New hazard in logs

[pineywoods]

Put a medium sized pine log on the mill today to make some 2X6 for a neighbor. The bark was loose, so I reached up to pull it off and found a huge colony of fire ants under the bark. Now I'm kinda use to these Dang critters, they live in dirt mounds all over my lawn and garden, but I have never seen them inside a log. Got bit (or stung) several times before I realized what was happening. for you folks fortunate enough to not have them, fire ants are nasty and agressive. their bite itches like the dickens and makes a festering sore..
What to do with the log???? sometimes the brain does work. My mill has a sawdust blower. Turned on the blower, pulled the suction hose loose from the mill and used it like a vacuum cleaner to suck up the little boogers and blow them outside into the sawdust pile.

So now I have to worry about critters as well as nails, insulators, horseshes etc

Who says sawmilling isn't a challenge??

[WDH]

I got fire-ant-bit too, today in the garden (if you can call that rain starved dried up plot of ground a garden).  While sawing, I have never had to worry about critters.  I bet there are some good critter stories out there...

[metalspinner]

My boys love to play with ants.  Here in TN that is not a problem.  We went to visit my mom back in NOLA and they learned real quick not to play with the ants down there.

[379hammerdown]

I got tore up by those little buggers too yesterday! I have two pigmy goats that follow me around anywhere I go... literally trip over them sometimes  :D but one of em' must have been hangin out on an  ant hill because one of em leaned up against my leg, as usual, and a10 seconds later my leg was on FIRE! YEEOW!!!         smiley_bouncing