The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: waterbuffalofarmer on August 16, 2016, 04:07:14 pm
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Sunday morning/afternoon I was pulling up some ragwort before they cut the fields for hay. I went to lie down for a minute as it was warm and I inadvertently lay on an ants nest, brown ants, result? I was walking down the field to go inside to get a drink, about 10 mins later, and I felt tons of creepy crawlies all over my back and a horrible biting, painful it was, I walked fast to the house and changed my clothes, but my backbone just before my neck and the skin around it felt numb. I then forgot all about it, as I had gotten rid of them, but later on in the evening I was in so much angony with it irritating and itching me, I had a look and there were a few bite marks on my shoulder, tons on my chest and a few on my side. I have been dousing with witch hazel and it helps, but do I use the horsefly bite stuff which you suggested and would it help? I understand ants bites are similar to that of the horsefly, and just as irritating, could they get infected? These were brown ants. I read that they only left red marks? I also read that when they bite they spray acid over the wound, which is what probably made me feel numb. I also felt ants crawling out of my hair too. Yuck!
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I haven't tried it with ant bites, but bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) is very good for stopping bites itching. It should work well for ants because it will neutralise the acidity of the bite. To get it to stick on your skin, mix it with a bit of cooking oil or hand cream or similar.
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Would calamine lotion not help? I got bitten a few days ago - don't know what by, and it cooled it right down.
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I would take a quick acting antihistamine tablet to reduce the effects of the bites.
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Bicarbonate of Soda made into a paste with water was the old remedy. Don't know if it would work so late on.
When we were kids our sandpit became the home to an ant's nest - we put up with it for a couple of years then it got grassed over. How horrible for you WBF actually lying down in a nest - the ants obviously thought heaven had come.