Ants In My Pants (A Cautionary Tale)

The story begins with the bright idea that I wanted to snap a few photos of the cute baby calf with his mama last Monday-obligingly my husband pulled the truck over and I exited the truck.Seduced and enamored I had tunnel vision on "cute baby calf", so I saunter over to the fence and proceed to snap away. In my peripheral vision I duly note a very large ant bed on the ground beside me, and I say to myself "Yikes! don't get into that" stepping over it to snap yet a few more images of another willing bovine subject. Not long into snapping a few shots of willing bovine number 2, I feel something sting my thigh, and then again, and again. Heading to the truck, I realize I am on fire with whatever is up my pants-in my head I'm thinking it's a wasp, or that perhaps I've accidentally squished a bee between myself and the fencing. As I make it to the truck-I'm telling my husband I've been stung by something and of course he is all about me getting in the truck and heading home only a few blocks away. As I get in the truck he says,"It looks as if you might have a few ant's in your pants-I see one moving around"-so instead of dropping my britches right there(which looking back would've clearly been THE thing to do)I endure the disgruntled ants all the way home. Yikes!

 Just look how cute he is

I think mom is laughing at me. lol!

Willing bovine subject no.2 (and the scene of the crime.)

If you've never experienced Fire Ants- I can tell you that in fact, their bite does sting like fire-then days later the itching kicks in. Now, it is important to tell you that my husband doesn't consider them true Fire Ants as according to his research a true Fire Ant is black and red and builds a mound type bed-these ants were large and red with a huge flat bed-maybe from the recent rains or maybe that is how they build their humble abode- but still, I'm pretty sure they were some form of Fire Ant-cause I was "on fire" all  night long. Believe me, when I tell you they deserve a wide girth and have earned my respect. I will never take them for granted or extend "good will" to them again and think that if I don't step on the nest they will not bother me-hah!

So, fellow photographers the moral to the story is; even though that baby calf is sooo cute and would make a great photo-don't let ants get in your pants.

 One of several patches of pain.....this image does not do justice to the stinging irritation that IS a Fire Ant bite. Just sayin...