How do you deal with bull ants at your camp site?

[phan_TOM]

Here's a slightly out of focus picture I took of a Bull ant on our back deck a few years ago, it was about 40mm long - almost the size of my little finger - and fearless! I find the the jumping ants sting to be worse than that from a Bull ant but saying that I think the green ant sting is the worse, more comparable to that of a wasp (I think the wasp and the green ant are related from memory as opposed to those other stinging ants?). The jumping ant has a really powerful and intense sting but it doesn't seem to last that long before it reduces to a dull and localised ache and then itchiness. The green ant bite seems to be almost as painful as the jumping ant but it seems to be deeper and prolonged. All are unpleasant

[GPSGuided]

40mm is pretty impressive! Saw some extraordinarily large ones yesterday in the RNP, but not quite 40mm. BTW, do these bull ants actually inject any venoms when they bite? Or are the reaction just to do with the "saliva" or whatever chemical they have on their jaws?

[phan_TOM]

They use their jaws to grab on and then curl in half and hit you with the venom loaded stinger on their tail end. It can be quite a shock when one stings you and you realise that frantically kicking your foot or waving your hand doesn't remove them, they grip on tight and keep stinging so sometimes it takes a swipe or two with your hand or something else to get them off!

[GPSGuided]

Wunderbar (not), ouch!

[neilmny]

This google search should help you spot a nest https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en& ... =0CE4QBSgA

don't confuse them with meat ants which more or less harmless????? https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en& ... 1&tbm=isch

[neilmny]

Rats the edit timed out - meat ants do bite (repeatedly) and are agressive but don't sting.

[Rogerdodger]

Setting up camp in Victoria, attacked by multiple inch-men. (True, we were 1 metre from a nest). But after lighting an initially smokey fire, they magically disappeared, and didn't return. This makes sense, as evolution surely would impel ants to repair to underground safety on smelling smoke. Doesn't help I guess if setting for an overnight camp, or using a Trangia, but for a wayside stop this works well.