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Elessar
08-18-2018, 01:33 PM
...that the toughest critter on the planet is the little brown ant,
sometimes called sugar ant, or piss ant. They are prolific here.

I flick them off the shower stall wall, they hit the deck, and get up
and scurry around. That fall, would be equal to a human falling off
the Empire State Building, killing them.

But the ant? Nope!:laugh:

jimnyc
08-18-2018, 01:38 PM
That's funny, I just saw this a few weeks ago. Ants are some truly tough buggers when their sizer is accounted for.

---

Incredible: Over A Million Army Ants Work Together To Build A Bridge In Order To Attack A Giant Wasp Nest!

This is the remarkable moment that over one million ants worked together to construct a bridge to invade a giant wasp nest. The perfectly arranged ants were captured in Brazil forming the bizarre build in order to attack the enemy. When this type of attack happens, the wasps usually escape and the ants do not leave until they've completely looted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPoNpwmKOXc

Elessar
08-18-2018, 02:16 PM
That's funny, I just saw this a few weeks ago. Ants are some truly tough buggers when their sizer is accounted for.

---

Incredible: Over A Million Army Ants Work Together To Build A Bridge In Order To Attack A Giant Wasp Nest!

This is the remarkable moment that over one million ants worked together to construct a bridge to invade a giant wasp nest. The perfectly arranged ants were captured in Brazil forming the bizarre build in order to attack the enemy. When this type of attack happens, the wasps usually escape and the ants do not leave until they've completely looted.


That is incredible when you think about it!

I spent an hour this morning eradicating a swarm that were trooping back and forth
to the cat's food dishes. Traced them to the kitchen door, and sprayed along the
bottom edge with Terro. I know they are in the pipe chase. I make baits and throw them in there.
I really cannot bomb the house with a bug bomb for fear of poisoning Pippin.

jimnyc
08-18-2018, 02:23 PM
That is incredible when you think about it!

I spent an hour this morning eradicating a swarm that were trooping back and forth
to the cat's food dishes. Traced them to the kitchen door, and sprayed along the
bottom edge with Terro. I know they are in the pipe chase. I make baits and throw them in there.
I really cannot bomb the house with a bug bomb for fear of poisoning Pippin.

Some smart little 'buggers'! How they know to work together is amazing. And even those that go solo, the things they can do considering their size, it's pretty amazing.

I "met" some red ants while I was living in Georgia. Had gloves on even and were getting rid of an old burn barrel. These are used for burning your garbage in remote areas. Anyway, like a zillion of them somehow got around the glove and bit my hand all over. Oh man did that hurt for like a week!

Gunny
08-19-2018, 11:47 AM
...that the toughest critter on the planet is the little brown ant,
sometimes called sugar ant, or piss ant. They are prolific here.

I flick them off the shower stall wall, they hit the deck, and get up
and scurry around. That fall, would be equal to a human falling off
the Empire State Building, killing them.

But the ant? Nope!:laugh:Fire ants. They are the muslims of the ant world. You can kill them and kill them and kill them and they just pop up some place new next time it rains. Left unchecked they will take over your entire yard. You can burn them, pour gas on them, poison them, douse your entire yard in fact, and they'll be back. Best you can do is keep killing them and containing them.

Elessar
08-19-2018, 12:33 PM
Fire ants. They are the muslims of the ant world. You can kill them and kill them and kill them and they just pop up some place new next time it rains. Left unchecked they will take over your entire yard. You can burn them, pour gas on them, poison them, douse your entire yard in fact, and they'll be back. Best you can do is keep killing them and containing them.

I never experienced them.

But in S New Jersey there were big, black carpenter ants.
My Ex left a bag of pasta open in a cabinet. The next morning the
kitchen cabinet and floor were thick with them, and my best weapon
to get rid of them initially was a shop vac!

Gunny
08-19-2018, 12:34 PM
I never experienced them.

But in S New Jersey there were big, black carpenter ants.
My Ex left a bag of pasta open in a cabinet. The next morning the
kitchen cabinet and floor were thick with them, and my best weapon
to get rid of them initially was a shop vac!Fire ants own the South. They're little Iranian bastards you can't kill enough of :)

Abbey Marie
08-19-2018, 12:46 PM
Fire ants own the South. They're little Iranian bastards you can't kill enough of :)

Do they tend to come inside the house, too? Yuk.

Black Diamond
08-19-2018, 12:56 PM
Do they tend to come inside the house, too? Yuk.
You better pray they don't.

Gunny
08-19-2018, 12:59 PM
Do they tend to come inside the house, too? Yuk.

No. That's one thing they don't do. We have little black ants down here that will if you don't spray. They are not prevalent. Fire ants and what we call "army ants" are. They'll take over anything outside they can, and their stings are a bitch. Both can kill you if you get stung enough. They will swarm anything they come across.

The other thing we have is yellowjackets (wasps). They don't come inside either, but they will take over anything outside they can hang a nest on. They'll swarm you too.

Another bad deal here if you're a pig is roaches. We have a bug guy. Our biggest nuisance here (at my daughter's) is mosquitoes and black flies. NOTHING kills them.

Abbey Marie
08-19-2018, 01:09 PM
No. That's one thing they don't do. We have little black ants down here that will if you don't spray. They are not prevalent. Fire ants and what we call "army ants" are. They'll take over anything outside they can, and their stings are a bitch. Both can kill you if you get stung enough. They will swarm anything they come across.

The other thing we have is yellowjackets (wasps). They don't come inside either, but they will take over anything outside they can hang a nest on. They'll swarm you too.

Another bad deal here if you're a pig is roaches. We have a bug guy. Our biggest nuisance here (at my daughter's) is mosquitoes and black flies. NOTHING kills them.

I absolutely loathe roaches, and flies aren’t too far behind.

I bought this for the flies:

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11642&stc=1

It pretty much electrocutes them in flight. Very satisfying.

Gunny
08-19-2018, 01:22 PM
I absolutely loathe roaches, and flies aren’t too far behind.

I bought this for the flies:

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11642&stc=1

It pretty much electrocutes them in flight. Very satisfying.Not bad this year. Last year? I had a cup towel, could barely walk and/or use my left shoulder but I stalked them down and killed them all :dev:

aboutime
08-19-2018, 03:10 PM
Just sprinkle Common Table SALT, at your doorways, and between windows/screens. It stops them from entering. If the SALT washes away. Just repeat it. IT DOES WORK!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTn6nkI7EpiOca8lribN0z3ZVFdG6SQp 2e4-3X05zeWODDNQX1few

SassyLady
08-21-2018, 02:36 AM
Whiners ... :slap:

I'm surrounded by scorpions and rattlesnakes ... and yes, they will come in house.

Elessar
08-21-2018, 06:24 PM
Whiners ... :slap:

I'm surrounded by scorpions and rattlesnakes ... and yes, they will come in house.

I do not envy you that.

We lived in Tucson when Dad was at Davis-Monthan and had to walk about 3/4 mile to school.
Dad told us to stay on the road and out of the brush, snakes... Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and scorpions
in that brush.

One evening when he was on duty, Mom was on the couch reading to me with the cat at her side.
The cat leaped off the couch and started batting something on the floor. Mom went and looked
and it was a scorpion near the same color as the linoleum tile floor! She put an ashtray over it
until Dad got home the next morning.

Abbey Marie
08-21-2018, 07:33 PM
I do not envy you that.

We lived in Tucson when Dad was at Davis-Monthan and had to walk about 3/4 mile to school.
Dad told us to stay on the road and out of the brush, snakes... Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and scorpions
in that brush.

One evening when he on duty, Mom was on the couch reading to me with the cat at her side.
The cat leaped off the couch and started batting something on the floor. Mom went and looked
and it was a scorpion near the same color as the linoleum tile floor! She put an ashtray over it
until Dad got home the next morning.

Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.

Gunny
08-21-2018, 08:54 PM
Whiners ... :slap:

I'm surrounded by scorpions and rattlesnakes ... and yes, they will come in house.We call those targets hereabouts :)

Gunny
08-21-2018, 08:55 PM
Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.:laugh:

Elessar
08-21-2018, 09:52 PM
Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.

Well, Mom did not drive!

High_Plains_Drifter
08-21-2018, 10:54 PM
Fire ants. They are the muslims of the ant world. You can kill them and kill them and kill them and they just pop up some place new next time it rains. Left unchecked they will take over your entire yard. You can burn them, pour gas on them, poison them, douse your entire yard in fact, and they'll be back. Best you can do is keep killing them and containing them.
I was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa when we had hurricane Elena. It sat off the coast of Tampa about 90 miles and just swirled for a day and half. We got rain, more rain, and more rain. Lots of Tampa was flooded. We decided to take a walk over along the harbor by where the yachts had been moored, but it was all flooded, and the walkway and the road, so we were a little higher on the bank by some palm trees and one tree, there was a six inch wide, couple inches deep column of fire ants from the water to the top of the tree. Of course us dummies thought it might be cool to knock them off but we nixed that idea fast, because all that would have happened would be a few hundred thousand fire ants float away to somewhere else. You just don't mess with those things. One time over at Clearwater beach a guy pulled a little hoobeycat out of the water with a Corvette and got stuck, so a bunch of people including myself helped push the guy out, and I was standing still for just a couple seconds watching the guy pull away when I started feeling stinging on my leg, and I was standing in a fire ant hole. I took off hopping, brushing off ants and jumped in the water. Those little bastards in a matter of seconds got me a couple dozen times.

Had the campfire cat sitting here this morning staring at my subwoofer. I thought she could hear a little buzz or something on the floor from it. I have it sitting on a big slab of granite. She's a very patient little fart and sat there for about 15 minutes, then moved to the other side. Sure enough here was a big, fat, damn CRICKET. I have no idea how that filthy thing got in the house, but I quickly smashed it.

High_Plains_Drifter
08-21-2018, 11:01 PM
I do not envy you that.

We lived in Tucson when Dad was at Davis-Monthan and had to walk about 3/4 mile to school.
Dad told us to stay on the road and out of the brush, snakes... Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and scorpions
in that brush.

One evening when he was on duty, Mom was on the couch reading to me with the cat at her side.
The cat leaped off the couch and started batting something on the floor. Mom went and looked
and it was a scorpion near the same color as the linoleum tile floor! She put an ashtray over it
until Dad got home the next morning.
When I lived in Apache Junction, I was sitting at the dining room table talking with the home owner I was renting a room from when I felt something crawling up my left side. I had no shirt on and instinctively flipped whatever it was off with my left hand. Well it stung me, and when I looked, here it was a Bark Scorpion about 4 inches long. It stung the inside of one of my fingers. The home owner called the paramedics, they came, asked me if I was dizzy, short of breath, hot, nauseous, seeing white spots, blah, blah, blah... no, no, no... so they said well, you must be one of the lucky ones that a scorpion sting doesn't effect.

A cat is also one of the best defenses you can have against scorpions because for some reason, they're immune to the scorpions sting. If your house is prone to the occasional scorpion, then you need a cat. I caught the scorpion that stung me and put it in a jar and froze it. That killed it of course. Had to show it to my folks.

SassyLady
08-22-2018, 05:10 AM
Yes, I've been stung by a scorpion on little toe. First thing is to stomp the hell out the damn thing, then wash with soapy water, take a benadryl, acetaminophen and ice it. The numb/stinging feeling would crawl up leg to almost knee for about three days with varying lengths of time between. We have house spayed once a month inside and still get the occasional scorpion and centipede.

I've also disposed of over 7 rattlesnakes (three in one week that were just outside front door and one just outside my bedroom slider). All were in our supposedly snake proof yard.

No fire ants since childhood in Texas panhandle.

Oh, and we also had bobcat in back yard this year. Living on the edge of the Saguaro National Park is quite the adventure.

Mostly, I love watching our resident roadrunner chase lizards out by the pool.

High_Plains_Drifter
08-23-2018, 12:03 AM
Yes, I've been stung by a scorpion on little toe. First thing is to stomp the hell out the damn thing, then wash with soapy water, take a benadryl, acetaminophen and ice it. The numb/stinging feeling would crawl up leg to almost knee for about three days with varying lengths of time between. We have house spayed once a month inside and still get the occasional scorpion and centipede.

I've also disposed of over 7 rattlesnakes (three in one week that were just outside front door and one just outside my bedroom slider). All were in our supposedly snake proof yard.

No fire ants since childhood in Texas panhandle.

Oh, and we also had bobcat in back yard this year. Living on the edge of the Saguaro National Park is quite the adventure.

Mostly, I love watching our resident roadrunner chase lizards out by the pool.

Good Lord, Sassy... I couldn't live there. I can walk around anywhere at my place on the half acre that's grass in my bare feet. Worst thing I'd step on would be a fallen twig. There's a rare snake around but usually non venomous. There's plenty of Eastern Diamondback Rattlers around but usually up in the hills. The most common wild life around here is deer and coyotes.

SassyLady
08-23-2018, 01:02 AM
Good Lord, Sassy... I couldn't live there. I can walk around anywhere at my place on the half acre that's grass in my bare feet. Worst thing I'd step on would be a fallen twig. There's a rare snake around but usually non venomous. There's plenty of Eastern Diamondback Rattlers around but usually up in the hills. The most common wild life around here is deer and coyotes.

Yep ... I hear ya! My property in California was same. Only had to worry about stepping on goat heads in back pasture.

Abbey Marie
08-23-2018, 07:56 AM
Yep ... I hear ya! My property in California was same. Only had to worry about stepping on goat heads in back pasture.

Wth? Satanists?

High_Plains_Drifter
08-23-2018, 05:40 PM
Wth? Satanists?
Probably a goat killed by coyotes. Coyotes are one of the few predator animals that will kill for no other reason than to kill.

Could be a cougar though too. They kill to eat.

Abbey Marie
08-23-2018, 07:25 PM
Probably a goat killed by coyotes. Coyotes are one of the few predator animals that will kill for no other reason than to kill.

Could be a cougar though too. They kill to eat.

I hope that’s it. :thumb:

SassyLady
08-24-2018, 02:23 PM
Goat heads are stickers.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11647&stc=1

Abbey Marie
08-24-2018, 02:28 PM
:laugh: Sassy, that’s a relief!

SassyLady
08-25-2018, 12:05 PM
Found this 4" monster outside my bedroom slider yesterday. Dead from spray but tail still dangerous.
http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11650&stc=1

Elessar
08-25-2018, 12:18 PM
Goat heads are stickers.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11647&stc=1

I remember those! Nasty little buggers!

Gunny
08-25-2018, 04:51 PM
Probably a goat killed by coyotes. Coyotes are one of the few predator animals that will kill for no other reason than to kill.

Could be a cougar though too. They kill to eat.LMFAO! They're stickers. Or grass burs, as you prefer. If they were worth anything they'd be a high-dollar crop here :poke::laugh2:

Gunny
08-25-2018, 04:54 PM
I've been stung by scorpions. I thought everyone had when I was a kid. Must be whatever it is Sassy said about it not affecting some people. Just hurt. Scorpions died rather unpleasant deaths.

High_Plains_Drifter
08-25-2018, 05:00 PM
Goat heads are stickers.

http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11647&stc=1

Well I'll be jiggered... I never heard about those while I lived in AZ. Learn something new every day.


Found this 4" monster outside my bedroom slider yesterday. Dead from spray but tail still dangerous.
http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11650&stc=1
Yep... that's exactly what stung me... "Bark Scorpion."

Abbey Marie
08-25-2018, 05:11 PM
:scared: :puke: