By Cheri Rae
The kitchen is clean—as much as one can expect with at 15-year-old boy living in the house—and the morning is quiet, even tranquil until I spy the relentless line of ants marching from the electrical outlet to up to the counter and over to the water faucet.
Here we go again. In what has become a regular ritual this summer, these damned ants—there’s no other phrase for them—have taken to invading my home, where they are not invited, not welcome and, once their intrusion has been detected, not allowed to remain for one minute more.
I usually have patience for wayward little critters in my house: carefully relocating spiders from the shower, misguided moths that mistakenly get trapped in the lampshade, even big buzzy flies in the windowsill. Once in a while, when a bird zooms through the open Dutch door and perches inside, I happily accommodate it by opening windows and encouraging it to make its way safely back outdoors again.
But smallest of all, the ants get no favors, not even a flickering moment of compassion from me. It’s total annihilation without regret—or need to resort to toxic substances. Water works, so does baby powder, Windex and sweeping them up en masse.
I suppose if I was a more spiritual person, I’d be more sanguine about the appearance of these intruders in my home, more interested in finding out if they’re native little black ants or transplants from Argentina. I’d learn to ignore them, or even welcome them, and recognize their value—surely they have some value? I’d leave them undisturbed like the busy bees on the lavender plants; I don’t bother them, they don’t bother me.
But I’m just not that evolved.
Maybe it’s that by their presence inside the house—instead of outside where they belong—they rebuke, mock my efforts to Keep the Kitchen Clean. Maybe I anthropomorphize, but there’s just something intolerable about these individual creatures that, en masse, become a formidable force in their willingness to simply follow the leader in a long line into oblivion. No matter what I have planned, those demanding little ants come first. Dealing with ants just plain bugs.
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I am with you. I save and relocate just about every bug because life is life and the insects are here for a reason… blah blah blah. The Buddhist yin and yang, the harmony of the zen spirit and all that a kid born in California absorbs growing up in the surf culture and love one another 70′s. But… enough is enough. Fire ants it is all out war, inside or outside they all must die but I have tried to cut some slack to the other ants but they invade my trash cans, cereal boxes and are everywhere so with reluctance I must defeat the invasion… I thought I was alone… Thank you for the article
As for ants, read Wilson or perhaps just this description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson#Ants_and_social_insects
‘Edward O. Wilson, referring to ants, once said that “Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species”‘
Me too. I’ve killed thousands in the last months, even with remorse it doesn’t matter. I cannot share with them! A little pile of Borax where they enter definitely helps until they find another.
They sure don’t like my Oasis soap either. But when I see one trying to haul something larger than it’s own little body, the struggle warms my heart and I’ve got to let him.
I’m invaded too! Does anyone know who to call or if the termite people take care of ants?
How about fleas? My children moved out last weekend and took the dog and cat with them. The fleas stayed here. They bit my husband, but never touched me…He spent $100.00 on bombs. The fleas love this hot weather…every room was infested.
you cannot kill fleas with bombs. you coat your whole freaking house in nuerotoxins jst great for the kiddies. look up flea cycles. the unhatched eggs are the bigger part. the live fleas are only 10th of the problem head lice is the same. Vaccum two three times a day and THROW out each bag. they can get out. do NOT se a flea collar they are toxic. it amazes me that people live in sb still uses toxins in the home. use borax around the edges of the rooms and wash all bedding. it s a bitch but better than giving your kids cancer. takes about 2 weeks.
OMG, I fricken hate!!! ants!