![]() ![]() He adds the USDA also spent time working to eradicate fire ants on a larger scale. “There are some products that combine these two active ingredients so that you’re killing ants, but at the same time you’re weakening the whole colony by making the queen or queens less productive.” “Because the ant is not from here, it’s from South America, we haven’t been able to really control this ant just with biological control, so we have to supplement that with chemical control and using pesticides,” Pereira said. Because they aren’t native to North America, there aren’t a lot of natural controls for them, but you can treat your lawn with chemicals to get rid of them. “When we deal with cattle raising, those animals are subject to the fire ant bites just as we are,” Pereira said.“It’s very common for cattle that are born out in the field that the fire ants may attack their eyes and actually cause the little calves to be blind.”įire ants prefer sunny, open areas like lawns and pastures to build their nests. But if one person went out and got an EpiPen from hearing this story, that would be helpful.” “We don’t know if it would have made a difference if she’d had an EpiPen. ![]() “ And that I think is the hardest thing,” she said. Ruperd said her friend was allergic to bees, but she didn’t have an EpiPen at the time of the fire ant attack. “With the proper care and proper medication, it doesn’t result in death very often at all.” “There are some people that are very sensitive to fire ants, and if they get stung by fire ants, even just one stinging incident can cause the person to go into shock.”īut the “normal person can withstand several stings,” he said. Roberto Pereira, a research scientist in the Urban Entomology Laboratory at the University of Florida, said cases of people dying from fire ant bites are rare and sometimes avoidable. And there wasn’t a lot of hope brain-wise.ĭr. But by that time, they got her breathing, but she was on life support. “I rushed to the hospital, of course, and stayed with them for a very long time. Three days later, the 66-year-old was gone. “They get in the car to leave, and she starts to have a reaction – a pretty severe anaphylactic reaction.” “While they were there, she said, ‘Oh, I’m getting bit up by red ants’, not thinking anything of it,” Ruperd said. It started with a trip to Myakka River State Park in mid-April. “This was just such a shocking, horrible thing that nobody expected.” I mean, almost every time you said something, she could think of a song and would start singing.”īut over a period of four days, she was silenced. “One of my favorite memories of her is her singing. “It was just such a shock and such a sad thing,” said Gail Ruperd, whose best friend died after being bitten by fire ants. Now, she’s on a mission to make sure people are educated so another tragedy can be avoided. You see the dirt mounds everywhere, but did you know the insects that call them home are dangerous? One Southwest Florida woman knows firsthand after losing her best friend last month. ![]()
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