Fire ants deliver a painful bite. The workers are very aggressive when they are defending their nest. They climb onto a person's foot and then all of the ants seem to bite at the same time. What's worse, the ants hold on with their jaws and they start to sting the victim. Fire ants can sting over and over until they have used up all of their venom.
The bites are painful, but the pain usually goes away quickly. The stings cause small blisters. The blisters can last for several days. If the person scratches the blisters, they can sometimes become infected.
Even worse, the victim can have an allergic reaction to the ant venom. Only a small percent of the population is allergic to insect venom. There can be a variety of symptoms including skin irritation, dizziness, headache, and nausea. In severe cases, people can become unconscious and even die.
It is important to brush the ants off of the victim as quickly as possible. Try to keep the victim calm. If there were a lot of stings, it may help to elevate the affected part of the body. Experts suggest giving the victim an antihistamine and applying an anti-itch cream to the stings. Skin wipes, baby wipes, and moist towelettes might be useful for cleaning the affected area.
There are a variety of home remedies that people have tried for fire ant bites and stings. People have reported using alcohol (on the skin, not internally!) to reduce the itching and skin irritation. People have also reported rubbing bleach on fire ant stings. Some people also report using hemorrhoid cream on fire ant stings. Others report using organic treatments that included tea tree oil, oil of lavender, or various plant oils and extracts.
The difficulty with home remedies is that the recommendations are not scientific. The remedy is often passed along from person-to-person. Finally the recommendation starts to sound like this: “I haven't tried this myself, but I knew someone who had a friend who used to work with someone who heard from his neighbor's cousin's uncle hat you could make fire ant stings stop hurting if you use…(the name of the remedy goes here).”
If someone suggests a remedy for fire ant stings, it might be a good idea to check it out with a doctor. Someone who is suffering from fire ant stings may not feel like waiting to find out whether a remedy helps, or has no effect, or worst of all makes things worse.