The Wilds of My Sarasota Backyard

I felt a burning sensation around my ankles when I stood in the grass with my dogs recently.  Just like film used to develop right before our eyes, bright red circles slowly erupted on my feet and it felt like I had stepped into a bed of ashes. Fire ants.

It’s not that insect adventures don’t happen up north in Ct., from where I’ve moved (although they never did to me).  And it’s not like people from down here didn’t warn me about this. (I thought they were being babies.)  It’s just that at times like this an ex northerner can feel woefully unprepared for the wilds of Sarasota County.

I never had anti-itch spray at the ready in Connecticut or topical balms of any sort. When we walked our dogs up there, we didn’t expect the finale to include flinging ourselves into the pool to save our burning body parts.  No, we thought we’d just take a short stroll and then come back inside after the dogs were done.  

How simple it all seems now.

There's another hidden danger in my backyard. Here's the Sarasota survival tip I’ve learned to avoid that one: don’t remove those dying palm fronds from your trees without gloves.  I assume that most of you reading this already know the reason why this would be foolish.  But I didn’t.  And now I do. Why?  Because when I did this without gloves and was skewered by one of those pointy barbs on the stem, the result was that my index and third fingers, (which soon resembled sausages), wouldn’t move without searing pain for three days.

Apparently, those barbs release some secret serum that enters your system only to inflict misery and swelling.  What?  From a palm tree?   These sorts of unnatural surprises are exactly why I don’t watch horror movies.

There’s none of that in Connecticut.  How dangerous is an apple tree?  A weeping beech?  If we got a scrape, we put on a Band-Aid.  Poison Ivy?  If you haven’t figured out how to spot it by the time you’re ten, you’ve got bigger problems than itchy skin.

But those fire ants were near a potted plant a few steps away from my bourgeois lanai!  It’s not like I was trekking through Myakka Park looking for trouble-  I was just out with the dogs and my morning coffee (before I was wearing it).   And that nasty palm tree is right near the potted plant, looking all “margaritas anyone?” I might add. Duplicitous.

I love living here and have now learned to avoid certain dangers that just come with the territory.  After all, it’s a veritable paradise out there in my Sarasota backyard, when it’s not a battlefield.

Please read my other blog:  http://whatdogsreallythink.blogspot.com/