I am well aware that each thing in the world was created by Hashem for a purpose and a reason. I can appreciate that idea most of the time. However, when every time I opened my pantry door over a period of weeks I would see this little “beautiful” thing fly out, I cannot say that I was enamored by it. “Kal v’chomer,” as my husband would say; it disgusted me more and more each time that it happened. I did some research on this wonderful species of nature and found out that it is called a “pantry moth.” There are other names as well. I purchased some apparatus that was to be put into my pantry to kill them.

Then the crunch came. The famous Shabbat when I took out a container of candied pecans and noticed that there were what looked like webs inside the container. Thankfully this was prior to my adding them to our Shabbat salad. I had already transferred most things that were in bags in my pantry into containers. I called over my granddaughter who was visiting for Shabbat to see this weird webbing, and she started to scream as she noted there were green worms literally crawling inside the container.

That was it for me. I actually felt nauseated and began to cry. (Do not make fun of me.)

At that point I decided that it was time to have an exterminator visit my kitchen. The lovely man from Primo Exterminating tried to make me feel better by explaining that this is a common occurrence because these disgusting “beautiful” insects came from a bag of something that I had purchased in a store. Beware, everyone. There is really no way to prevent this from happening. I threw out hundreds of dollars of food because the idea that I might still have one of those things in my pantry was too nauseating to deal with. Everything now has a place in its own container. Consumer beware!

I thought about why these little creatures are so unappealing to me and probably to most others. It is not uncommon to have ants at some point in one’s house. I for one am extremely upset if I see any around. My special husband, on the other hand, tries patiently to explain to me why it really isn’t so terrible. Yes it is. I do not want them in here! What do we do if we see a mosquito on our wall? Even more disturbing is sleeping and hearing it buzzing in one’s ear. Immediately my inclination would be to find it and kill it. Let’s not even go to bees and wasps, silverfish and roaches. For anyone who has lived in the Heights, they well know what I am talking about.

I went to my No. 1 consultant on such subjects to try to get some answers as to why Hashem created what, to us, are pure pests. Despite a diagnosis of vascular dementia he is well able to discuss such topics with me easily, and he said that each insect has a reason but not necessarily one that we understand. He said the fact that we do not like them does not mean that we should not be compassionate to them because they were put on this earth—as we were—for a purpose. Ants, for instance, as he explained, have jobs which we may not understand.

In general people like birds because many are beautiful; they are fascinating to watch and read about; and they eat specific insects such as worms. Yet they can also be terribly destructive and vicious. I remember as a child in our apartment on the fifth floor, there was a nest of sparrows on our fire escape with tiny hatchlings yelping away. Suddenly a blue jay swooped in and grabbed a baby in its beak and flew away with it. It was horrifying to watch and we could actually hear the shrieks of the baby.

That being said, after listening to his positivity and total faith in Hashem’s creations, he convinced me that each one of Hashem’s creations has a place, but as I explained to him, I would prefer for their place to be in another house. I have had enough!

Nina Glick lives in Bergenfield with her husband, Rabbi Mordechai Glick, after many years of service to the Montreal Jewish community. Nina coordinated all Yachad activities in Montreal and was a co/founder of Maison Shalom, a group home for special needs young adults. She can be reached at [email protected].