Photo by Hannah Armstrong.
With great irony, in the middle of writing this essay decrying the use of insecticides, an Orkin truck turned into my driveway. And yes, he did have the correct address … I intentionally sought these services. Such a move is so far out of my realm that I find it necessary to confess. And while I am at it, let me admit that this is actually Orkin’s third (and final) visit to my home.
Let me explain how we arrived at this juncture. My cottage is old, largely untouched since it was built by “some hippies from Old Tunica Road” in 1978, back in the days before permitting out here in the country. Nothing is to code, the building materials are mismatched, very few of the windows close entirely, and there are one-inch gaps beneath each door. When I bought it from Mrs. Peggy, she said with a chuckle that everything in the house was what they could find in the discount section. This was their magical weekend getaway; things did not need to make sense here.
Insert such a dwelling into six acres of woods and the extensive gardens we have since created, and you have an incredible recipe for bug action. I grew up in places even more rural than this, and am used to a lifetime of houses infested with roaches and spiders. But this year challenged me in altogether new ways: ants.
Ant infestations are nothing new in our cottage, especially in the warm seasons. But this year, there was no stopping them. Ant mounds were appearing in my trash can each day. No matter how many we removed, there were more, returning with seemingly double the troops. In fact, it was incredible to witness. Humans could never be so productive and physical. No level of diatomaceous earth, essential oils, or sticky ant traps would diminish the swarm, and now my child was being assaulted. Each morning, I’d wake to my son covered in bites, literally head to toe. They discovered his bedroom and marched in straight trails, a perfect ninety degree angle where his bed met the wall corner. In defeat, I decided to call the “bug guys.”
And friend, let me tell you: it was successful. Their treatment worked its lethal magic on nearly every living member of the insect order that dared to crawl under my doors. After two visits, there was no ant in sight, and any roach found was already dead. The spiders prevail, but they have a way of claiming the farthest-to-reach corners, which I can only admire.
My experience with the three young “bug people” was kind of lovely, actually. All were entranced by my garden. They taught me new things about ants—one vital tidbit being not to squash them. In doing so, you release pheromones that then signal for even more ants to come. Previously, “squashing ants” had been my primary mode of defense.
"Protecting the insects in my garden is important to me—in fact, my opposition to insecticides, and pesticides as a whole, is perhaps the most fundamental part of my work in sustainable gardening."
In conversing with the bug people, I inquired about the exact compounds being sprayed, begged them to wear more protection, and tried to convince them I’m really not the Orkin damsel type. They, it seemed, were confused by me, and continuously reassured that the chemicals would not harm my child, dog, or the insects in my garden.
Yes, protecting the insects in my garden is important to me—in fact, my opposition to insecticides, and pesticides as a whole, is perhaps the most fundamental part of my work in sustainable gardening.
“Pesticide” is an umbrella term for any material aimed to reduce or eliminate a pest organism. Types of pesticides include herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and insecticides. An even broader term, encompassing all of these, is “Biocides.” Biocides are defined as “substances that destroy or inhibit the growth or activity of living organisms.” Biocides take life.
There are dark histories behind the chemicals we use in our garden and keep in our sheds. The first generation of synthetic biocides were toxic byproducts from the mining industry, the second were repurposed waste from the creation of weapons and fuel during World War I, “The Chemists’ War.” One compound that was first (and still is) used to treat insect “problems” on citrus is the same used by the Nazis within their gas chambers: hydrogen cyanide. That is just one example of how powerful, and toxic, these chemicals are. On the back of every brilliantly marketed bottle or box of pesticides are carefully chosen words aimed to assure the consumer that said product will eliminate their “problem” (whether that be a weed, insect, fungi, or critter).
More to the heart of the matter than concern about chemicals is the way modern gardening culture has evolved into endless, and often excessive, efforts to control, whipping nature into shape, exactly the way we would have it.
But we are not separate from the natural world. No action we take affects us alone, especially within our gardens—which are not only frequented by us humans, but also by an intricate, and delicate, ecosystem of organisms. And even when we can’t see it, our actions can totally disrupt that ecosystem. Our gardens, as extensions of nature, are highways of life, with millions of living organisms bustling around bumper to bumper. With every action we take in the garden, all life is affected … the insects, the birds, and us humans, too. We have the immediate power for those actions to be acts that foster life, or death.
My recent personal endeavor with the bug guys has relieved my son and I of much skin irritation, but has left me conflicted. Life got in the way of my belief system, and I have been a bit at odds about how to reckon with it. Why is there not more education on the effects of synthetic insecticides and regulation of their use? Should these products even exist? Who should be given the responsibility to decide when to use them?
These questions are big, and more than I prefer to tackle alone. The holistic perspective I hold of the natural world is crucial to my gardening practice. And I would love to use this platform to help you, reader, better understand the symbiotic relationship that insects have with the other elements of your garden and why simply spraying them away can cause more harm than good. Stay tuned for next month's "Our Sustainable Garden" column, which will close out the year with resources for those reaching for more sustainable alternatives to synthetic pesticides in the garden.
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