In my hotel in Thailand, there is a line of tiny ants. I don’t know how they get in. They crawl across my wall under the T.V. screen that I never use. They are about the size if two pencil dots, side by side. They crawl on to the shelving unit where I keep a plastic Melita filter cone, paper filters, a half-pound of Peets ground Alma de la Tiera beans from home, a tube of honey from the market, and a hot pot, that was so cheap I will leave it when I depart. Then, they crawl on top of the small refrigerator where I have placed a bunch of tiny, sweet bananas, a mango, and three tangerines.
The ants crawl night and day and since I have been here, there must have been thousands, of ants that have completed this journey. I can’t spill a drop of honey, or hundreds of ants will swarm there. One day, I placed two spoons of sugar from downstairs in a teacup, and in a few minutes the cup was filled with ants. No wonder they keep the sugar covered here.
Across the street is a sign that says ANT DELIVERY. What is that? Who wants ants? Is it some kind of extermination service? An older woman in a wheelchair sits in the doorway. Two young men investigate the back of a pickup truck. Are they trying to figure out how to lift the woman into the truck? Maybe it is food delivery.
Two monks wearing orange robes walk barefoot to a doorway where the old woman sits. She hands them bowls of food and they chant. The monks cross the road, stop at the house next door where they accept more bowls of rice. A tuk tuk pulls up and takes the orange-robed monks away. The old woman in the wheelchair still sits her doorway.
My daughter-in-law’s name is Mod which means ant. Many indigenous cultures revere ants for their community-oriented nature and resourcefulness. Ants turn and aerate the soil, allowing water and oxygen to reach the plants roots. Ants kill termites. Termites are their favorite food. In Oregon, ants germinate Trillium plants. The Trillium seeds are covered by a sweet coating which entices the ants to carry the seeds into their underground colonies. After eating the coating, the seed germinates in the perfect subterranean environment. It then takes the Trillium, nine years after germination to flower.
At home in Oregon, after a flight that included a 12-hour layover in Doha, Qatar, the ants we have been battling all winter long, are as long as my thumbnail. Most of them are gone. Before I left, we set traps containing a mixture of sugar, water, and borax. An ant will carry some of this bait back to the colony to feed to the queen and other ants. The ants will die one by one. An ant crawls slowly on the kitchen counter. I capture it on a napkin, squish it and throw it into the trash.