19See, I have given you
authority to tread on snakes and scorpions,and over all the power of the
enemy;
and nothing will hurt you.
and nothing will hurt you.
Luke
10:19 (NRSV)
I grew up in a drafty old New England farmhouse. The kitchen
was situated at the back of the house, adjacent to the back porch—whose swinging
door was quite serviceable, but did not seal like most doors today. The
breadbox sat on a little side table Formica-topped, once a children’s table, I
believe), and every summer the table legs were set into empty cans—tuna cans
were used most often. Then, a bit of water in each can, and voilà! Instant
moats excluded ants from getting into the baked goods for the season. In that
house we periodically battled sweet-eating ants and big, black carpenter ants.
The favorite solution for an active pile of ants (generally found just outside
the back stairs, where cracks decorated the turning platform[1])
was boiling water. One whistling tea kettle—and swarms were exterminated in an
instant.
The farmhouse in which I now reside has ants—little,
sweet-eating ants—entering from both the garage and the front porch. The
counters offer no locations for moats. When they first appeared, in the late
winter, marching up towards the hearth, I found my store of ant bait stations
and ant bait. True to the box’s instructions, the bait lured a steady river of
ants for about a day…and then the stream dwindled and stopped. Now, though, I’m
thinking these ants are either immune to the baits or…what, I do not know. Yes,
they love the bait stations—not enough to swarm them, but enough to maintain a
fairly steady, trickling stream of customers.
Lord, help me. How to eradicate the last of these pests
without resorting to poisonous pesticides? The recent AARP Bulletin recommends
spraying vinegar along baseboards[2]
to deter ants without resorting to toxic chemicals. I filled a spray bottle
with distilled white vinegar yesterday evening. Now, the house smells like
salad dressing…and the ants have not been deterred.
I wonder about the mint wasp spray I have somewhere out in the
garage. Wasp bodies are somewhat similar to those of ants. Might it prove toxic
to them as well?
I’m open to suggestions at this point. How do you manage ants
in your home?
Thanking readers in advance for great suggestions, I bid you
adieu.
