Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
what pretty colors!!!!
ok, true story... I was working on the "line crew" where we were switching aerial cable to buried. obviously the phone company wanted as little as possible in outage time, so one tech would be in a bucket truck and the other on the ground. I was the "ground man". we would do block type chunks at a time in tandem. for one of these chunks the "pedestal" that I was working on was in pretty deep sand. so I had my stool with all my splicing equipment in it that I sat on, the pedestal was kind of on a little hill in the sand and I had my feet sprawled out on either side wearing loose carhartts and low heeled, mid calf high cowboy boots.
after awhile I noticed that I was getting bites on my lower legs... they kind of increased with intensity... then I noticed they were working UP my legs, then they were pretty much all over. I stood up and pulled my pants down and saw that my legs were COVERED in welts and these rather small very red ants were EVERYWHERE!!! I started smacking myself and didn't do any good. I kicked off my boots and started running for my truck, peeling off my pants as I went. I dumped my hardhat and vest along the way, later my shirt was found in shreds in the front seat. I went flying into the local remote office straight to the bathroom. I literally stood in the toilet and started screaming. I was COVERED with fire ants!!!! one of the most incredibly painful experiences I have been through!
of course I became absolutely famous at the phone company for my "strip tease"!
|
In the last few years fire ants have made their way to Chesapeake. I haven't encountered any yet, but if I do, may God have mercy on their nest, because it won't see any from me. There will be a war, and I refuse to take the nuclear option off the table. They may win; but I'll make damn sure they glow in the dark when it's over. I had a brief encounter with them in Florida and they are no fun.
BTW, any phone pix of that incident?
