The Agony of the Feet

On one hand there's the luxurious feeling of well-crushed coral sand between your toes that feels like puffs of powder around your feet and on the other hand there's the sickening feeling of soft earth as it delicately collapses and gives way around your foot as the site of hundreds of ants crawling up your leg sends you into panic mode.

It's that time of the year when Brazilian fire ants seem to be everywhere I hike. All it takes is one errant step on their mound and they cling to you and begin heading up. They emit a pheromone that they all respond to so when one says bite - they all bite at once!I've mentioned this back when MaLe was attacked in Key West - the pain of the bite lasts for up to 4 days. It's been nearly 5 days and my bites are still itching like mad. I have about 40 bites, mostly on my feet and they look like little zits. Gross. Lotions and Itch-Aways don't last forever and it hurts enough that scalding water or the idea of sticking my feet on burning coals is tempting. Kids don't try this. Not even in college.

The ant mound I stepped in was covered in palmetto fronds - tough to see. The one pictured above was on a lawn and I didn't step in it so much as I jammed a stick into it for fun. Maybe that's karma, but my rationalization was that fire ants are not native so why not have some fun and go Godzilla on the little beasts. I guess I forgot how the Godzilla movies ended....