Ants Test Non Violence of Buddhist Monks

I guess those ants are jealous about their bad karma.

Until they get smart and dig up the queen, they will get nowhere.

If they were Janes instead of Buddhist monks, they would politely leave the temple till (or if) the ants moved along.

Actually I had read a similar article and I believe they are considering this.

But honestly I bet that several of these monks by instinct have slapped at a couple of these suckers.

I had a terrible ant problem shortly after moving into my apartment. Each day I would try a different "deterrent", and each day their numbers increased. When I finally realized that nothing would deter them I decided to seal-up the entire apartment. It was a bit difficult because they were entering through the a/c intake filter. Anyway, it was a big job, but it worked 100%, and I didn't have to kill a single one.

When I moved into my present house thirty years ago we had a sudden infestation of roaches. We kept the kitchen sparkling clean, assuming that no crumbs, no roaches. But that didn't help. A neighbor who had had the same problem solved it by putting dry bay leaves in drawers and corners. We followed their example and havn't seen a roach for the last 30 years. It's nice to just "motivate" pests (insect and human) to voluntarily leave rather than to coerce them violently. Not all buddhist are so scrupulous and the jains are downright puristic about ahimsa.

The Orkin man told me that if you spray the little sugar ants with poison, all it does is cause the ants to split into more colonies and the infestation gets bigger. He explained it better than that, but my photographic memory is out of film.

I remember reading a travel book by a young former hippy who had wandered from temple to temple in India. He said that frequently the Western acolates were drafted for jobs in which insects might be killed.

Personally, I'm very tolerant of insects outside, but when they come into the house in groups of more than three, I get territorial.

Me too, Noddy. As with the definition of "dirt": misplaced matter. I like it outside but not inside.

I had my first cockroach of the year a few days ago. We had a battle in the sink, me literally pushing him or her down the drain. Gag city, me with a certain amount of adrenalin at work.

I have a long ago history with them in my first apartment, back in '67. Left that apartment because of them. Didn't see a one for decades.

So, 40 years later, here I am where they are endemic. I gather they live in the community drains, at the least. I suppose they are in all our walls. No, I can't afford exterminators.

Bay leaves, on the other hand, I've used in cupboards before, for bugs in flour et al, although there is a certain shelf life for the bay leaf. In my experience, they've worked for a bit. Too bad I just left a house where I planted four 15 gallon bay trees (Laurus nobilis 'saratoga'), and too bad I didn't strip them as I left (kidding). Eucalyptus can work on a lot too, but no matter as there are no eucs in new mexico.

Lordie, those roaches creep me out.

Most people wear slippers in winter. Here, it's a must for summer.

Red ants deserve to be left alone, to do as they will.
And so do a few ant-eaters, strategically placed.

Karma is a dirty business, so get some other species to take the blame for you.



Or use the "flies at the picnic" trick: Open a can of stinky tuna and place it about fifty feet away. All the bugs go there, and leave you alone.

Twenty other ideas are at www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html

I personally find this hilarious. I mean, sure, it's part of their innermost beliefs, but really I think violence is neccessary, if others display violence towards you. Besides, humans evolutionarily had to at least be tolerant towards violence in gathering food.

Why does anyone think it is necessary to kill something that is no real threat?

Biting, poisonous ants constitute "no threat"?

Ants pose "no real threat" to any person's life, yet many people feel justified in killing them.

Texas fire ants have been known to kill. In one instance, an abandoned baby, left on the side of the road.

You got me there, edgar.

Years ago I, and many other hapless people doing 'PT' in the grass at Ft Leonard Wood MO got painful, swollen bites from some of the fireants there. Does it make me a thoughtless person or something, that I would have killed any fireant I saw?

I have thought about this whole thing about what I'd be more willing to kill. Things I could personify with any human-like personality traits, I would have a harder time killing. Like any mammals or other beings that have a face and can express pain in a way I can understand. I can swat a thousand moths, but can't just stomp on a gecko.

On my job I often have to set traps for mice and rats. For a time, I used the sticky traps. But, carring those terrified little animals out and then having to squash them became more than I could bear. I still have to trap them, but now I use the old fashioned traps that kill them on the spot. It's actually more humane.