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Comment by mixmastamyk | Hacker News Reader

For someone out of the area, why would you do such a thing?

Fire ants are a foreign invasive species in the United states that kill animals, push out native ant species, cause incredibly painful stings, and trigger sometimes-fatal reactions in some people. They are nasty little balls of hate.

Just combine the ruthlessness of Terminators and Aliens, shrink to insect size and multiply by billions.

You have obviously not been bitten by a fire ant.

Their name was not inspired by their red color, but by their burning, venomous bites which leave huge weeping pustules. If you are allergic or sensitive, it is worse.

If you had ever been bitten, you would understand the desire to kill them if you can, any way you can.

(Bonus: According to the article, the floating ant rafts are 165% more venomous than usual. I cannot imagine.)

to put things in some perspective, they do suck, but are not as bad as a bee sting or wasp sting, at least in my opinion.

However, you are much more likely to get a bazillion bites, for example if you step in a nest and don't notice it until they are crawling up your leg..

My recollection is that you tend to not have just one bite. They are quite aggressive and tend to attack in groups. If you look at pics on the web of fire ant bites, they typically show many bites. Unless you are talking African Killer Bees, this is not typically true for bees.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fire+ant+bites+&qs=n&fo...

I might be crazy, but I've always been sure they coordinate their bites. You generally don't get bit until several to many ants have crawled onto you, and then you get a rapid succession of bites.

You are not crazy. They do bite essentially at the same time. Scientific explanations of the mechanism behind that perception: [1] [2].

[1] https://articles.extension.org/pages/34572/why-do-fire-ants-...

[2] http://fireant.tamu.edu/manage/faq/

You are not crazy (see other excellent comment). They are evil little beasties. I have been enjoying the descriptions here, like nasty little balls of hate and invasive species made of spite. Those are much more poetic and apt descriptions than I can come up with.

My brother was once sprayed with them by the lawnmower. He was in shorts (so his bare legs were inundated) and he reacts a lot worse to them than most people I know. I took over the lawn mowing for a few weeks after that.

If it's a matter of opinion that they're not as bad as bee or wasp stings, then it sounds like they're still pretty bad.

Fire ants have been known to kill people, especially those too young to escape an attack or those who are bedridden.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/09/990923071322.h...

Because fire ants are invasive species made of spite.

Fire ants are an invasive species which have wrecked havoc on the local ecology and cause serious human harm.

Thread: https://twitter.com/thebiologistisn/status/90254832929229209...

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