Pests
Who's winning?
I wake up, turn on the kitchen light and the counter starts moving as they scatter. They seem to think that if they hide fast I won’t know they’re there. ANTS! Little tiny sugar ants infested my home. I put out traps of various styles – little tin death caves that draw them in, poison and send them back to their colony carrying a deadly plague. Then there are the sticky open trays that lure them in to drown in crowds with their comrades, floating in transparent mass graves...so I can see how many I’ve killed? I’ve used death on contact spray that leaves their bodies on the counter like so many crumbs to be washed away. I even squash them with my bare fingers begging the Buddha’s forgiveness for my brutality.
I try to tell them to go away, I don’t want to kill them. But they persist. I find them everywhere, even in my clothes! Ants in the pants is real. The last straw was watching an ant meander across my vision as it made its way inside the lens of my reading glasses as I wrote.
When the ancients recognized they’d lost control, they called on the gods. I called Pest Control. When the pest expert showed up, I was beside myself with excitement. Finally! They’ll be gone for good. Ah, but said joy was short lived. This incredibly expensive treatment, I learned, will take two weeks to complete its job. We’ll luxuriate in relative ant freedom for just another two months when we have to do it all over again...for another, admittedly smaller fee...indefinitely. Is this a win?
So, I start wondering why these so-called pests invade us...I am an avowed animal lover. I believe ants, rats, squirrels, raccoons, deer and even slugs have a purpose in Nature. I wonder if we humans’ purpose in Nature is as valid as theirs. They are clearly smarter than we are -- they’ve learned to exploit us and our stuff to make their lives easier. After all, they were here first, and we just try to control them so we can continue living our relatively UNnatural lifestyle, the style to which the oligarchs of the world have taught us to believe we deserve...as long as we keep paying them for it.
In fact, these oligarchs and their political toadies are themselves getting out of control. Like the vermin among us, they’re infesting every aspect of our lives. And, like the vermin, they’ve learned to exploit us, our work and our stuff. But the vermin take only what they need. Unlike the vermin the oligarchs are free to reshape our lives for their benefit – and they want it all. We can no longer deny their specter in everything about our culture, our government, our daily lives.
Where IS Pest Control when we need it? Maybe it’s time to call on the gods…
