I've tried just about everything, with limited success. I've had the best luck with a homemade solution of boric acid and sugar, with just enough water to make it liquid. You need to keep this away from children and pets.

I have also read (in my Organic Gardening magazine) that sprinkling cinnamon on the ants' nest will encourage them to move away. Good luck finding that nest!

We always used to poison with wild abandon, but now we have The Kitty. So kitchen poisoning was out and the ants were taking over. However; when my son dug up the front garden and discovered an entire country of ants, we poisened next to the house with outdoor stuff with wild abandon. Also used traps inside and the combo seems to have worked...so far anyway. If you are morally or ecologically opossed to using the big guns (ant killer) I don't know what you can do.

I've had good luck with Terro, which is pretty much the commercial version of what Dahlink mixes up.

We've always had luck with tansy. it's a natural repellant and we've grwon it for years. We just line outside window sills and doors in the back and the ants don't cross over it.

We recently moved our kitty's food to a garden window in our kitchen. The ants moved in immediately. Solution? Place kitty's food bowl in a wider, shallow bowl with about a half inch of water. No more ants!

We have used various combination of eco friendly and straight poison of the several years I've lived in the city.

Our first line of defense is to proactively set out some poison traps around teh exterior of the house. When that fails, we use cinnamon as a barrier to block teh ants (it over powers their own scent trail they use to navigate around) and then apply cornmeal around the perimeter of the house. We have also used borax in past years but the corm meal works just as well and is less toxic to any animals tht are exposed to it.

If your refrigerator, and the rest of your kitchen, were as empty as Gailor's, the ants would surely bypass your house.

I just moved to a new house and immediately noticed the ants in the kitchen and basement. I didn't want to use poison because of the cats in my house. I followed the ant trail back to an entrance in our floor molding. I filled in the entrance with caulk. I also tracked an entrance for the ants to the exterior wall and filled that in with caulk. Now, no more ants! I recommend avoiding poison at all costs.

Grants Kills Ants. This was recommended to me by the people at Valley View Farms. Works like nothing else.

Place a few drops of mint (any kind) essential oil in a spray can of water and spray cabinets. Your kitchen may smell like mint - - but the ants will stay away.

Cinnamon actually kills them. You sprinkle it on them, they roll around and cannot do anything. Amusing to watch once you're frustrated with them.

I use Raid spray outside along all entrances. I have a dog, but my friend who is a vet, said that using it that way is ok around pets. (The chances of them getting it on paws, when sprayed along one inch strip under door, is slim. I just make sure he is inside with door closed when spraying.)

Ants?
I'm still trying to be aware of catfish and you dump ants in the Sandbox?

How about little tiny spiders? They seem to be the bug du jour down here. Will any of these remedies mentioned kill them too? I'm not above using chemicals to get them either.

The tiny ants down here are fierce and to be reckoned with! Fire ants are very hard to banish and they hurt when they bite.

wasn't aware of tiny spiders or fire ants in my trips to Fl but, Rob, how 'bout those flying roaches? (Palmetto Bugs)...

We have an annual ant problem in our condo. Not a huge ant problem, but enough to be annoying. Ant bait traps proved useless (plus the dog liked to chew on them; a bit problematic). Searching the internet it saw references to chalk, diatomaceous earth, lavender oil, and other similar items. In the baby product aisle of my favorite big box store I found some baby powder with real lavender. I bought some and sprinkled it around the perimeter of the kitchen, and anywhere else the ants seemed to use as a trail. The next day, no more ants. Guess they don't like to cross the powder line. After a week or two with no ants I thought it would be safe to clean up the powder. Next day the ants were back. To get rid of the ants while not having baby powder everywhere I sprinkled the powder on the baseboards and then used a cloth to work the powder into the nooks and crannies. Haven't had any ants since and don't have to worry about powder everywhere. Plus the lavender in the powder has a nice scent (goes away after the first day or so).

While we're discussing all things buggy, I should mention that I've seen a few cicadas. Do you suppose these are fellows who overslept the 2004 17-year wake up call?

We first experienced the 17-year cicadas when our younger son was a toddler. What grossed out our boys the most was the fact that our neighbors didn't have to buy dog food for a month. Slurp!

pjb mentioned using chalk. A number of years ago, we had the tiny ants coming in around where our windows (didn't) seal completely. We placed some chalk lines across their pathways and they would not cross it. Took a while, but thyey finally gave up or died a seasonal death.

Dahlink: there are cicada's that are not 17- year cicadas. That is what you saw.
I wish however, that there was only the 17-year version. They are all disgusting! Actually, I wish there weren't even the 17-year variety, but I guess they are important to the food chain. And since this is a food blog, we have to respect the food chain.

Susan WNAJ--yes, I knew that not all cicadas operate on the same biological clock. One thing we noticed last go-round with the 17-year variety is that the birds all seemed fat and happy and the garden flourished--perhaps all those spent bodies are a natural fertilizer!

Joyce,
We don't seem to have many palmetto bugs up here. There are some now and then, but not like it is in Tampa and other places in South FL.
Our next bug season will be the "love bugs", then it will be butterflies. We get millions of them it seems, mostly red and silver ones.

Susan, we don't have to respect the food chain, we have to eat the food chain.

Although, personally, I do draw the line at insects, even if they are supposed to be delicious, a source of high quality protein and all.

The "June Bugs" we hear chirring away right now are cicadas, but not the 17-year variety. I love that sound...it's one of the essences of summer, right up there with the ozone smell that accompanies a thumpin' good thunderstorm.

Interesting. Are we all getting the annual ant invasion at the same time? What's with that? It just happened to me last week out of nowhere.

Not sure why I'm getting the invasion of ants, since I don't have any food. I didn't have any bait things handy (which usually work) so I sprayed Raid where they were coming in as a temporary measure. A couple days later, they were coming in one inch over from where I sprayed, though mostly lone explorer ants, whom I hope will realize there is nothing here for them.

Thanks to EL for this topic and to everyone for all the suggestions, I will try several of them.

We all getting the annual ant invasion at the same time ... What makes you think the ants don't have their own blog used for planning?

Fl Rob, I've never been to PCB but will have to try it some winter. This year seems to be St Augustine though because 16 y.o. is eyeing Flagler College (because it's in St. Augustine I suspect). I'm always up to try out a new beach! BTW, anybody been to St. Augustine and know of any really great restaurants, diners, dives?

This thread reminds me of a fellow we met years ago who was getting his Ph. D. in underwater geology or some such thing. He and his wife spent a year on a tropical island for his research. I was wondering how we could swing such a sweet deal when his wife told us that the bugs were so big that they kept her awake at night because she could hear them walking around the kitchen! Never mind!

Joyce,
If you visit in the winter, you might want to leave the swimsuit at home. It gets rather cool here in the winter, some mornings its in the 20s! But it warms up to the 50s/60s pretty quick.

Thank God I don't have ants but my parents are plagued with them. I will have to recommend some of the safer, kitty-friendly options on here. Thanks!

Gotta support the diatomaceous earth comment. It will kill the ants and if you eat it it has health bennies too!