We prefer to have no pests in the house. Unfortunately pest control does not take care of everything. We have a balcony garden with thirty plants. Plants bring ants. We are careful not to spill food particles anywhere so as to avoid attracting ants. But they come for something else - water. There is no stopping them.
We fill up water in a container, drawn through UV purifier, instead of switching it on every time we need water. Unfortunately the ants discovered this cache one day, and spread the word. I don't know how they do it. Perhaps they do it vertically genetically. Generation after generation of ants started entering our water container. They would be found swimming on the water surface in large numbers. They would form groups and swim together, like the gymnasts do in Olympics. Here is a picture, in case you do not believe me. We wondered why they would not drink water and go away. They must love swimming, we thought.
We had to throw away that water and fill fresh water again and again. We do not believe in wasting water. But we do not believe in drinking contaminated water too. Then I remembered a story of a patient of my wife. He ran a small home laundry business. He had plenty of rats, not by choice. He could not afford to let the rats destroy customers' clothes. So he kept food for the rats in a dish every night before retiring. The rats ate that food and went away without damaging a single garment. We decided to try that on the ants. We started keeping a saucer with water in it next to the large water container. The ants stopped entering our water container. But they would not swim in the saucer too. We were stumped, though happy that our water was protected. When my vacation started, I decided to find out exactly what was happening. I watched the saucer. The ants would climb into the saucer, drink water, climb back down and go away. They would not stay in the house and trouble us, or get pest-controlled and killed.
"They could not climb up the steep sides of the water container and fell in the water. They can climb out of the saucer" I explained to my wife.
"Good" she said.
"This is great," I said. "not just good. Now we know something about ants that no one else did so far. We have protected our drinking water. We are doing good work by providing water to thirsty creatures. That is increasing our Good Karma. We are also saving lives of those ants who would have drowned. That is increasing our Good Karma even more."
"I hope you are not going to write this on the net" she said, not greatly pleased that our Good Karma was increasing.
"But I am" I said. "It will help someone else out there who has the same problem, but has not yet found the solution to it."
We fill up water in a container, drawn through UV purifier, instead of switching it on every time we need water. Unfortunately the ants discovered this cache one day, and spread the word. I don't know how they do it. Perhaps they do it vertically genetically. Generation after generation of ants started entering our water container. They would be found swimming on the water surface in large numbers. They would form groups and swim together, like the gymnasts do in Olympics. Here is a picture, in case you do not believe me. We wondered why they would not drink water and go away. They must love swimming, we thought.
We had to throw away that water and fill fresh water again and again. We do not believe in wasting water. But we do not believe in drinking contaminated water too. Then I remembered a story of a patient of my wife. He ran a small home laundry business. He had plenty of rats, not by choice. He could not afford to let the rats destroy customers' clothes. So he kept food for the rats in a dish every night before retiring. The rats ate that food and went away without damaging a single garment. We decided to try that on the ants. We started keeping a saucer with water in it next to the large water container. The ants stopped entering our water container. But they would not swim in the saucer too. We were stumped, though happy that our water was protected. When my vacation started, I decided to find out exactly what was happening. I watched the saucer. The ants would climb into the saucer, drink water, climb back down and go away. They would not stay in the house and trouble us, or get pest-controlled and killed.
"They could not climb up the steep sides of the water container and fell in the water. They can climb out of the saucer" I explained to my wife.
"Good" she said.
"This is great," I said. "not just good. Now we know something about ants that no one else did so far. We have protected our drinking water. We are doing good work by providing water to thirsty creatures. That is increasing our Good Karma. We are also saving lives of those ants who would have drowned. That is increasing our Good Karma even more."
"I hope you are not going to write this on the net" she said, not greatly pleased that our Good Karma was increasing.
"But I am" I said. "It will help someone else out there who has the same problem, but has not yet found the solution to it."
