About another Texas friend I that caught up with me over the weekend...

Picture from here.

When we lived in the Northwest and I told my child's second grade teacher that we were moving to San Antonio, she said, "Oh, watch out for the fire ants." And I said, "What is a fire ant?" And she said, "A very, very bad ant."

And she was RIGHT.
(She had lived there as a child & apparently has/had fire ant trauma.)

Well, when I was taking that last picture in the last post, my foot found it's place in a North Texas ant's mound. A North Texan fire ant mound.

Map & a mound of fire ant information can be found here.

Fortunately, while living in San Antonio, I became very adept at recognizing the tickly feeling of a bunch of ants swarming parts of my body and the familiar firey sting when they decided to bite.

And, fortunately, I am a very good screamer, kicker, jumper and ant brusher offer.
And, fortunately, I was the only one attracting the ant's attention.
And, fortunately, I got my family's attention & they told me, "You are standing in a fire ant hill."

I got a good picture along with a couple of bites that itch, itch, itch.

My child's second grade teacher was very wise.
They are very bad ants.

(Please don't confuse my very bad ants with a certain children's book, that I adore. Those book ants are wonderful. The fire ants are not.)

PS-This site has a great insect and pest menu, click on the spiders.

One wiggled when I visited and totally made me jump.