Ants are fine, Saoutchik IF they are outside. Mine are crawling all over the floors in the house. I hate them. And they can be destructive. I found them nesting behind a tile in the bathroom, chewing out the mortar. They also created a nest, burrowing in the wooden framing on a window in my son's room. Since that was only discovered when the window was replaced anyway, not much harm there but a wake up call.
I could travel for tamarind paste. I could also check one of the Mexican grocery stores near me. There is tamarindo in a lot of Mexican recipes. My usual grocery store only has the very, very basics in ethnic cooking.
Gilmer, I hate ants too.