Wisdom teeth and fire ants

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by rattlsnak

I still have all of my wisdom teeth at age 50.. anyone else? Local Dentist, my brother, told me it would be serious problems to get them out now so we just watch them every year but so far no issues..

I still have all of my Wisdom teeth. But I have 4 teeth beyond the wisdom teeth and I had to have one of those out.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by zelrik911

I haven't heard of fire ants in Australia yet - but there are plenty of other things here that will bite & kill you.

Actually, they have spread to Australia. And I am speaking of the "Red Imported Fire Ant", which is the one of which we're speaking. There are other types in the USA which are native and not too bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_imported_fire_ant

[flipper35]

The problem is, you nuke'em and this game will be a true story.

[aschen]

fantasized about getting one of these as a bet for the last decade or so

[Jolly Amaranto]

I still have two wisdom teeth, both on the left side and well adjusted. When I was in high school, I lost a bunch of teeth while playing baseball. Thrown bat took out all of my upper right jaw from my buck teeth to my wisdom tooth. Not much left up there even for implants so I have a partial plate. The lower wisdom tooth on the right came in sideways so had that taken out. I do most of my food masticating on the left side because there is not much bone to support the plate on the right side. It is basically cosmetic. So, my remaining wisdom teeth get a good workout. The wisdom tooth extraction was a picnic compared to the accident.
Now fire ants and I are constantly at war. I keep the mounds controlled in the yard but every time it rains new queens drop out of the sky, loose their wings and start new colonies. I seem to have built up a tolerance for the bites as they don't hurt as much as they used to and only swell up in a little welt for a few hours, then disappear. Up at the old home place in central Texas I pour molten lead down their holes then dig up the resulting castings. They almost look like coral when you get all the dirt washed out from the nooks and crannies. All the little buggers are vaporized instantly and it is safe to dig when it cools down.

[sammyg2]

Over the past 20 years in kalifornia, the gubmint has regulated and outlawed nearly everything that could be deemed harmful to anything else. people, the environment, insects, etc. They've toned down or eliminated all the bad stuff.
Most insect spray is not much more than baking soda.

Except when it comes to fire ants.

You can still buy industrial strength poison for fire ants off the shelf, the real stuff that is nasty!
Reminds me of the good one days.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Tobra

16 crowns? Holy Moly

Fire ants are pretty bad.

Pazuzu, it was not infection that swole up your mitt, it was reaction to the venom. Next time, and there will be a next time, ice the area down and take a couple benadryl right away. It may suck slightly less, but on a scale from 1 to totally sucks, it will still pretty much suck.

Nope, infection. "promptly" means "2 days", which ended up in the e-room with a red line working it's way up my arm.

I get stung about every other week now working out at Memorial Park, so I know I'm not allergic (beyond the standard "stings and burns like hell pustules that make you hate life for 3 days" allergic reaction that we all have).

[JeremyD]

Actually got bitten by fire ants yesterday at my daughter's soccer game - have 10-15 good sized welts and my foot was almost too swollen to get my shoe on today.

Little bastards -

[Tobra]

Something about the venom does make them more prone to getting infected, 48 hours is the right time frame too. Does something to compromise the local response. Brown recluse and copperhead bites are very prone to getting MRSA infections.

Even if you are not having a true allergic reaction, antihistamine and ice will mitigate the misery.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Something about the venom does make them more prone to getting infected, 48 hours is the right time frame too. Does something to compromise the local response. Brown recluse and copperhead bites are very prone to getting MRSA infections.

Even if you are not having a true allergic reaction, antihistamine and ice will mitigate the misery.

They don't really bite, they sting like a bee / wasp.

Is it possible that they are dragging that stinger around on the ground and picking up nasty stuff?

Would that explain easier infections?

[Pazuzu]

The fireant stings (more properly than bites, because, well, their not bites..) actually cause a very deep, very clean puncture wound under the pustule (formic acid burns). The venom is anti-bacterial, and actually cleans the wound. If you leave it alone, it will heal from the inside and the pustule will dry up and fade away. The interior is sterile, exposed sub-cutaneous flesh.

If you scratch that pustule, however, you basically open a deep would that is ripe for infection. And, since you often get stung while outside doing stuff, your skin is already covered in bacteria, sweat, dirt, whatever. If you get lucky and DON'T infect that wound, it still becomes a deep nasty scab that often scars.

I usually let myself scratch one sting when I get hit by two many, it's a sacrificial wound to save myself from scratching ALL of them...therefore, my ankle is increasingly covered in small red scars

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I get stung about every other week now working out at Memorial Park,

Are they searching for oil there too?

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Are they searching for oil there too?

No, working out working out, like pushups and crap

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Tobra

16 crowns? Holy Moly

Fire ants are pretty bad.

I have ground all the enamel off of my teeth. I was going to go with JB Weld but my dentist wanted me to fix his truck.