Insatiable Itchies!

This week I experienced fire ants for the first time. As my friend Brandi says, "They are tiny workers for Satan himself," and I completely agree with her!

I was walking the dog and paused to pick up one of her poops she so kindly decided to deliver directly in front of the school down the street from us. As I was finishing picking it up I felt piercing stings all over my right foot and looked down in horror to see I was standing directly in a nest of ants with them COVERING my foot and beginning to crawl up my ankle! It was as if they rallied in anger, loaded the whole nest onto my foot, and then let out the war cry to all bite at once.

So, there I was doing a one-footed dance in the school yard, trying to hold onto the dog leash (with Ariyah tugging to move on to new smells), and not toss the bag of dog poo all over the myself - all the while one handedly trying to frantically wipe the ants (that are now crawling up my hand and arm as well) off of my foot. This whole time they used every last second to chomp, chomp, chomp in spite of my cursing at them and smashing as many as I could. Needless to say, they got the best of me.

I reacted bad - my whole foot basically turned into a swollen, red, bumpy, itchy mess that is impossible to satisfy. One nurse at work told my to try toothpaste. I sat at the nurse's station slathering it on and it helped for a few. Then the itch came back. The next nurse told me "No, no, it's deodorant you're supposed to use" I was desperate and rubbed my stick of deodorant all over the top of my foot and ankle when I got home from the hospital. No help there. I woke up in the middle of the night clawing the skin off my puffy foot. Ohhhhh, how good that felt! Hydrocortizone, Benedryl, and spray on Wal-Dryl, purchased by my wonderful husband, along with time, have proved to be my best friend here.

Four days later and they are finally clearing up. Since that day though, Ariyah has been itchy as well. I checked her for fleas and didn't find any, so I figured maybe the ants got her too. This morning she woke up and sat scratching every possible place she could reach for about 10 minutes. Scott checked her over again and found a flea on her belly!!!! Off to Pet Co we went. We've sprayed down our whole house, run the Roomba twice, and doused her in flea spray. Now, here we sit in our smelly, chemical-filled house clawing at our ailments. Why did God create these awful little insects again????