I am so tired of getting attacked by ants!!! I honestly can’t tell you the last day that I did not get bitten by ants. The ants here in Puerto Rico are vicious. They don’t just bite you, the entire colony swarms up your foot/leg and chomp you as many times as they possibly can before you do the “ants in my pants” dance and try to swat them all off. I guess I would be pretty pissed off too if I had to rebuild my house every time it rains (currently, twice a day), but still. Why are they taking it out on me!?
Today I decided that I have to wear something other then flip flops while working in the yard, so I rifled through my closet and found the perfect pair of shoes for ant battle…
…Knee high leather Adidas. Haha. Bring it on, you little ant bastards!!! Don’t make me breakdance on your little ant colony.
LOL! That is so funny! Ingenious but funny! Those red ants can be a pretty pissy bunch.
We are fighting their smaller cousins. They are everywhere inside the house looking for any scraps they can find. Even though my wife is a maniac when it comes to cleaning. I am amazed how quickly they find any small crumbs.
Summer
I can feel your pain and frustration with the vicious ants. An older person in PR told me to use Vicks on the bites to prevent the itching and it works! The boots are a great idea!
I am an an attractant - we haven’t had rain until day before yesterday, but they love the dry spots along the driveway, along the base of plants, trees, where ever they are they find me! I wear long pants tucked into socks and tennis shoes and somehow I get bites between my toes. They itch worse if you touch them, and itch and itch for a few days. I’ll try the vicks…the older locals know all! katrina (I even find them at Shacks when I am gearing up to go diving)
haha, that is very funny! The ant bait I got at Costco is miracle stuff and takes from 1-3 days for the worker ants to take back to nest and queen. I shake it around my house about once a year when I remember. If not just put a little in trail and ants gone everytime.
Summer, those boots are perfect. Where did you get them?!! I have heard about Vicks too, but as an insect repellent, if you don’t mind slathering it all over yourself.
LOL! That is just plain awesome.
Vicious Summer-Vicious Ants. It makes sense that they would charge in your general direction.
The answer does not lie in clothing though, you need something from the new Indiana Jones movie. There are some nasty ants in the film and the answer to getting rid of them. Won’t spoil it for your, but I’m afraid it’s an item you are unlikely to find in PR.
We have fire ants (I guess that’s what they are — they attack en masse, en force) on the Maunabo property. Even though we won’t be there for 2 years, I wanted to get some of those high tops before they were discontinued, because I found that boots (sprayed with deet) were the best prevention. I just found them on Amazon for under $40. As cute as your grey/pink ones are, I ordered mine in black, since I know they will be garden shoes and will be sprayed with deet. I’m sure they’ll look like combat boots. Or Goth.
Nelson - Oh yes, those mini ant buggers are out in full force lately. At least they don’t attack, though.
Rosa - Vicks has gone on my shopping list (although, no ant bites since I started wearing the boots! ). I’m horrible about scratching itchy bites and already have scars from it.
Katrina - Yep. Those ants are determined to inflict pain. I’ve also encountered them at the beach, but I don’t think I could get away with snorkling in those Adidas extra-high tops.
Robin - I kind of feel bad poisoning them. Don’t ants serve some sort of purpose? Now that I am not being devoured by them, I don’t mind the ants :). Now roaches and ticks on the other hand, I will happily eradicate as much as possible…
Fran & Steve - I think I bought those Adidas on Ebay several years ago…haha…one of the many things in my closet that hasn’t been worn (but finally they have a purpose!!). I have been wearing them in the yard everyday and they work PERFECTLY! No insect bites yet and it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad when I hit myself in the shin with the pick axe (which I’ve done way too often).
Aimee - Yes! Totally awesome…haha…I know my neighbors are all looking down into my valley thinking, “wtf if that crazy gringo doing/wearingâ€. I’ve also been wear a super sweet headband to keep the recently bad haircut off my face when I’m digging holes.
Bulbboy - I figured the vicious ants would obey and do my bidding but there is obviously some sort of turf war going on here. They seem intimidated by the new combat gear, so we’ll see…
Well, yes, ants have a place but so do humans. Thus, when you plop you house on top of ant colonies they need to move or die. I suppose if you were really nice you could dig and locate the queen and try to move the nest. But I am not that nice when they come into the house or when I bite into an apricot or fig and they are filled with the little buggers. So I claim rights on the trees and house and there are plenty of ants elsewhere on property. Some ants actually prey on termite larva which I have witnessed. Same with rattlesnakes that are territorial. We killed the young few that lived near house and Gary, with respect, transported many if they looked to be grand-dads. I should get some footage on him flipping the 4 footers around to get in a bin with top. I don’t think you have rattlesnakes. Any poisonous snakes in PR?