I consider myself a buddhist and dont kill anything whatsoever. However, latley my house has developed an ant problem. The ants come into my kitchen and it is become a significant problem. How do I deal with this problem without hiring an exterminator, etc.?
2007-04-30 17:20:27 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
well, the way i would handle it, would be to gently brush them with a piece of paper or something, out of the house, clean up the house of any food scraps, and dont leave food laying around in view of ants, they should leave in a day or so
2007-04-30 17:23:30 · answer #1 · answered by aznpride5516 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Remember Buddha lived long ago. Not all things he taught are absolute in today's reality. The core teaching expresses that no thing or self is permanent. Therefore, not even Dharma is permanent but rather ever-changing as is everything else in the universe.
We eat plants right? These are organisms that have life, so why is it ok to take these plant lives and not others? The answer, it's never the right thing to do to take a life if it can be helped. But Thich Nhat Hanh once said that if a police officer is forced to take a life in order to protect the lives of many, this can be viewed as a compassionate act. While the police officer will feel necessarily guilty at having taken a life, he will know that at the same time, he saved the lives of others.
Of course your situation is different, not quite as noble as the example I gave right? However, it is all in the understanding that you have towards your practice. You wish no ill upon these ants but at the same time you can't have them taking over your house. The first thing to do is to be mindful of the food sources for ants and make them unavailable. Make every attempt at handling the situation in a non-violent way.
Give it some time to see if the problem goes away, perhaps they will migrate to a different food source and you will be saved the anguish of causing yourself despair. If they don't migrate, you will have to test your understanding of the Dharma. Remember that every experience is an opportunity to further our practice and we are not expected to not make mistakes.
As a fellow Buddhist, if I were in the same situation I would try to do everything I could in a non-lethal way. The simply things, scrub, wash and remove the food source. In my experience, ants in the house have always been a temporary problem and once you pay attention to the food source they move on. I would not dwell on this issue, if in a few weeks the ants are still there, do what you have to do in order to eradicate the problem. Then, take steps to learn from your mistakes and make sure you never have to put yourself in the situation again. In this way, you honor the lives of the ants. Therefore, you are mindful of a lesson and the sacrifice of the ants would not be for naught. This would be making the best out of the situation.
Also, you can't avoid Karma by having someone else kill, Karma is about intention. But there are times when we must choose to kill, be it out of necessity or defense. - jcr
2007-05-03 11:05:42 · answer #2 · answered by jrob4403 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
don't leave anything lying around and there are methods that we deal with this
e.g.to stop ants from climbing onto the table immerse each leg of the table in a container of water....it really doesn't look ugly or anything if u use nice containers...this prevents the ants from climbing onto the table because they don't attempt crossing the water...
if your country has mosquitoes u had better put salt into these containers once in a while because that prevents mosquitoes from laying eggs in it.
we had this problem too and what we did was we cleaned out every nook and cranny and brushed the ants away....we did it as carefully as possible ...it might have resulted in a few ants dying but that really can't be helped sometimes...Lord Buddha has specifically said that it's ONLY if u have the INTENTION to do something that what u do will be a sin.
e.g. if a worker drops a heavy sack of cement from high up by mistake and it injures someone,that is not his fault and he has committed no sin.INTENTION is what matters.
good luck! :P lol
2007-04-30 17:32:11 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One way to at least retard the invasion would be to wipe up the scent trails they leave behind by seeing what paths they follow.
It seems to me that there would be a bit more leverage in Mahayana Buddhism than Hinayana Buddhism in this... but, eh, I always thought of the whole not killing ants as more of a Jainist thing.
Since it has become a significant problem, you might just have to bite the bullet and find the wisdom later of how to prevent such a thing from occurring. (Pine needles to close to the house or poor sealing of walls, perhaps?)
2007-04-30 17:27:25 · answer #4 · answered by Gabrielle_Wills 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I guess we all have to be practical on this issue... The intention and awareness of killing itself is the one which determines the karmic effects (eg. someone mentioned earlier about us, cannot avoid killing other beings indirectly).
Ants come about when there is food source. Perhaps you should find out where it is and get rid/cut off their supply of food source and they shall be on their way to newer sources. This usually works and you might want to give it a try. Another method as mentioned by another user is to use the vaccum cleaner method. If the queen is gone, so will the whole colony (this is one of the method used by exterminators).
Hope this helps and good luck!
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Cal_Silver, its not true... Check this out!
None of them mentions of killing the ants. Its about getting rid of them, but not literally killing them! It has been clear in the reports too, that the monks are more keen to get rid of them safely and effectively rather than anything else.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/3/12/nation/17115654&sec=nation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6441631.stm
2007-05-01 17:56:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try to spread loving kindness to ants too.
Try all the other options otherthan killing them.
I think washing the place would come next as it would not harm them very much.
If the problem is not solved ,then it 's your decision to hiring an exterminator, etc.OR NOT.
2007-05-01 16:59:35 · answer #6 · answered by Shehan 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a temple in penang, malaysia faced the exact same problem! a pest-control company sponsored all the extermination fees
the monks there said that it's okay that OTHER people are killing the ants
2007-05-02 03:28:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please swept them out and do not drop anything editable on the floor. You may drop some ant-killer chemical around the door to keep them out if you like - but I do not recommend it.
Defensive stand is the only thing you can do: swept them out again and again - keep all food in refrigerator and have some food for them outside of the house.
2007-05-01 09:00:49 · answer #8 · answered by holyfire 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What about the dust mites that live in your pillow? You kill them all the time.. Or any microscopic creatures for that matter... You have to let go of the guilt of killing things at some point. It is how nature works, and you can't start saying you don't kill anything, because at what point do you draw the line??
2007-04-30 17:27:24 · answer #9 · answered by Frank 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
hire an enlightened exterminator... ants are not high enough on the scale of biology to warrant your overly zealous thinking .so just don't put the exterminator out of business he probably has a family to support by providing his service and I consider myself the the buddhist of the future; enlightenment can catch up later.
2007-04-30 17:27:44 · answer #10 · answered by dogpatch USA 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋