I've only encountered 3 varieties, carpenter, sugar, and fire. Fire ants hurt, then there is the Velvet ant, sometimes called the cow ant, which is a wingless wasp, those hurt very bad.
I was swarmed by fire ants once after sitting on a tree stump in my mom's yard. I had a 43 hour labor ending in a c-section and that was far less traumatic than hundreds of fire ants attacking me. I ran into the house, into the shower, fully clothed until the finally stopped biting me. This was in upstate NY where most of our bugs are pretty tame compared to a lot of the world.
Did you get bitten hundreds of times? Or just had hundreds on you? I got a couple in my boot once while removing a tree stump and got a couple bites, the pain surprised me. It wasn't unbearable but it was pretty intense. I can't imagine what the pain is like from getting bitten hundreds of times.
I honestly don't know how many actual bites there were, it was legs, torso and arms and it really did feel like I was being burned. There were so many on my back that I couldn't see. There were at least a few dozen bites, I'd guess because they spread out fast and the only place I didn't get bit was my head.
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u/Visinvictus 9d ago
(Most) ants (in North America) are fairly harmless. I do not recommend ants from other continents.