- 1). Remove food and water sources. Repair leaks, pick up pet food bowls outside of meal times and seal all pantry foods in airtight containers. Clean kitchen surfaces and eating areas thoroughly to remove unseen food residues.
- 2). Follow the ants you see in your home. The ants foraging for food and water in your home leave chemical scents, called pheromones, along the trails they use. This helps other worker ants find resources more easily. When you see a group of ants walking in a line in your home, without disturbing the trail, follow it until you reach either end. One end will tell you what they're using for food or water and the other end will let you know how the ants are getting in your home.
- 3). Mix a few teaspoon's worth of sugar and borax and sprinkle near the interior side of the ants' entrance point. The sugary mixture will dissuade the ants from looking further inside the house for food and the borax poisons all ants fed with it, including the queen.
- 4). Find the exterior entrance point. Look opposite the wall you traced their trail to, if it was an exterior wall. Otherwise, just use that general section of your house as a starting point. Inspect ants' favorite trailing places, such as along windowsills, near doors and at the bottom of siding. Once you find the ants, follow them to either end of the trail to find their nest and their exterior entrance point.
- 5). Load a caulk cartridge into your caulking gun and fill the exterior entrance point you found. Seal any other nearby cracks.
- 6). Boil about 1 gallon of water in a pot with easy-to-grab handles. Carry the pot of water to the nest you found. Creep up to the nest slowly to avoid detection by the vibration-sensitive ants and pour the boiling water into the nest. If boiling water doesn't succeed in destroying the nest, next time try dousing it in vinegar, citrus oil or equal parts ammonia and water.