Hi!
I live in Chicago and just stumbled upon some sort of really small red ants. It turns out that it bit me and felt like a sting. I did some research on 'fireants', and I read that they can't survive/live in Chicago.
I was wondering if anybody has any ideas on what could have stung me!
Thanks! Mike
on 8/11/2007 4:20 PM snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com said the following:
The "Fire Ants" most of us think of is the S American fire ant that has migrated into the southern US. However, there is another fire ant that can exist in the northern US, and that is the European Fire Ant (Myrmica rubra). Like its southern counterpart, it can sting.
on 8/11/2007 5:18 PM Keith Stelter said the following:
All ants "bite". Fire ants "sting" (inject formic acid) with a stinger on their abdomen. Look it up.
As mentioned you are thinking of the imported fire ant rather than the native ants that can also sting...not sure if yall even have true native fire ants up there. Every few years though I will see an article talking about an imported fire ant nest actually surviving a Northern winter. Fire ants are common in southern Illinois so I would think it would be possible for someone to transport them from there to Chicago.
Lar
Maybe they really are fire ants. Another sign of global warming?
Joe
"Joe" cried:
Oh, please, the last thing we need is more pseudoo-scientific conjecture from chicken little.
Jon
Thanks for all the great information! My gf had the ants on her leg and got stung/bit two or three times. Then I went to go look at where it was, and while I was walking back into the backyard, I felt a stinging/biting feeling on my stomach. I look down and saw the small red ant right where it hurt.
Again, thanks for all the great information!
Mike
No, it must be global warming; if the world was cooling they'd be ice ants, injecting a cooling, soothing gel wherever they bite.
Gotcha!
Joe
I am in Florida, the ant capital of the country. One thing I have found is you never say never about ants. Just about the time you think they never do something or they always do something you find some that don't follow the rules. I have found carpenter ants that "always" live in wet wood, living in a plastic diskette box on a very dry computer table. (over 100 with eggs). We have a fire ant here that will take in displaced worker/soldiers from a dead colony and the white foot ant can have multiple queens.
replying to wiz561, Angiepants wrote: I have seen them in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago
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