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Ahimsa
Quandarius
Explorer
Hello, everyone:
I am new to this forum, and would like to ask what others think about something that happened a few months ago. It still bothers me, as I am aware of the need to keep the precepts, also the Hindu injunction to practice what they call Ahimsa (harmlessness).
During last summer, ants showed up in our bathroom. Before this, there had been ants in the kitchen many times, but they were only odd ones. We put deterrents (bay leaves) down, but did not try to kill them, and they did not worry us overmuch. However, there were hundreds of them in the bathroom last year, and they really did bother us. It was not possible to use the bathroom (I mean, to have a bath or a shower) without a deal of trouble, and it became an ordeal. Even when not actually using the bathroom, to see these ants, coming out in their hundreds (or so it seemed), made my blood run cold. There were fears, also, that they might come out from that room, and invade the bedroom and got into the bed! Wanting to be humane, I tried using a vacuum hose and dumping them outside, but they kept on coming in their scores, or hundreds. They were all over the walls, on the edges of the bath, on the towel etc. Finally, I put down some ant-bait stations, the aim of which is to get the ants to take the poisoned food to the queen, and eventually destroy the colony. Still they came, out of a crack near the window. They were obviously nesting in either the cavity wall, the roof timbers, or under the floor.
I have read how these critters can undermine the rafters under your roof by boring into them, and nesting in the tunnels. Well, this really scared me, and, when the big, winged ones started to appear, I seized them with toilet paper, and crushed them (as suddenly as I could, so as to make it a sudden death). These, I understand, are the ones that breed.
Many, I flicked into the bathful of cold water, left there as a convenient place to deal with the large numbers, and they drowned.
Eventually (and to my surprise), the numbers dwindled to just the odd one or two, and then they stopped showing altogether. This was a great relief.
For years, I felt that I was living Buddhism (to some degree, anyway) where harmlessness was concerned. I pat every friendly dog, talk to cats that I pass on the street (if they are amenable, that is), keep to a vegan diet etc. Yet, when it came to the crunch, I felt that if the ants did not go, our lives would become impossible. I had tried talking to them (as some recommend), asking them to go. However, I think that my vibrations could not have been right, because they did not go.
Now, when I recite the precepts, I always make the condition that I will keep them AS FAR AS IS POSSIBLE. If the ants came again, I would know of no other remedy than to use the ant bait again. However, I think, now, that I would try to grab the big winged ones as gently as possible, and try to put them outside, via the open window.
All of the above may seem to be a maundering about petty things, but I do have problems about how sincere one may be when it comes to a really difficult situation. The same problem might arise where greenfly in the garden are concerned. Though one would take no pleasure in exterminating tiny beings, I do not see how it can be avoided altogether.
Does anyone else have any thoughts about this issue (or any reprimands, or advice)? Thanks for reading this.
I am new to this forum, and would like to ask what others think about something that happened a few months ago. It still bothers me, as I am aware of the need to keep the precepts, also the Hindu injunction to practice what they call Ahimsa (harmlessness).
During last summer, ants showed up in our bathroom. Before this, there had been ants in the kitchen many times, but they were only odd ones. We put deterrents (bay leaves) down, but did not try to kill them, and they did not worry us overmuch. However, there were hundreds of them in the bathroom last year, and they really did bother us. It was not possible to use the bathroom (I mean, to have a bath or a shower) without a deal of trouble, and it became an ordeal. Even when not actually using the bathroom, to see these ants, coming out in their hundreds (or so it seemed), made my blood run cold. There were fears, also, that they might come out from that room, and invade the bedroom and got into the bed! Wanting to be humane, I tried using a vacuum hose and dumping them outside, but they kept on coming in their scores, or hundreds. They were all over the walls, on the edges of the bath, on the towel etc. Finally, I put down some ant-bait stations, the aim of which is to get the ants to take the poisoned food to the queen, and eventually destroy the colony. Still they came, out of a crack near the window. They were obviously nesting in either the cavity wall, the roof timbers, or under the floor.
I have read how these critters can undermine the rafters under your roof by boring into them, and nesting in the tunnels. Well, this really scared me, and, when the big, winged ones started to appear, I seized them with toilet paper, and crushed them (as suddenly as I could, so as to make it a sudden death). These, I understand, are the ones that breed.
Many, I flicked into the bathful of cold water, left there as a convenient place to deal with the large numbers, and they drowned.
Eventually (and to my surprise), the numbers dwindled to just the odd one or two, and then they stopped showing altogether. This was a great relief.
For years, I felt that I was living Buddhism (to some degree, anyway) where harmlessness was concerned. I pat every friendly dog, talk to cats that I pass on the street (if they are amenable, that is), keep to a vegan diet etc. Yet, when it came to the crunch, I felt that if the ants did not go, our lives would become impossible. I had tried talking to them (as some recommend), asking them to go. However, I think that my vibrations could not have been right, because they did not go.
Now, when I recite the precepts, I always make the condition that I will keep them AS FAR AS IS POSSIBLE. If the ants came again, I would know of no other remedy than to use the ant bait again. However, I think, now, that I would try to grab the big winged ones as gently as possible, and try to put them outside, via the open window.
All of the above may seem to be a maundering about petty things, but I do have problems about how sincere one may be when it comes to a really difficult situation. The same problem might arise where greenfly in the garden are concerned. Though one would take no pleasure in exterminating tiny beings, I do not see how it can be avoided altogether.
Does anyone else have any thoughts about this issue (or any reprimands, or advice)? Thanks for reading this.
0
Comments
So you're not alone in needing to consider such matters of such magnitude....
Prevention is best. Ants are attracted to moisture. Was there a leak in the bathroom area? Curious that they left all on their own.
There are ants, and there are ants. Moisture ants to eat your house out from under you. Wings...hm... You could check with a pest control guy to see what type of ant fits your description, it would be helpful to know, even after the fact. Do you have access to under your house? Wouldn't hurt to go down there and see if there's any activity.
Some Buddhist traditions have a purification ceremony you can do after confessing your breaking of the vow. That might help you feel better, like you're getting a fresh start on the vow. This issue has come up on the forum before. Buddhists do what they gotta do in such situations, it's an unavoidable fact. Don't beat yourself up. Just work on prevention for the future.
Welcome to our humble forum.
A long time ago, a teacher I used to see recommended that one ought to have a tolerant attitude to insects (and not to swat flies, for example). He said that, in time, this attitude would modify one's general outlook. For years, I had taken this stance towards insects such as flies. I would just let them be. It seemed to me that I had grown in kindness. However, the ants have taught me a lesson. When I study the precepts, I see that there are problems (of fine-tuning) in all of them. It is easy to feel that, on a certain level, one has made progress in Sila. However, when a magnifying glass is taken to what the precepts imply, it is also easy to see that one can be as heartless (or as much of a rogue, etc.) as before, while still having a certain technical innocence.
I appreciate the "welcome" note. Thanks!
I guess if you lived a monastic existence then you'd have to live with ants no matter how annoying they are - I suppose youre just as annoying to them?
Modern life demands certain compromises - this is one where the consequences of your action is very evident - others are more opaque...
Perhaps one compromise is to deal with individual insects as you suggest (but that said, touching many insects no matter how gently generally disables them) but if you have an infestation then you have no choice so try to use something humane (like the food they take back to their queen - this has a neuropathway inhibitor that kills humanely and also stops new eggs from hatching)... or maybe to employ the services of a natural ant killer such as a chicken? that way its just part of the natural order of things...?
a friend of mine puts beer traps in the garden, and yells out to the slugs that they don't have to drink it, they could just leave and find some other garden.
She swears blind that they listen, because she doesn't trap as many as she would expect (her neighbour is constantly complaining about his plants being eaten) and her plants are doing ok.....