[Groop] Regarding Ants - A different approach

[Stephanie Mortimer]

I realize this is totally inappropriate for this forum, but I would like 
to advocate a different approach to the ant problem.

At an organic gardening event a few years ago Andrew Lopez gave me a 
copy of his book NATURAL PEST CONTROL. The first chapter "Dances With 
Ants" has a lot of suggestions on dealing with ants in the house and 
garden.

In the house, the first thing you have to ask yourself is "Why are they 
here?" If it is because they found food then you need to clean up 
everything and seal up that big bag of sugar* or whatever. Ants leave 
special scent paths, so try to scrub down their path**. I also will try 
to confuse them by spraying different aromatherapy products, but it can 
take a while until all of the ants have forgotten where they found the 
goodies.

In the garden, you should remember that ants can help pollinate some 
plants, but they also can farm aphids, which are harmful. Here, you need 
to make sure your plants and your soil are healthy and can fight back.

Andy Lopez' book (and his website) have a lot more information. If the 
first methods he suggests don't work, then he offers further possible 
solutions. But the bottom line is (I quote) "....you will not be able to 
eliminate ants entirely from your environment, and ....you would be wise 
not to do battle with them, but to communicate with them and to reach a 
mutual understanding."

Stephanie (not that Stephanie Meyer) Meyer

*The ants were all marching back and forth to the big bag of sugar in 
the cabinet. One of the more literate ants kept messing up the line by 
running when he came to one stretch. Another ant, annoyed, asked "Why 
are you in such a hurry?" The literate ant said "Didn't you see the sign 
'Tear along dotted line?'"

**I don't like to kill things (I know, what am I doing in a Groo 
forum?). I wanted to scrub down the ant path when they weren't there, 
but they seemed to be 24-hour. As far as I can tell, though, they slow 
down around 3am.