Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Ant Hill

 
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If you've ever been unfortunate enough to step on a fire ant hill like this one, you know how painful it can be! This one popped up in my yard recently. I thought it looked quite interesting in the late afternoon sunlight. This is about as close as I want to get to it though.

20 comments:

Darla said...

Oh my gosh! I do not like fire ants... and the older I get the more they hurt!!

Leeds in Yorkshire daily photo - Paul said...

When I first saw this pic I thought maybe it was mole hill. We have ants but rarely do you get an ant hill here in the UK. I quite like watching ants at work, like bees they are so industrious.
Leeds Photography

magiceye said...

such hard workers!

Cezar and Léia said...

it's huge!What do you need to do now? Please take care about your flowers!
Léia

B SQUARED said...

Looks like a volcano in more ways than one. They are nasty.

That Hank said...

I remember my dad trying to get rid of a giant ant hill by blowing it up once. That doesn't work, by the way, it just scatters them.

Small City Scenes said...

I kinda like watching the ants being so busy at an ant hill. although I have never seen Fire Ants only the little black ones. Industrious beings. MB

Halcyon said...

I know what those are! We are constantly sprinking that fire ant stuff on ours, but all it does is make them move somewhere else. I'm hoping one day that will be the neighbor's lawn!!

Sunny said...

Nasty little critters! That's quite an ant hill, how will you get rid of it?
Sunny :)

Lowell said...

Bad, bad ants. I remember once in Texas while playing golf, a friend laid his golf bag down, unknowingly, on a pile of red ants. He threw it back on his shoulder and went crazy, with bag and clubs flying, shirt coming off. I thought he had lost it completely! He was a mess with bites all over his upper body!

Being true golfers, we kept playing!

Lois said...

Sunny--you can't really ever get rid of them. Even if you put the ant poison on them, they just move on. I had some last year actually build an anthill inside of one of the solar lights next to the patio. I sprayed it, took it apart and washed it out and then a few days later they were back inside the same light! I took it apart again and put the light in the garage for a couple of weeks and they moved to an anthill in another part of the yard.

Anonymous said...

Amazing creatures these ants are. I never have them here and am fortunate I guess. This mound looks like it could be a formidable nest.

Unknown said...

I didn't know 'your' ants also build hills. I thought it only happens in Africa and Australia where they are HUGE...

Frank said...

That is a serious and HUGE ant hill. Like a dome. What it needs now is a Moorish-style minaret on top and we could call it a luxury (ant) hotel.

Les Barr said...

You and me both, Lois. I've never had to deal with Fire Ants, but have heard and read about them. They must have a very painful bite. I'm glad that we don't have them up here.

BTY - Thanks for giving me a correction about DisneyWorld. To be honest, I didn't even think about that when I made the Post. You were right. The one in California is called DisneyLand.

Stay well, Lois
Les

Lois said...

I don't think I want to do anything that would encourage the ants to stay Frank, but thanks anyway!

Tanya Breese said...

Oh yucky! I don't miss those at all. We had them all over our yard in Ga and you are right, you can poison a hill, then they just relocate, blah...and I've stepped on a few of them without knowing until it's too late, ouch!

Floral Friday said...

Nice one Lois. I had to double take on this pic as it looked like a mole hill. The ants nest up here are mainly composed of pine needles and can get up to five feet tall and just about that wide. I will have to photo one for you and have Don post it. When I was a little girl our family dog Ram hated ants with a passion and would attack these huge ant hills.
The more they would bite him the more upset he got. And he would only go at them with more vigor. You did not want to be standing behind him when he was doing this as you would soon be covered in angry ants. On a side note when my aunt lived in Florida she was bitten by one of those and had a severe allergic reaction. I know sounds silly ant bites my aunt. lol Thanks for the photo! Sorry I typed so much. It just struck a cord I guess.

penny said...

I looks like the ants made a mole hill out of a their ant hill.

Lisa Wilson said...

My goodness!! I wonder how many there are.