Are you okay, Billye?

I am o.k. I had a couple of bad days with the left foot and my breathing from it. But a little Benadryl topically and small doses of the children's liquid seemed to get me over the worse of it. I think the thing that saved me was icing the bites. The feet swelled but not like they could have. Every time they fired up, I'd wrap ice in paper towels and rub over the swollen part. There are still a few bad looking spots but I was taking anti-b's for a bad sinus infection so I think they will be o.k. I'm also putting neosporin on them now.

One of our neighbors mowed thru a mound today and fortunately I was in the yard. So we doused his bed with the drench the nursery suggested. I'm watching for them now and also watching my little dogs. I've also alerted my neighbors.

This development is on the edge of a city park where they play soccer. I see them mow before every soccer match. I plan to tell the parks manager to watch for the ant mounds. I'd sure hate to see kids getting into these things. They are bad business. Very painful bites.

Thanks for your concern.

Billye

Hi Billye:

I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams, being bit by Fire Ants. You are ONE BRAVE WOMAN, my dear.

I hope that after you took care of your bites and iced them, or put baking soda, or WHATEVER you did to give you relief, that you marched over to he ant mound, and SET FIRE TO IT.

Give those creatures a taste of their own medicine.

You did do SOMETHING to that ant mound, right?

Melody

Melody,
We got a mixture called "Mound Drench". It was recommended to us by the people who sell us our plants and yard products. Setting fire to the mound would have ruined a really nice patch of carefully cultivated grass that we and our neighbors have managed to grow on either side of our alleyway.

Being from New York, I'm not sure you have seen houses that have garages in the back of the house and a shared alley way behind all of them. The folk on our side of the next street over also use the same alleyway. So the houses are back to back with an alley between them. All of our fences stop just short of the concrete drive thru the alleys. Each of us mows the grass behind our respective house. It's about a three ft wide strip. Anyway, the chemical is supposed to be good for the environment and not good for the fire ants. Fire ants are a part of life in this part of the country. But I plan to kill out any I find in my yard or the neighbors yards. They will too. It's just almost impossible to kill them out completely.

Thanks for being concerned.

Billye

Billye:

You said: "Being from New York, I'm not sure you have seen houses that have garages in the back of the house and a shared alley way behind all of them. The folk on our side of the next street over also use the same alleyway. So the houses are back to back with an alley between them."


YOU JUST DESCRIBED MY NEIGHBORHOOD. lol lol

But we have two houses attached to each other, separated by an alleyway (that is shared by the other house (that is attached to yet another house).

What it boils down to is this: "my landlord lives next door, he owns HIS house and My house. he bought MY house, just to own the driveway and the two garages behind the houses.

and god forbid someone parks in front of the street and blocks the driveway (sometimes delivery men, or people just stopping to read a map or something). He goes nuts and yells "why do they have to stop their car in front of MY DRIVEWAY".

I say "hey, calm down, you'll get a stroke". he calms down.

I am learning much from you guys on these boards. Fire ants, mounds, mulching, etc. I gather I won't live long enough to ever purchase my own home, but god help any fire ant mound that makes it's way to my section of the area.

They WILL NOT BE HAPPY FIRE ANTS!!!

lol . Take care

Mel

I'm finally back and will be catching up. We put the house on the market today. All of the preparation is done. Now the maintenance starts. I now have two houses to clean and take care of and two yards. I'm so tired of all of this. I haven't even unpacked here. But the sale of the old house is the important thing right now.

And now my oldest stepson has decided it's the time to come visit and stay two weeks. NOT!!!!! My husband asked him to please delay the visit for a few months. This boy has lots of problems and just wants everyone to do what he wants them to do. It's him first. I imagine you all know someone like that. But this time I just said no. I'm just too tired and I refuse to unpack and cater to him right now. And my puppies haven't had time to adjust to people. But they are better.

Back to the original subject, there are so many new people on this site. If you are one and I ask a retorical question, please excuse me. I may have read your original posts when I was so very braindead after the move. I'll get back up on the curve soon.

Billye

Hey. I was just thinking of you though I have been on and off the boards so am lost too. I am glad you used your voice with your step son. I really am concerned with how much you are doing and all this cleaning. Please be careful and I hope you can get some help or actually I hope you can get someone to do it for you. How is the new home? Are you in the new house completly now?

Hi Daniella,
We are entirely moved in, just not completely unpacked. Still searching for things. And a lot of our things are being used at the old house for staging. So I'm really trying not to do the decorating thing here until I get everything in one house. I don't want to do it all again. I'm getting really brutal with what I keep and don't keep. It's amazing what you can collect over the years.

Thanks for the note.

Billye

Hi Billye!
I am one of the "newbies". I hope you are feeling better. Ugh, that had to be awful with the fire ants and your inflammation.. I hope you are taking it easy .. easier said than done huh with a house move.
Just take care
jess

And in spite of what you've said you "sound" very good! It's easy to overdue it sometimes. And then, too, sometimes you hit a situation where if you don't do it who will and that gets a person into trouble... Sigh.

Rest up and I hope you recover from the move quickly!