It is a wingless solitary wasp, but still something I never want to step on, lol. That would be a nightmare.
I once had red imported fire ants pants me. I'm not the only one in my neighborhood who got pantsed by them either. I was weed eating some tall weeds that grow about 6 inches a day (I have Japanese knotweed too). I felt pure hell on the upper back part of my right leg. I remember that it was my right leg. It was THAT bad. I just wanted it to stop hurting.
I was new to the Jungle at the time. That is what I call my yard and with good reason. It has spanked many a manly men, kept tractors and vehicles, and other equipment they thought they could try to use, and ran them out screaming. They are always so red in the face. At least one woman who thought she was the most badass of them all too has begged to cut my yard and take a shot at it. She barely got about halfway through and was knocking on the door wanting to negotiate half pay. She was red and covered in welts too.
Scientists should really study my yard for the amount of ants, wasps, and hornets I have. I have never seen this many different species in just .68 of an acre before. I once had honey bees visit my hummingbird feeder too. So, somewhere, at least nearby, they are around too. What species, I do not know.
Anyhow, that day, before I got the 20 or so feet from where I was stung by fire ants to my door into my house, my pants were down. It is embarrassing to admit, but I admit it because the other person in my neighborhood was a big, burly man, not a small sized female like me. When the fire ants pantsed him, he didn't at least keep his undies on by the time he got to the door to his house like I was able to. So, I was tougher than him that one time, at least. Or more modest, lol. Probably that.
I can say that initial instinct to put ice cubes on my upper thigh/ass cheek area did NOT work. It did NOTHING for that pain. Nothing. I will never forget it was on my right upper leg area. It is not often that you can remember over 10 years later where a sting was EXACTLY, but I can on that one. I hurt for days after that. I never forgot it.
Stepping on a cow killer/red velvet (why they call it an ant I don't know, because it is a wasp) would have been a bad bad thing. They are very high up on all of the sting pain indexes out there, even higher than red imported fire ants.
I have mostly red clay for my yard. I wonder if that is why ants, ground hornets, wasps, etc. like it here so much or what. The big black ants that leave their head behind to still pinch you are here too. Just about any ant, bee, wasp, or hornet you can name that is native to this area and a few invasives live here too. They all seem to be living in perfect harmony too. Then, there is me. I just hope most of the most painful ones stay outside the house. I still have abject terror of waking up covered in red imported fire ants inside the house one day. I hope it never happens, but there is a high probability that they could just decide to do it one day. Nothing is stopping them. They would probably take me out of this world too, if they set their little minds to it. Don't tell them that though. I have seen them clean all of the meat off a 2 foot long garfish in 8 hours. My stepfather did an experiment one time.
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