Gnat-tural Instinct

Little L was having a hankering for lemonade with real mint leaves the other day, so on my way home from work I popped into the local grocer's and picked up a mint plant, thinking I was a smarty pants because now I'd have fresh mint leaves to use, and I would save money in the long run (the plant being just a couple of dollars, and *less* than the cost of a plastic container of mint leaves). 

Well, the weird browning leaves should have been my first clue, but I'm stubborn and willfully ignorant sometimes, so I bought the plant anyway.  What's a few bucks if I have to toss it down the road? 

And then they came.

Fungus gnats.  Little fruit fly-esque pests that lay eggs in damp mint topsoil, and like to hang around our window sill, and hover near food that Little L hasn't finish eating.  Dozens of them.  Small, annoying, ugly little critters that seemed to be endless in number.

I had to start setting up vinegar traps (apple cider vinegar and dish soap) along the window sill, with hopes that my DIY solution would end them all.  In those first few days, I was changing the trap every other day, and catching a good dozen victims at a time.  When my patience wore thin, I got rid of the mint plant altogether, and hoped that the gnats would just bugger off.   No such luck.  We are a couple of days into plant-free living now, and my newest trap is still catching gnats, albeit in fewer numbers than previously.

Sometimes I watch with anticipation for the gnats to succumb to the trap, but often, I see them perched on the rim of the glass, or nearby on the window pane.  They are motionless in these positions for a good long while, neither escaping from the area nor diving into the golden-hued, aromatic liquid death in the glass.  I'm not sure why they perch, and why they don't just dive in and join their more impulsive counterparts.  I do know that the vinegar smell attracts them, and instinctively they like to be nearby to the scent.  

It takes a lot for these fungus gnats to resist their baser instincts, which would be to just dive-bomb into the inviting vinegar.  We probably could take a page from their playbook, because how often do we dive headfirst into something because our baser instincts, our hedonism or "need" or craving, compels us to choose immediate gratification over caution?  The gnats that "went for it" drowned because of their appetites, whereas the ones that perched near the glass but didn't enter in have been spared (for now, anyway, because you know I'll always win this battle!).  

Maybe there's something in my life that I need to be more cautious about, or something in your life that warrants a bit more deliberation before a decision is made and actions are taken.  Sometimes actions have consequences that cannot be undone, like a drowned gnat that cannot be resuscitated.  While I hate these hideous little bugs and I do hope that every last one of them dies in my trap, I do appreciate that their behaviour serves as a reminder for me to "look before I leap," and think before I act.  

And next time, I'm not buying the flipping mint plant just to save a few bucks.