Ugh! Ants! Please Help...

go to dollar general (or any dollar store you can find that carries it) ... buy a spray bottle and the quart size refill (if you think you'll need that much) of La Awesome Orange. Use that to clean everything ... voila ... no ants.

Had an entomologist tell me to use that to get rid of them ... worked like a charm. And I lived in the ant capital of the US ... that sand dune known as California LOL

Terro works great. Just put them where the pets and kid can't get them and seal up all the sugar and other yummy food.
They love honey too.

Terro liquid ant drops. For those suggesting boric acid, the Terro drops are a boric acid and sugar mixture. Just buy the Terro and you don't have to fool around making the mixture yourself and it will be safer for your family. I put the drops up on the counter, in a corner away from kids and pets, but boric acid is pretty safe in the small amounts used for this that even if they got into it they would be fine. Just keep the bottle of bait stored away safely. I've only used the drops, not the traps. They'll be gone in a couple days.

I found that the Terro spider spray worked the best.
I spray it across every door and window opening - along the bottoms and about 1/4 of the way up the sides.
No more ants.
Good luck! Ants are just gross!
LBC

I know this won't be a popular answer, but what I do is feed them. They are in your house looking for food. That's why they're in your cupboards. If they have food outside, they won't come inside. I swear this works. They like fatty foods the best. Wet pet food is a sure thing. I do this every year because I don't want them in my house, but I also believe that every creature values it's life and has a right to it, and just because I'm human doesn't give me the right to sentence them to die because I think they're gross.

diotomaceous earth. sprinkle it (okay, i make little piles) near the entrance. the diatoms, the actual tiny particles of the dirt, have tiny tiny sharp edges (don't put your face close enough to the bag to breathe them in!) and they actually cut into the ants' carapaces. unfortunately it doesn't work for all bugs. stinkbugs just laugh at it. but it is surprisingly effective for ants.
tansy is also a reasonably good and safe ant-discourager. it's not a pretty herb, but i always grow some in my herb garden every summer to make insect repellent. just make 'tansy tea' and put it in a spray bottle. i add citronella, rosemary and lavender. it's not a miracle cure, but it does have a noticeable aversion reaction in most insects.
good luck!
khairete
S.

My grandmother swears by liquid borax on a small cardboard square, but the gardener in me would recommend you go with the diatomaceous earth.

Nothing helps. They'll walk through cinnamon, pepper, any ingredient you put out.

I swear by the ant traps that have the word terra on them. We get them at Lowes and/or Walmart. The ants are attracted to the clean fluid inside then they crawl inside and get covered in it. They go back to the nest and then spread it to the other ants. It takes time but they eventually go away.

And truthfully they'll be gone before any action makes a difference. They only last a week or two.

My brother had a major ant problem and found that putting down a barrier line of ground cinnamon on the floor worked pretty well. That was my experience too--it did seem to keep them out. However, since yours are already inside your place, that might not deal with the ones who are already inside the kitchen. For them, you're probably going to need the boric acid spray or tansy tea. Good luck!

Block the entry way with salt... Regular Morton table salt or cinnamon. Ants hate it and will not cross. I lined my window sills and door entrances with it and found this actually works! Wash the path they crawled toward cabinets etc. with vinegar water. Good luck - I hope this helps.

Updated

Block the entry way with salt... Regular Morton table salt or cinnamon. Ants hate it and will not cross. I lined my window sills and door entrances with it and found this actually works! Wash the path they crawled toward cabinets etc. with vinegar water. Good luck - I hope this helps.

I use homemade ant killer with borax mixed with sugar and water. If that doesn't work (and it sometimes doesn't) then I use Terro. Terro works every time!

Liberally sprinkle ground cinnamon where they are coming in. Any fine powder (talcum, corn starch, boric acid) will work but cinnamon won't hurt animals or kids who get into it. Of course, if it gets wet, you will need to clean it up and redo it.
Insects breathe through holes in their sides called spiracles. The powder sticks to their bodies, blocks the spiracles, and they suffocate.
They communicate by scent. Once the others start smelling danger signals from the dying ants, they will avoid the area.
I keep bowls of dry food outside for the cats, and I sprinkle a ring of cinnamon around the bowls - no ants. Before I started doing that, the ants were all over the cat food.

Had a similar problem, also with pets and children, tried nearly everything suggested below. Nothing worked ... They just found a way AROUND all of it .... Including up the wall and over the molding to come down another part of the wall onto my kitchen counter. At that point, I was furious and threatened, like your 3 yo, to move. Finally got my husband to agree to calling the pest control company. They come every quarter; haven't had a problem since. Suggest doing that first and forgetting everything else ....

Yup, I second (third?) the boric acid solution. Worked like a charm for us!

Call orkid n try inside putting a bay leaf in the draws n cupboards

call an exterminator. we have been battling carpenter ants for 4 years now. the exterminator was here yesterday. he found they had made a nest in our window. you could hear them munching on the wood. now we are looking at the cost of repairing and replacing whatever wood the ants have destroyed..