Imagine my groggy surprise when early Friday morning as I was engaged in my morning ritual that I noticed the army of ants that had formed overnight, invading our space while we slept. The line of them was busily coming and going from the screen door by the water tank, up the wall, across the edge of the bed frame, and into the kitchen area. Apparently, they are adept climbers, having gained access via the tire…
I am generally ok with ants; they show up in our house in weather extremes, either if it is too wet or too hot and dry outside. I use a product called Terro, which contains borax – a not-toxic-to-humans-or pets mineral that indeed kills ants. While just a few ants don’t warrant a Terro treatment, if there is a line of ants coming into my house kitchen, I will use it. Within 24 hours, the ants are gone. (For my Sangha friends reading this, I know that Thay would have an admonishment to let the ants be, but I draw the line when there are ants in my kitchen). Hence, my reaction, in Vanda, on Friday morning.
We were camped at Carpinteria State Park along the Pacific Coast south of Santa Barbara, a very tightly packed beach campground. I had noted when we drove up to our site that there were white circles of “chalk” in several of the soon-to-be-filled campsites – I thought how odd but helpful it was to have markings placed for where our van tires should align as we set up camp. Little did I know that the “chalk” was diatomaceous earth! Apparently, everyone but us knew to spread a circle of this very interesting and effective product around each tire to prevent the ants from climbing the tires for access to the vehicle and its unsuspecting occupants inside! We did not park within those circles, not knowing the significance of their presence. It wasn’t until the last morning of our visit to Carpinteria that the ants invaded.
Our planned leisurely morning was disrupted – we packed up to leave as soon as I could smoosh as many ants as possible with a damp cloth, for some semblance of order, before we headed to Home Depot in Santa Barbara for Terro. I was hoping for the pre-packaged containers of the thick liquid but nope, all they had was the liquid itself, which meant I would have to squeeze out a few drops in strategic placements. Fortunately, I have a bunch of saved tin foil which suited this task perfectly – I could place a few drops on each small piece of foil, then tuck the pieces into numerous nooks and crannies in which the ants were still present. They were in the garage space in the back and still crawling up the wall adjacent to the screen door, along the bed, and onto the kitchen counter. Amazingly they were disinterested in the basket of avos, garlic, shallots, and fruit that stays on the counter, and I suppose their lack of presence in the sink is a testament to my cleanliness obsession! They were in two of the low cupboards as well, but not in the “trash”, as our trash can contains only small amounts of paper and no food scraps. The compost bin that lives in that cupboard, sitting on top of the trash can is kept tightly sealed, allowing no food odors to emanate from it, either. Whew! There would have been an ant smorgasbord had they actually found food!
I placed 8 foil cups of Terro in ant areas, then waited. John pointed out that without their queen, who likely was commanding them to enter our van from her remote palace, they would die anyway, yet I was willing to facilitate their exodus.
We visited a friend in Santa Barbara, where we did find ants still crawling around when we gave her a tour of Vanda. But by the time we arrived in our next campground in the afternoon, there were far fewer ants to be found; by bedtime and this morning, there were fewer still. I still see a couple of ants that I am going to let slide for now. We are now in Gaviota State Park, another beach campground where diatomaceous earth is being used by savvy campers. We are going to buy some tomorrow when we are back in town to do laundry and grocery shop. This is the first time that we’ve had this experience – one which will not be repeated, hopefully. We will have a container of diatomaceous earth with us from now on to spread around our tires for protection, sort of like holding up a cross to a vampire.
