I rented in a house in So California for awhile that was built on top of a giant ant colony. It was within the first few days I found that out by leaving a few slices of pizza out in the box it was delivered in one night. By the next morning there was an ant highway every bit as busy as the 405 during LA rush hour traffic.
Of course, my first reaction was to go buy a big can of Ant spray. All that did was leave a trail of a zillion dead ants I had to clean up and poison the air with the stink of the spray.
I repeated that mistake a couple more times before learning if I just removed the food they were coming after they'd be gone in an hour or two. I felt like such a dumbass for not trying that first. And, of course, learning to be much more careful about leaving any kind of food out.
Still, it was pretty amazing to see. I mean, I almost never saw an ant if there wasn't any food left out, but it didn't take long at all for a zillion of them to show up if I did.
Remove the food, but also clean away the formic acid pheromone trail that each ant leaves, and they will
forage elsewhere instead of following their path to
where the food was.
In Texas we use Amdro and variants. Its a bait that worker ants carry back to the colony where the queen eats it, halting reproduction. It wipes out the colony w/in a week.
We have the same problem in Southern CA. I also find the cleanest way to get rid of them is to get rid of the food source. This can be a dead fly or a piece of dog food. Remove it and the area is clean within a few hours. In the summer it's really hard though. it seems they also go after water when it's hot.
Ants seem relatively smart. I've been having ant problems in many places I've lived, and I'm fascinated by how quickly they learn and adapt. In the spring they arrive dump and inexperienced, walking here and there. But when you start killing them, they come up with different strategies to not get detected.
I am inclined to think of an ant hill as a living being. In that context they show a lot of clever behavior. A single ant is not very smart though but the same applies to parts of my body. Without the other parts they don't get much done either :-)
Advion ant gel bait is pretty amazing against most ants. Gel baits in general are at least 10x better than raid and are what professionals recommend (I've solved 10+ ant, roach and flea issues for friends).
Of course, my first reaction was to go buy a big can of Ant spray. All that did was leave a trail of a zillion dead ants I had to clean up and poison the air with the stink of the spray.
I repeated that mistake a couple more times before learning if I just removed the food they were coming after they'd be gone in an hour or two. I felt like such a dumbass for not trying that first. And, of course, learning to be much more careful about leaving any kind of food out.
Still, it was pretty amazing to see. I mean, I almost never saw an ant if there wasn't any food left out, but it didn't take long at all for a zillion of them to show up if I did.