Re ants, they are quite at home in my home, and hundreds of them gathered for a Memorial Day picnic under the bathmat hanging on the tub. What a shocker when I removed the mat to take a bath!

I use an orange (as in “citrus,” not Agent Orange) spray (not the flurocarbon type) that is supposed to be harmless to people, pets, etc. It’s available at Ace Hardware.

I have to be vigilant because it doesn’t permanently eradicate them. I have scouts looking for them while I’m away. But it’s better than the toxic stuff.

Borax traps worked for you, eh? I think perhaps my ants can read or have experience with similar. Factory farming is a real nightmare - for so many reasons. Even on the most basic level, that of healthy nutrition, the factory farms in the U.S. fail our schoolchildren who are forced to eat the most contaminated meats in their lunch programs (even in 2007!). Here’s for hoping the push toward sustainable food production only increases.

Maybe it’s the dreaded speciesism I’ve heard so much of, but the suffering of one or two ant colonies seems to pale in comparison to the suffering of animals in factory farming.