How to Protect Potion Ingredients

I had a lovely July 4th by being out-of town, staying on a farm in the near hills and collecting herbs. I ended up with a good number of resinous herbs, especially, and St. John's Wort. My plan is to make infused oils to capture those incredible scents!

Before putting herbs in oil, however, they must first be wilted or dried to keep water from turning the oil rancid. I put my herbs all over the floor of the auxiliary room in my loft, not having time to prep either tinctures or oils when I returned.

A couple days later, the sugar ants found them!

Our house has a serious problem with sugar ants. I realized I had to, a) go on a freakout ant squashing spree, which I hate doing, and b) get the herbs off the floor to dry.

Slytherin ingenuity to the rescue!

The solution was pretty easy. I hung a running clothesline across the auxiliary room ceiling, then placed a few herbs in each one of several grocery bags. For some wisteria and Confederate jasmine I gathered that night, I rigged up a hanging open pan. I made sure none of the hanging items touched. Finally, I dressed the clothesline with stinky organic bug repellent --- those ants hate that stuff.

Why the fuss? I wasn't afraid of the ants eating up my herbs. Mostly, they were hiding under the bags on which the herbs lay drying, and probably munching harmlessly on aphid-urine to boot. No, it's more that, once drawn to my room, those ants tend to find their way into everything else --- water bottles, potions, fig newtons . . . Gahh!!!

As James Potter says of Snape, "It's more the fact he exists, if you know what I mean. . . ."

Well, James, a lot of us would say the same about you, actually. We'd rather fuck Snape, and don't mind his greasy hair and curses.

I know where the ants live, in a nest under the backyard paving stones, but I don't plan to poison them. I just want to ward them from my space. After all, various tyrants have shown us how ineffective plans for total genocidal annihilation tends to be in the end, anyway. Let the ants be ants . . . where they belong.