Case History: FIRE ANT SI ING

Dr. Paul J. Roper, Ph.D. Houston, Texas, U.S~. April, 1990

The home of Paul J. Roper, Technical Director of NonScents, is surrounded by man fire ant nests ~ During the last couple of months he has destroyed at least 50-60 of these nests in his front lawn with pesticides. One day when he went to get his mail, at the mail box in front of his house? a fire ant stung him on the side of his big toe on his lef foot Within a few minutes the pain from the sting began to intensify in a type of be non sensation Anyone that has been stung by a fire ant is well aware of the stinging pain.

At this point Paul recalled the case histories on bee stings, and burns that he hat written. He wondered if NonScents could help relieve the pain, and perhaps the swelling and the festering of the fire ant sting When he went into his house he opener a can of NonScents powder. He took a moist cloth and dampened his toe The moisture on the skin would help hold the powder to his toe more securely in the form of a this mud cake. Only the i inest powder was used so that it would also adhere better to the skin A thin powder cake was applied over the wound. He then began to read his mail About 10 minutes later he realized that he did not have any sensation of pain at al where the sting had occurred. The wound also did not swell up in a red welt as would be expected from a i ire ant sting Furthermore, the sting did not fester into a small boi the next day as would normally occur with this type of sting A small red mark persister for a couple of days where the sting occurred, but there was no pain, and for all practica purposes no swelling, or festering of the wound In 2 or 3 days it was difficult to eves tell where the sting occurred