ARTelevision

Well, what can one say about this?
It happens.
.........................
3-month-old Phoenix girl killed by ants during nap

The Arizona Republic
May. 20, 2003 12:00 AM


A 3-month-old girl was killed by ants while she was napping in a crib at a baby-sitter's home Monday afternoon, Phoenix police said.

The caregiver, who has not been identified, put the infant down for a nap about 1:30 p.m., police Detective Tony Morales said.

When she went to check on the little girl a half-hour later, she was covered in ants and was in "severe respiratory distress," he said.

Autumn White had "hundreds of ant bites" on her legs and her throat was swollen, Assistant Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan said. She was not breathing when firefighters arrived at the home near 83rd Avenue and Mohave Street.

"A child that age probably just couldn't take the venom," Morales said.

Khan said the baby may have had an allergic reaction, with the poison from the ants causing her respiratory problems.

At least 40 deaths occur annually in the United States from reactions to insect stings. A severe allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, occurs in 0.5 to 5 percent of the country's population, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Children and senior citizens are more vulnerable.


Lower resistance


"Their resistance is less," Khan said. "They don't have the ability to recover like adults do."

Autumn was flown to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.

After the little girl died, firefighters again were dispatched to the home, where the baby-sitter was so distraught that she was taken to an emergency room for treatment.

The black ants in the baby-sitter's home were about one-eighth of an inch long and apparently crawled into the home between the carpeting and the wall, police said.

Neighbors in the new, upscale tract home development in southwest Phoenix said they started noticing more ants when daily temperatures started rising.

Mark Cedre, 29, said for months that the worst problem was the ants searching out "sugar in the pantry." But when he pulled up the carpet in his home this weekend to put in hardwood floors, Cedre found ants crawling along the foundation.

"I fumigated the whole thing," he said. "I was stomping all weekend, like a mariachi.

"My wife is nine months' pregnant; she's due any moment," Cedre added. "She's freaking out. She wants the whole neighborhood fumigated now."

Black ants live in colonies much like bees and forage widely in search of food. Most ants have well-developed jaws and can bite.

Khan said that while it's highly unusual for a person to die from ant bites, it's very possible for a person to have an allergic reaction which, if serious enough, could be fatal.

Shock symptoms

Symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction include swelling of the lips, throat, ears, eyelids, palms and soles; hives; dizziness; wheezing or shortness of breath; and a sudden drop in blood pressure.

Experts say that without medical treatment anaphylactic shock can lead to death in less than an hour.

"It's like a bee sting," Khan said. "Your respiratory system freezes up and you're not able to breathe. It's like a real bad asthma attack."

Neighbor Lorena Nieto, 26, held her 14-month-old son on her hip Monday just down the street from where Autumn died and whispered to her baby: "It's scary, huh?"
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Even in upscale neighborhoods - one isn't actually escaping Nature, appearances notwithstanding.
This little girl suffered a fate that is more reminiscent of prehistoric times, yet here it is in the 21st. century...

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Simple_Min

Are the ants bigger there b/c they are closer to the nuke sites or something.

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If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

ARTelevision

"The black ants in the baby-sitter's home were about one-eighth of an inch long"

That is not big as ants go...

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mtsgsd

Makes me wonder about the ant hills in the back of my property. there are a few that are maybe 10" wide but one is 2' across and about 8 or 9 inches high! And diazinon isn't available for the retail market anymore.

clavus

No matter how many times I say it, people just don't seem to listen...until its too late -

Every child in America should sleep with an aardvark in the crib.

Please write your Senator NOW and tell him/her that the American public needs Manditory Aardvark Legislation passed. For God sakes, think of the children.

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krwlz

That is kinda scary....we got one more year of diazonn here though...

BBtB

....


What is sad is that is to close to the truth. And as for my reaction ... well to quote Art, "It happens"

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Meridae'n once played "death" at a game of chess that lasted for over two years. He finally beat death in a best 34 out of 67 match. At that time he could ask for any one thing and he could wish for the hope of all mankind... he looked death right in the eye and said ...

"I would like about three fiddy"

WhoaitsZ

egads, poor child!

i've been attacked by fire ants when I was five. few hundred stings, excrutiating pain.

this is one of those things in life that, regardless to how pain and sad it is, is simply "one of those things"..

Glory's Sun

Poor kid.. sux when you hear about kids dyin..

platypus

This is very sad.

But thanks to clavus, now I've got a mental image of the aardvark from the Pink Panther cartoons complete with John Byner doing Jackie Mason. I can't help crackin' up. :-)

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Prophecy

Wasn't diazinon supposed to kill pets and cause brain damage in small children? Or was that something else?

Anyway, the child getting bite to death is horrible. I would think the baby-sitter would have heard the child cry or something...

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La Fede È Il Mio Schermo,
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warrrreagl

The problem in the Southern US is fire ants. They are an orange-reddish color, and are extremely vicious. They ALWAYS bite, no questions asked.

Fire ants also communicate through olfactory glands, and they tend to cover an enemy first and then bite down all at once. They inject a dose of formic acid into the victim, so it's like getting hundreds of hypodermics of formic acid simultaneously all over your arm, leg, or whatever. Their venom tends to be stronger and more concentrated in the early Spring, so fire ant deaths are more prevalent in the Spring.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

BBtB

I remember fire ants. We used to have like 3 hills near my old house. Then one day my grandpa took some gasoline to them. They were still out in our pasture though.

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Meridae'n once played "death" at a game of chess that lasted for over two years. He finally beat death in a best 34 out of 67 match. At that time he could ask for any one thing and he could wish for the hope of all mankind... he looked death right in the eye and said ...

"I would like about three fiddy"

mtsgsd

Diazinon is "safe" when handled and used properly. For instance, it needs to be thouroghly watered into the ground for it to work, and so that it can't be picked up thru contact. Of course, used wrong it can threaten water supplies. It's only available for commercial use now because of misuse by joe homeowner.

SecretMethod70

All I gotta say is thank God I live in the midwest, and Chicago on top of it. Those nasty types of ants haven't gotten here yet. But, alas, one day we too will have fire ants, et al. Then I will sleep in a bubble


You know, I really feel bad for this kid and the family and all, but I couldn't help but chuckle when I first read the headline. I mean, it's just so unheard of that it's funny for the first half-second until you realize someone died because of it

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Minx

That is just so very sad. It's always tragic when you hear of a meaningless death and that of a child seems to hurt just a little more.

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MSD

I don't have ants, I have wood spiders