wicker chairs

When Philip and I got married, we were very very blessed to receive many free furniture items. Our big arm chair , the couch, washer and dryer, and our dining room table and chairs. The chairs for the table however are wicker. At first this didn't really bother me. I didn't really like how they looked, but they were functional and free!! Now that we have Orion, things have changed.
Have you ever tried to clean spilled pudding off of a wicker chair? It kinda wipes up, but a lot of it goes in between the little cracks. So then you have to go get a knife and try to clean out the cracks. And it isn't just pudding that causes problems. Anything that causes crumbs, or can be spilt, pretty much doesn't work. This summer, we had an awful ant problem. It took us a while to figure out why. It wasn't until Phil dropped one of the chairs and noticed a whole bunch of ants fall out, that I realized where they were getting their food. Eww GROSS I was sitting on that!!! We finally got rid of the ants, and I am much better about putting our chairs in the shower. But (and here is the reason for this very random post) what can I do to make my everyday clean up of these evil chairs easier? (And I need a "this will cost less then $10" option!)