Here in Southern California we fight a never ending battle against the ants. We have Argentine ants here, and they have endless colonies under the whole city and the colonies have multiple queens. So I win battles but will never win the war.
Note that sometimes the ants want something sweet and sometimes they want something protein. So I put out traps with both.
I actually have a supply of coffee cup lids, and I put a squirt of the sweet gel on one side and some of the protein flakes on the other side. I have some heavy covers I put over the lids so they don't get kicked around in the house or eaten by our cats.
I use stuff from these guys:
https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com//crawling-insects/ant-control-products
Currently, I use the Advion Gel and Invict Express. But you must pick the proper baits that your ants like. Just be aware that you will likely need both a sweet and a protein bait!
The other key is that you actually want a bait that works slowly and you need to let the ants take it. My wife doesn't like this: if she finds a stream of ants going to the bait she will windex them and disrupt the chain... and that prevents the ants from getting the poison! Very frustrating. You have to let them take the bait as long as they can and give them time to distribute it in the colony so as many of them eat it and die as possible.
Coffee cup lid with bat next to heavy cover:
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I leave 4 of these traps deployed in the house at all times. But if we get an invasion, I deploy one right on top of the stream of ants to be sure they find it immediately, and I beg my wife not wipe them out with windex and to just let them go at the poison for a couple days. Interestingly, at first some die on the trail, but at the end there are very few ants left behind... I can only think they pick up their dead and bring them back to the nest too?
