gaelic): 'Go neirigh an bothar leat, go mbeidh an gaoth choiche sa droim agat, is go mbeidh tu thuas ar neamh leath-uair roimh is
eol don diabhal go bhuil tu marbh'.... OR 'May the road rise up to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, and May you be in Heaven a half hour
before the Devil knows you're dead'
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M
Nomad
Posts: 392
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Laguna Niguel, CA.
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Mood: looking for joy...
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Fire Ants
Great story JR and I can appreciate your panic from those little bast**ds.
I lived in Georgia for awhile, totally ignorant of the little buggers that would haunt me. One of the worst were HUGE flying c-ckroaches that seemed
to have a great love for hair. Let me tell you, one of those trapped in my hair just about gave me a heart attack, BUT, the worst critters were fire
ants. (They also plague Texas) Your right JR, injure one and the phermones go flying and an assault is inevitable. Not only are the bites extremely
painfull, but in the morning, my feet and legs, all the way up to my thighs were covered in pustules. It took over a year for those scars to go away.
I went through my whole yard ( after rubbing some gas on my feet too) and poured gas into their mounds and SET THEM ON FIRE! For about a month I was
left unmolested, but they are resiliant and soon new colonys were evident. I left Georgia shortly after so didn't pursue the battle. Not one good
experience came from Georgia for a single California gal.
Hugs, M
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jeans
Super Nomad
Posts: 1059
Registered: 9-16-2002
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Ants
"Would you be calm and placid, if you were filled with formic acid?"
--Ogden Nash --
Mom always told me to be different - Now she says...Not THAT different
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