Ants and others in the garden
CHENNAI:Ants in the garden? Fret not. The good news, the Internet is full of remedies to keep ants out of your pots, plants, compost and life. The not so good news, there is no magic mantra to get rid of them. The important news, so repeat after me please, we need ants, let them be!A few months ago, a row of little ants came into our kitchen for a recce. Soon, the army was in. I tried to keep the kitchen counter and dining table as clean as possible and put away all food items in air-tight containers. This helped for some time. But the army had not retreated — just moved to another camp, the compost bin. By now, my obsession with trying to get rid of the ants was at a high.
Here are the things I did, and you can too if you have a similar problem:
Spray all surfaces with white vinegar: The smell discourages the ants a bit, but it also discourages the humans from entering the zone.
Draw trails of turmeric powder along crevices, around the composter, and along the kitchen shelves. This works a bit, but the resilient ants just move rank and file to form a parallel trail.
Keep a piece of camphor in as many nooks and corners: This works fine for some time till I realised present day camphor is not natural.
Steep citric peels in hot water: Leave them overnight, then spray it on all surfaces and wipe. Works for some time, but the ants in our house escaped this wash and settled comfortably in a plate of fresh peels that I’d forgotten to add to the hot water.
There are other methods that involve a bit of vodka and essential oils. Surely, there are better uses for these expensive things than using them as ant repellents.
A reader from Bengaluru, Deepa, wrote in to ask where I kept my composter and how I kept it safe from rain. The composter is in the little service area opening out from the kitchen. Since it is made of terracotta, it is safe from rain. One just needs to keep the balance of wet and dry waste or use remix powder to ensure the pile is at an optimum temperature. The curry plant in the pot near the composter is doing well. Recently, I was delighted to see flowers in the plant. Close scrutiny also showed many hungry caterpillars eating up the leaves — larvae of the Common Mormon butterflies. The presence of these gluttonous larvae is a clear biological indication that my plant is non-toxic. It’s worth growing curry leaves and citrus plants just so our world can have more Common Mormons!
Organic gardening is a way of life. Like yoga, it involves being organic in the entire cycle of events that you choose to follow. Try to choose organic over inorganic wherever possible. Ash and cow-dung as vessel cleaners may be a bit gross for today’s kitchens, but there are several eco-friendly dish wash liquids and powders that are effective and neat. If you use these, then you can feed your plants with the waste water. Eat natural so the kitchen waste is non-toxic too. Earthworms, maggots, and a million other organisms make up this ecosystem – ants included. Call me defeatist if you want, but I think the best way to deal with ants and others is to accept them, shrug your shoulders and say, “Live, and live!”