Ants Redux

OK, so these are leaf-cutter ants, not the odorous house
ants I was battling, but you get the picture.

Update: They left.


But they'll be back.

And the non-harming remedies didn't work.  Not a one of them.  At least not on this crew.

Cinnamon sticks at their entry point?  They just went around.

Cinnamon sprinkled on their trails?  Confused them for all of thirty seconds and might possibly have tickled their toes, but then they just marched right through it.

Cayenne, then chili powder, then black pepper sprinkled on their trails?  Ditto.

I did find their entryway and tried to soap it closed, but that didn't help much.  The ants simply found another little crack in the floor/wall joint right nearby.  I'd have to soap the entire wall, in a closet no less, and that just didn't seem reasonable.  Perhaps that was my own fail though: A bit more time and effort with the soap, or warming up some wax and dripping it into the length of the closet floor, might have forced them to find a different entryway and bought me at least a few days sans the little critters.

Instead, as their numbers amassed and their trails got longer and longer on the kitchen counter, I caved and put out one of those Terro type ant baits right next to their entryway.  A few hours later: no more ants.

So then, does anyone out there know of a better way to discourage ants that doesn't require killing some of them?

I know about all the preventative measures and we've continued to practice impeccable kitchen-cleaning now that it's ant season in the Pacific Northwest, but every year they seem to come back through some new entryway every month....

MFB, with a lot more ground to gain,
L