Ants Attacked!

just after the attack

When I was still a kid, that was eons ago, I saw a film clip about ants and this was never erased from my memory.  This scene has a girl tied in a tree, with a man brushing honey all over her body and left her for ants to feast on.  It just made my hair raise and gave me such an eeewwwy feeling.



Fast forward to June 2011, when typhoon Franco struck, our house, as usual was flooded.  With water almost thigh-high, I hurriedly went downstairs for food, so that everyone can have breakfast. Since I have my hands full, I just grabbed and embraced a plastic jar of sugar.  And because I was in a hurry to get all the things I need and be out of the water as fast as I can, I didn't noticed that the jar was full of red, big, fiery ants. You guessed it, I was attacked by ants. They were probably so furious at the disturbance I caused that they crawled at my neck and unleash their biting prowess. And this validated what I felt years ago about ants feasting on human flesh. It was hair raising, eeewwwy and more. It's also painful and very, very itchy.

I tried several tricks to ease the pain and the itch. I tried cold water, Katinko, petroleum jelly, Vandol, and Vicks, but nothing helped. After two days, the bite sites has watery bumps which looked like mini balloons about to pop. And my EQ failed me, I popped every single one of them.

In my last ditch effort to self medicate, I tried Sunnie's Chicco Zzzz Mosquito Ointment. And it was a success. It relieved the itch and it minimized the redness and swelling. I also went to our company clinic for a more "professional" ointment. The doctor on duty gave me one and this was also very effective. After 3 weeks, I just have some mini marks which was totally ok, compared to what I had before.

So what did I learn from this? Stay away from ants. They won't do you any good.  Be extra careful, look before you snatch anything. Don't pop bite sites because if you do, like pimples, they'll leave nasty marks. And lastly, if it's an ant attack, seek medical help as soon as possible.

[caption id="attachment_263" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="three weeks after"][/caption]