We have a "red ant" here that isn't an ant. it's actually a velvet wasp. Red & black, fuzzy. Looks like a HUGE hairy ant but it's a wingless wasp. Commonly called a cow killer due to how bad the sting hurts. It's rated just below a bullet ant in pain
The wingless one is a female & they're solitary. the ones with wings -I don't think they have the same colors- are males & they're also solitary. I saw one or 2 in Eufaula. Now, in the last 2 - 3 weeks I've seen one here in back 2 times. Probably the same one
The sting is not very toxic, it just hurts like bloody hell. they have a very hard exoskeleton so are very hard to kill by crushing, which is how most people get stung. I just leave the damned things alone, there are about 8000 variants on this species globally & they don't really seem to be a problem.
They female looks for some other species nest to lay an egg in & when it does, it only lays one egg. So it's never going to end up with a large nest with lots of these things. I've only seen one maybe 4 times total in my life
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