Fire Ants: Treating The Stings At Home

I had to mow my lawn yesterday and I despise doing it for various reasons. The first reason is because my lawn is pretty big. Probably almost a full acre and I mow it with a walk behind (Push) mower. Since I have upgraded to a high-wheel it has been a bit easier but it still takes me a couple hours to do it. The second reason is fire ants. I live in the south and we have these pesky insects all over the place and sometimes they will find their way into your house, especially if you have little ones that are sloppy with food particles. These are the small native fire ants so the bites and stings are not as bad as the imported ‘red’ fire ants.

Yesterday was the first time in a while that I didn’t get attacked by fire ants, I took some precautions like long socks and pants and avoided walking through ant hills as I often have done in the past by mistake. Fire ant bites hurt. First they bite and then sting you shortly afterwards. The best thing to do is walk your lawn and try to remember where the mounds are and avoid mowing over them to avoid spreading the mound. Many stores sell fire ant poison that you sprinkle on top of the mound and then douse it with water. Some work well and some not as well. But you don’t have to be near a mound to get stung. Fire ants can find their way on to high grass and to your legs if you rub up against the grass. They might be on you for a few seconds before they sting, but when they do you will know it.

After being stung you will experience swelling, blistering and a burning and itching in the effected area. You can treat the bites with ammonia based after-bite that can be found in most supermarkets, but if those are not available here are some home remedies I found on the web. I’ve yet to try any of them, but I hear they work.

First treat the sting by washing it with cold water. then you can try some of the following treatments.

• Apply Aloe gel immediately
• Dab the sting with Hydrogen Peroxide
• Make a paste made of salt and crushed aspirin and apply
• Rub with a fresh onion
• Apply hydro-cortisone cream

Taking an antihistamine may help as well, but if you find yourself feeling sick then you may be allergic and should seek professional treatment.

Do you have a home remedy for treating Fire ants? We would love you to share it in the comments section.

The above image was taken in my yard. It was tough to get a really tight shot without a better telephoto lens but it was quite amazing looking through the shots I took and see some of the different shapes and sizes of the ants, which look large in the picture but are probably less than half a centimeter long.