Land Piranhas- Florida
Ralph went through the fire to bring home the bacon.
Hunter: Ralph Cianciarulo
Cameraman: Vicki Cianciarulo
It was HOT, the thermometer showed 100, it was muggy and no matter what, you just couldn’t get cooled down. We spotted some hogs feeding out of the cypress head and we circled to get the wind in our favor. They were moving and feeding pretty fast but we felt we could get on them.
Hoppy, Vicki & I crept through the wet brush checking the wind constantly, the air just seemed to hold tight and we wanted to make sure there was no swirling going on while we closed the distance on our Florida hogs. I was hunting with my TC Contender and we wanted to try and put some hogs in the freezer. We were taking no prisoners on this hunt, it was time to get serious and we moved in for the shot.
The pigs started to feed in all directions as we got to within 100 yards or so. We hunkered down to really pick out the best one to take, after a few minutes it was like we turned on a light switch and they all turned and started walking right towards us.
We moved forward and I started to get a feeling like something was crawling all over my legs, slowly we moved closer and all of a sudden WHAM.....I felt like someone just shot me with a pepper gun as my legs started to feel each and every bite from those little miserable critters they call FIRE ANTS! Yes I stepped in a nest and was being bitten like crazy while the hogs moved towards us. I struggled to decide what the Heck to do!
Do I just start screaming, drop my drawers and run like crazy! No I took one for the team and continued my stalk. The hogs were my target even though I was being eaten up like crazy by the fire ants! As they took chunks of flesh out of my legs and crawled up even higher I started to panic, the heat meant nothing to me at that point, the hogs came closer, I had to make a decision, and as I felt my legs being torn up by these land piranhas I needed to take it out on something......
The hogs heading directly towards us kept coming, the wind was perfect and the piranhas kept biting and tearing flesh from my little legs, I was sweating, and held my Nikon red dot scope right on the first hogs skull, and at less than 10 yards I dropped him in his tracks! Normally we would be giving high fives and running over to see my trophy, but not this time! I dropped my drawers and ran like crazy trying to get all those miserable little biting FIRE ANTS off me. By now they were all over and biting everywhere and everything! Need I say more!
After 10 minutes of total panic and pain traveling all through my body, I approached my downed trophy hog, took some pictures and dragged him back to the truck all while listening to Hoppy & Vicki laugh hysterically at me. Once we got to the truck I made sure she was not filming me running through the Florida foliage with my pants down to my ankles jumping, swatting, and doing somersaults trying to get those miserable land piranhas off me.....You never know what Vicki will get on camera filming me.....All I can tell you is I still have scars on my legs and have learned a very valuable lesson about where to sit or stand while hunting where there are FIRE ANTS!