Asian needle ant: It’s venomous, invasive and might be in your backyard

A sting, hospital visit and word of warning

“I can’t tell you that the rate people are being hospitalized is any different now than it was 30 years ago,” Suiter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I can’t say that, but nobody’s talking about it. I am confident there are people that have been hospitalized with anaphylaxis that had no idea what happened to them, and neither did the physician.”

Hairston, who had no known allergies, was among those people.

“Me and my family were in our backyard,” she told the AJC. “We were just swimming. I was actually in the hot tub, and I felt some stings on my back shoulder. And that hurt pretty bad, so I started to feel my heart racing and my lips tingling.

“I had no known allergies, but I knew in that moment I probably should do something.”

Credit: Mellissa Hairston

Credit: Mellissa Hairston

The Missouri native took action, running inside her home in hopes that Benadryl would calm the symptoms.

“And by the time I got up there and started looking for it, I knew I was in trouble,” she said. “My body had lost all function, like I couldn’t move my arms and legs. They were completely paralyzed.”

She struggled to stay upright, falling onto her bathroom floor. Shortness of breath, heart racing — she was going into anaphylactic shock.

“I’d go unconscious for a little while, and I’d wake up,” she said. “I was looking at the ceiling thinking, ‘I’m gonna die.’ At this time, I didn’t know what had stung me or anything. Thirteen minutes was how long I was in the bathroom fighting for my life.”

“I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t get up and get to the stairs somehow, that I’m not gonna make it.’”

It took 13 minutes to struggle out of the bathroom and to the edge of her stairs. After calling for help, EMS was on scene another 13 minutes later.

“When they got here, my blood pressure was 60 over 40,” she said. “I was completely unconscious, and it was awful. They saved my life. ”

Once she regained consciousness at the hospital, Hairston discovered she suffered multiple injuries from her falls — including a concussion, broken ribs and damage to her teeth and nose.

Credit: University of Georgia/Kaiya Plagenhoef

Credit: University of Georgia/Kaiya Plagenhoef

Her exterminator would go on to contact UGA, with his Asian needle ant samples from her yard reaching Suiter’s desk. When the AJC spoke with Suiter on Tuesday, he had four emails in his inbox from other local Asian needle ant cases. Two of those cases were from within the last week alone.

Where are Asian needle ants in Georgia?

According to Suiter, who has been bitten by Asian needle ants on several occasions, their sting is less painful than the infamous wallop of many common U.S. fire ants. And, luckily, he’s not allergic to the insects, which frequent his Griffon-area backyard.

The invasive ants are most active during July and August and are more difficult to spot than other backyard ants. They don’t build mounds or follow each other in neat lines, like the prevalent Argentine ant.

“They’re not real in your face,” he said. “They live in hardwood areas where you have lots of leaf litter. They get in logs. That’s their favorite place.”

Large oak trees with little understory are some of their favorite habitats, making outdoorsy backyards with flush tree lines prime real estate for Asian needle ants.

According to Suiter, they don’t come inside homes. Gardeners, however, can find them under rocks or anything in the yard that hasn’t been disturbed for a couple weeks.

How to avoid being stung

When it comes to prevention, Suiter said it’s not easy to prevent them from entering your yard. However, there are steps you can take to minimize your risk of being stung.

“One of the things people can do is try to get all their woody debris off the ground [and] pile it up in one pile,” he said. “If you’re in a place where you can’t burn it, just pile it up as far away from the structure as you can.

Credit: Mellissa Hairston

Credit: Mellissa Hairston

“Maybe put it off the ground to let it dry, because they’re moving into it because it’s moist. We’re going to run into that (during the) July, August period. We’re going to go five weeks without any rain, and so that concentrates them.”

He advised people to use gloves and shoes when gardening. Have you left a bag of topsoil outside for a couple weeks? Be careful picking it up, as Asian needle ants could have crawled under for a snug hideaway.

According to Suiter, certain ant baits can be effective at warding off the Asian needle ant.

“Make sure they’re granular,” he said. “Don’t use gels. It should be a granular bait.”

How to spot Asian needle ants

The black ants are roughly a sixteenth of an inch in size and are best identified by professionals.

“So the best way to do it is to get a really good picture of one or collect one with some tweezers,” Suiter said when asked how Georgia residents can identify the creatures. “Put it in a baggie with some alcohol and send it to your county extension agent. And if they don’t know what it is, they’ll send it to me.”

Visit extension.uga.edu/county-offices.html to find your extension office.

What do you do if you have been stung?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, anyone who suspects they are having an allergic reaction from an Asian needle ant sting should immediately seek medical attention. Medical attention is important because the stings can cause anaphylaxis — a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

Symptoms include hives and itchiness around the skin, low blood pressure, swollen tongue or throat, a weak or rapid pulse, dizziness and fainting. Those suffering from anaphylaxis, according to Mayo Clinic, should also administer an epinephrine auto-injector right away — if one is available.

Asian needle ants are nothing new to the Peach State, but the entomologist is raising awareness for the little black ant that could be in your backyard. For those not allergic, it’s a minor sting. For those with certain allergies, however, it’s something else entirely.

“I think that we look at ants as harmless, and our kids just go around and they step on them or whatever … that’s not the case here,” explained Hairston.

“I almost lost my life. I was in that bathroom on that day, thinking I wasn’t gonna see my daughter graduate. I was begging for my life. And I don’t mean to be dramatic, but it is my story. It is what happened.”