I have had several ant invasions over the years. The baits that they take back to kill the queen have always worked for me.
^^^^^^What he said!
I've found the combination of these two, mixed together and sprinkled around where their at and their nest, will take care of 99% of all ants.
It takes about 24 hours but once you bait.......They just pack their little bag's and you don't see anymore of them.
NiBan-FG & Maxforce is their names......You can find it online at the pesticide sites.
The other thing I use for cockroaches and water beetles along with all the other larger crawling types is DEMON MAX.
You mix it in a sprayer and spray all around the house..........
The only way you see the bugs is on their backs and dead........
Guaranteed to kill anything with MORE than 4 legs!
It's water proof after it dries, and treatment lasts about 90 days here where I'm at.....
Always just used baking soda for cockroaches, kills them dead, with a show.
I had ants crawling in through the weepholes in my bricks about 3 weeks ago, and getting into my cat's food. I sprayed wasp spray into a crack in the caulk where they were entering the interior of the house (caulk between tile and baseboard near cat food). That killed the ones that were inside. Then I used a perimeter killer, just Raid or whatever from Walmart, and sprayed the entire outside of the house from the ground up to the third brick (weephole is in the first brick). Then ant baits inside, and haven't seen a bug in here since.