For the past few weeks we have had an ant infestation in our kitchen and in my bathroom. It started when it was ridiculously hot in L.A. and they haven't really left our apartment ever since.
I have been smashing, spraying, and drowning ants like crazy. I'm tired of it. I have been looking for more humane solutions to get rid of the ants like blocking their entrance into the apartment with baking soda and/or chili powder. One online suggestion was to place a huge dollop of sugar OUTSIDE of the apartment along their path between their ant mound and the apartment. This sounded like a good idea except we live on the top level of an apartment and I don't really have access to their path outside the building unless I take the window screen off and rappel down the side of the building-- which I might do in a week or two if they spread beyond the kitchen or bathroom.
As I was looking at the scads of ant corpses around my bathtub during my morning shower, I felt guilty for killing the ants. I wonder how buddhist monks deal with insect infestations since they are not allowed to kill other living creatures? Do they just let them swarm around their living quarters? What about disease carrying mosquitos, do they leave them alone too? Knowing buddhists, they probably do leave them alone and allow for the suffering as good for the soul.
I guess that I should be a better buddhist.
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2 comments:
I don't know how to humanely get rid of ants. I grew up in the country, so I never gave it much thought - it was just something we did. Kill pests. At least you don't have mice. :-P
True, nothing bigger than ants right now. It looks like they are coming from within the walls of the building (not outside through our window)! So the only way to really get rid of them is to kill them.
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