"Mommy, I don't like the smell. Let's go away from here."
I look at my darling 7 year old daughter wrinkling her nose. "We'll be out of it quickly," I reply. We are at a home improvement super store. I need a hose-related part, and the hoses are on the same aisle as the garden pesticides. Although they are all kept in sealed bottles and boxes, a strange smell always permeates the air where they are, like a haze of slow death. I hope that I am not affecting our health adversely.
A couple of weeks prior I was in the same aisle, that day looking for a freshwater hose -- one that won't give me water laden with a small dose of lead and other toxic chemicals. I overheard a gentleman speaking with a superstore employee. He was seeking a resolution for the ants invading his home. The employee was pointing out an assortment of poisons. I felt umbrage -- yet one more example of corporate American pushing us to toxify our lives and surroundings. I spoke out of turn: "Yes, you can, but when you put poison around your home, you're also poisoning yourself."
Minutes later, the employee had left the aisle, however the gentleman and I were discussing his ant problem, and I was offering my minimally toxic ways of dealing with them. (For some reason, during the hot Phoenix summer ants have a propensity for invading humans dwellings.) He was concerned about poison both inside and outside the home, concerned about how it might affect his dog, especially. Follow their trails, I advised, find where they are coming in and seal them up. You may have to do it more than once, sometimes they will dig through the sealant. Vacuum them up. Wipe away their trails inside with white vinegar. Pour vinegar on them and on their homes outside - they don't like vinegar. If that is not sufficient, you can spot treat areas with pyrethrin which is a natural poison derived from the African pyrethrum daisy. It is toxic, but it will break down after a few days. I helped him look for a pesticide treatment on the shelf that had nothing toxic in it besides pyrethrin - and found one.
Why is it so hard to understand? When we manufacture poisons, we are ultimately only serving death to ourselves, our children, our pets, our environment.