female carpenter ant bite

your kidding? they could look alike....it surely looked like a ant and there coming form a hugh oat tree area.....my question is when you got bitten did you ever have any reaction like i stated in my first post?

I had no reactions what so ever from the bites. Thats why I did not include anything about it, and yes surprisingly some wasps look very much like ants and have nearly fooled me on occasion.

And your reaction sounds more like an allergic reaction to a be or wasp sting. Though fire ants can also cause these reactions as well but I have never heard of carpenter ants causing issues. And honestly seems highly unlikely that a carpenter ant could cause any severe issues at all.

Ants are really evolved forms of Wasps.

Technically speaking, though Carpenter Ants cannot sting, they can emit a defensive chemical called Formic Acid. Pretty smelly stuff! There is a possibility that you had a small wound and perhaps some of the formic acid got in? I haven't personally heard of allergic reactions to this, but it's always possible.

I have seen certain solitary wasps, such as Mud Daubers, picking off ants that they come across. Maybe you had a wasp that was preying on the ants or preying on something driven out by the ants?

It's really hard to say! I do hope this does not happen to you again. You should seriously consider going to an allergist to receive tests if you had such a catastrophic reaction.

by C. pennsylvanicus occasionally and the major workers can really dig their jaws into human skin. After pulling them off I sometimes had minor skin reactions such has burning or itching, but like I said it was a very minor reaction

I've had a couple of different species of Formicinae, such as Formica and Camponotus do the ol' bite and squirt on me a few times. They're pretty good at finding the tender spots like the top of my foot, back of my knees and between my fingers! I've never had anything more than either a teeny bit of redness or swelling. My skin is usually dry and tough to get through.

Last year we had an emergence of Camponotus near my home and I had a few hungry captive spiders and decided to give them a few treats. Plenty of queens emerged, and I forgot their main defense! I started using an inhaler-type aspirator and immediately was 'impressed' by the odor the queens were producing. Sour, vinegary and acrid. Of course, I had probably 10 queens in my little vial. Not pleasant! The spiders were grateful for my efforts though. The queen's defenses didn't phase or harm the spiders even a bit.

Allergic reactions are tricky, since it differs from person to person and from compound to compound. I've always told people if they have dealt with a serious allergic reaction, to see a specialist.