Sure, they're kinda cute, but here's some help for preventing unwanted guests:
- A designated area for eating should be kept to avoid eating going on anywhere and everywhere in the house. The eating place should be cleaned up immediately after eating.
- The entire kitchen and all eating utensils should immediately be cleansed after a meal. Sweep the floor after every cooking session and at the eating place.
- The entire kitchen should be thoroughly cleaned at every week. This means wiping down cabinet doors and walls for spills, sweeping under large appliances and tidying up wherever needed.
- Ideally, garbage should be taken out of the house every night and a tight lid kept on it during the day.
- Ideally, clothes should be washed as soon as they are removed. Otherwise, dirty laundry must not be left lying around but should be kept in a basket ready for washing as soon as possible. If the clothes must be left over night, at least put them in the washer and close the lid unless there is a hamper with a lid on it.
- Bedding should be kept clean and fresh by changing it regularly.
- The bathroom is best cleaned every day.
- Floors are also best washed daily, especially in the kitchen and eating area. A good cleanser to use besides hot water, is one that has neem or eucalyptus added to it.
- Clutter should be kept to a bare minimum so that unwanted pests have no place to live.
- Any cracks or holes around the house should be filled.
- Dripping faucets should be repaired to dry up their water supply.
- A little soap poured into toilets at night makes the water undrinkable.
- The sink and shower should be kept dry and the toilet lid closed
- House plants should not be overwatered, creating a soupy cocktail for pests.
- Holes where pipes disappear into walls can be filled with steel wool or caulk.
- Sink plugs kept over drains are another preventive.
Ants and other creatures are also residents of the dhama, so the killing of them is best avoided as far as possible. When there's the will, there's always a way. For example, so not to attract ants in the first place, flour should be wiped off a counter top, right away after cooking . If they are already there, a dry towel can be used rather than a wet dish cloth, so as to sweep them to safety. If they get into the suji, they may be sifted out through a sieve and the suji kept more carefully so they cannot get in. Grains can be refrigerated or kept on a surface surrounded by water.
Better than that is to alert the landlord. He can hire an exterminator and the karma goes where it best belongs.
TRUE STORY/ AHIMSA HOUSEKEEPING
A couple times during the winter season, I had a mouse or two in the house. Instead of killing them, I kept the house spotless. I'd see one now and then searching for something to eat, but as soon as spring arrived, they promptly left.
I've lived in places with no screens on the windows. Practicing superior kitchen cleanliness with the windows opened, I'd notice a fly or two come in occasionally, fly around a bit and then simply fly back out the window!
Once there was a serious infestation in the apartment building I was staying at. A neighbor moved out and many roaches moved downstairs where we lived. I practice utmost cleanliness and various methods to remove the bugs without killing them. But eventually I had to call an exterminator come to do his job once I realized the enormity of the situation. He started spraying in my place and then went upstairs. Later, when he was about to leave, he said at first he thought there really was not an infestation because he started with our quarters first, but after he went upstairs he was shocked by hundreds of roaches behind a refrigerator up there alone, what to speak of what he found in the rest of the areas he sprayed afterwards. The neighbors also said it was so bad they could not find a spot to walk on the floors at night if they had to go to the kitchen for some reason.
Once there was a serious infestation in the apartment building I was staying at. A neighbor moved out and many roaches moved downstairs where we lived. Unaware of the move, I practiced utmost cleanliness and various methods to remove the bugs without killing them. But it wasn't until I visited the neighbors upstairs and heard them complain that it was so bad at their place that they could not find a spot to walk on their kitchen floor at night that I realized the enormity of the situation. So I had to call the landlord to call an exterminator to come and do his job. He started spraying in my place and then went upstairs. Later, when he was about to leave, he said at first he thought there really was not an infestation because he started with our quarters first, but after he went upstairs he was shocked by hundreds of roaches behind a refrigerator up there alone, what to speak of what he found in the rest of the building.
Actually this happened to us twice, and each time I'm getting smarter, but the last time it was the neighbors moving out from downstairs and the roaches migrated upstairs. And the exterminator gave the same kind of report.