I Hate Ants

As a Pacific Northwesterner, I can’t stand ants. From the minute I closed on my first home and began to try to enjoy the spring weather from my back porch, I was plagued by those little devils. Finding their trails in the backyard, occasional mound of dirt in the driveway, watching how they picked at the old paint on my house were all annoying attempts at attracting attention. Not to mention the fact that you could never take them for granted as an enemy—no matter what you had done to eliminate them—they always seemed to come back with a brand-new attitude that made it your responsibility to eliminate them again.

I Hate Ants

The month of July has been ant month around our house. We’ve had so much rain that ants decided to move indoors with us. They find our kitchen to be particularly delightful, especially around my sink and on my kitchen counters. Nothing seems to deter them either. Yes, I can kill them, but within minutes, there are more to replace them. The tiny members of the ant army come and go, happily collecting any little morsel they can find. No matter how clean I keep my kitchen, these ants are everywhere. They only come when we have heavy rains and they are gone a few days after the rains stop. But before they gather their last minuscule bits of treasure, I just want to throw a stick of dynamite in my kitchen and run—blast them all to smithereens.

While I may feel like hating the little boogers, there is something to be admired about their perseverance, diligence, tenacity, and audacity. Yes, these wee insects are praiseworthy. They have so much to teach us. They are great influencers, if we let them be.

What can we learn from the ants?

1. They somehow seem to know that there will be days ahead when they might not be able to find enough food. So in preparation for that, they store up. Proverbs 30:25 says: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer.
2. They do not give up. No matter what trap you set or spray you spray, they keep coming. They are goal-oriented and will press on as if their lives depend upon it. Actually, they do!
3. They look for the greater good. They take back to the nest anything they find that they deem worthy for the queen. No matter how tired they may get from going back and forth and back and forth, they keep going.
4. They are quiet workers, never complaining. They are selfless.
5. They don’t argue with each other. In fact, they work quite well as a team. They politely step around each other and don’t block each other’s way or prevent a teammate from reaching his goal.

Proverbs 6:6-8 says: Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

So why do we hate them so much? Yes, they do make our skin crawl and they can make a mess of our picnics. But they are very useful in nature. They clean up messes that otherwise would sit around and pollute our world. Ants teach us a lot about working together as a team, getting along with each other, working for the greater good, and not complaining about things that have no eternal value. Ants show us how to put our own desires aside for the desires of a greater being—God. They teach us to work honorably and to never stop until we’re prepared for what may come. If ants were readers, I bet they’d have the whole Bible memorized in no time. Ants are great role models.

To start your new school year off right, watch the ants. Consider getting an ant farm and making it a family project to learn from them. Let them teach you about preparation, teamwork, and perseverance.

I Hate Ants

How to get rid of ants naturally

 

There are many ways to get rid of ants in your home. Ants are not only annoying, but they can carry germs and disease-causing bacteria. They are also a nuisance when they come into your home and start eating all of your food.

Before you start using any type of chemical or poison, you should try to use a natural method first. You can make an ant trap by mixing equal parts sugar and borax. You will want to mix the ingredients with a fork until they are well blended together. Then take a small container with a lid on it and pour the mixture into it. Use something that has holes in it so that you can put it outside near where the ants are coming from. You will want to place this near where there are trails going into your house so that they can find their way inside easily enough once again. This will help keep them from coming back into your home again when they find out that there isn’t any food for them here anymore after eating all of these traps up!

List Of I Hate Ants