FIRE -- ants!

Poor Peanut got bitten by several fire ants yesterday in our backyard.

The recent rains (it has hardly rained since early Spring here) evidently brought out the little biters usually hidden far underground.

The last time I saw a fire ant mound in our backyard was late April and had forgotten all about them. Peanut & I were out barefoot; I was surverying the damage to our backyard cloth gazebo when Peanut came over to grab my hand. Looking down, I saw her right leg covered in little black ants and immediately knew they were fire ants. About the same time, I felt a little sting on my own leg.

We got the ants off of Peanut very quickly and her papa took her inside to run cold water over the bites while I hit the Internet to see what else we should do. I know some people have very severe reactions so we watched her closely for the next 10 mins. Fortunately, she remained calm and normal, not even really in any pain.

I applied some hydrocortison cream to the bites to help ward off the itch and inflammation.

This morning the bites had developed into raised bumps with white pustles surrounded by red skin. Still Peanut didn't bother with them, but I put her in loose pants anyway to cover them up so she wouldn't get curious. (The picture is not of Peanut).