I didn't have a camera handy, so no pics (and I was too chicken to pick it up) but I saw an interesting bug today. It looked like a large, black, wingless wasp with bright day-glo orange antennae. It was just crawling along the ground and I've never seen the like. Is he dangerous you think? Because most larger-than-life colors like that denote toxicity, don't they? And also, I can't help thinking about when I was a kid and everyone told me those huge furry ants could kill you with one bite and were darn near indestructable. Something I found was quite accurate when my 10 year old shoe proceeded to squash said specimen, only to have him rise up again, like the Terminator, from the rubble.
This message was edited Jul 21, 2006 4:01 PM
Friend or foe?
if i remeber correctly cow ants or wingless wasps come in three colors. red yellow and orange or lime yellow. the patterns and stripe and antenee colors do vary though. the females do bite and cause a nasty spot and severe reactions hence the name but i have never heard of one actually killing anything yet.
they are actually good things but people fear them. i recently have started leaving them alone as they are benificial and most of the time if its bigger then they are they really dont want nothing to do with you. the do eat flies and beetles and really other bees and wasps.
there are plenty of links for cow ants and velvet ants on the net. the females are without wings. the males have wings.
Thanks. I'll be sure and stay clear. I just had to fumigate our carport for paperwasps and don't feel like killing again anyways. I didn't like having to kill the wasps, but I had a bad reaction to my last sting and there were already four large nests with no signs of slowing down.
i have to kill a few here and there too. i hate it but its me or them and i prefer them.
i have seen a few cow ants lately . i just shoo them away with a stick. they do sqeak at you if you are close to them to hear but most go on their way.
right now me and the carpenter bees are fighting for my carport.
oh my be careful then. my daughter is allergic t ant bites so i feel for you.
Don't even mention ants. Whoever it was that brought the red devils over from their native country ought to be set facedown on a giant mound. The little suckers always find their way inside my house every summer. One year they got so bad that I couldn't sit on my couch without getting bitten by them. I can only assume they came in looking for food and water. That was the year I went on the offensive and obliterated every mount within a one acre radius. Only downside was that I had ant poison everywhere and I didn't like letting my dogs romp in my own yard. I've only squashed a couple inside the house this year, but I'm keeping an eye out. When my friend got married in Kansas a few years back, I remember being tickled at the idea of actually lying down in her yard and NOT being worried about being eaten alive.