"The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah."
I miss my days living in the high desert of Salt Lake City, Utah, if only for the reason that they don't have the ant problems that Californian have. I was out of town for business last week and in the middle of an evening call with The Wife, she exclaimed, "Awe crap! Ants!" She battled them for an hour and they left her alone for a few days, until I returned home.
So just yesterday morning I awoke to an small invasion force. They'd found the honey, and were making they're first assault. I answered with an initial water based paper towel defense. Upon realizing they'd found a weakness in our perimeter on multiple fronts, I switched to a more lethal any killer spray. It thinned the ranks of my six legged foe, but where there are a few, there will be thousands to follow. I sent a text to my father-in-law, a legend in the field of combating formicidae on a large scale. His answer was clear. Terro ant products are they way to go.
I hit the local hardware store (Lowe's in my case). I bought two items. First, the Terro Liquid Ant Killer. This can be used in the home, up and away from children and pets. It is 5% borax, but to the ant it tastes like yummy waffle syrup. They eat, take home, and hopefully kill the colony. I placed a few drops on several small squares of cardboard and the ants flocked like pigs to a trough. The solution was not as thick as I thought it might be, so like they say in the commercial for the game Operation, "It takes a very steady hand!" I placed these first line barriers at each corner along the back splash of our counter, and a couple in the back of our cupboards for until the battle is over. 
We also chose to pick up a box of Terro Liquid Ant Baits, which acts as a barrier around the outside of the home. These are more of an "all in one" product. A plastic cup, about half the size of a applesauce cup, contains the sweet solution that the ants "love to death". You simply remove the stakes meant for keeping the plastic container in place on the ground, and push down on the plastic cup to break the seal. The fluid deposits into the reservoir. You place it in the desired location and let it do its job.
Reminder: Keep the tray level after you have punctured the container with the fluid inside. I was jostling it around to much afterward breaking the seal and spilled some on myself.
Beyond that, it's not that hard, and is a great way to handle an ant problem all by yourself.
It went against all human nature to just leave the drops to do their job and NOT go after the line of ants myself. I even went online and watched the video by Terro, starring Stew Clark, "America's Ant Expert." He used the phrase "bait, wait, and exterminate." The Wife and I were skeptical, but trusted the experts. We did a top to bottom clean session, wiping down ALL surfaces.. We did not disturb the ants doing their thing, but hit EVERY other surface. We went to bed, feeling the phantom tickles all over our body from ants that weren't there. We both even had dreams about ants.
I awoke early to go to work the next morning. While the shower water headed up, I headed downstairs and stood mouth agape at 98% of the ants gone. Only the odd one or two at each of the previously bustling locations were still around. The video states that it make take a day or two if the problem is bad, so I concede my case may be not as common. It left me confident that we could handle any ant army thereafter, and VERY happy with the @Terro products we purchased. You can find the company also on Twitter and Facebook.
I wish all of you luck in your future ant warfare.
J.
The fine print: Terro products were purchase by The Cheeky Daddy, and all opinions are my own. Some ants were harmed in the making of this post.
