How can I stop an invasion of six-legged creatures?

I spray them and the areas they’ve invaded with organic, white vinegar. Vinegar repels ants.

Sometimes that works.

When it doesn’t, I resort to Raid colony-killing ant baits.

Having some pet pangolins and/or anteaters would be another non-toxic approach, but setting that up is still in development. ;-)

I’ve never actually tried this, but maybe a two-fold approach—when you find an ant trail, maybe look for both ends (find whatever crack they’re using to enter the house, and find whatever food source they’re attacking.) Then, get rid of the food source. The trail to that once-food-source should gradually disappear—as the ants come up empty handed, they stop marking the trail with pheromones, and eventually its scent fades. When the trail is gone, go back to whatever crack they were coming through and plug it with something (maybe a dot of clear caulk?) I’m imagining that if you do this enough, you’ll eventually keep them from entering your house as easily, and if they do get in the house, from finding something as easily? Not sure. It may just be that if you have an ant colony near your house, they’ll get in and find something… especially if they’re for whatever reason short on food elsewhere… but I suspect you can close up the entry points. We have many ant colonies around our house; before our remodel, ants were a daily problem, and we could never eradicate them. After the remodel, they didn’t get in anymore (but we still see them marching along outside.) ... if this does work, it will probably require patience!

Good luck whatever you do!

Why not just leave them a trail of breadcrumbs out the door and leading to a huge pile of sugar. haha Seriously, I don’t like to kill anything either but sometimes you have to. Windex and Lysol are effective to spray your counters with and that will help repel them too.

@Brian1946, I’ve never heard of using white vinegar. Perhaps they will be so shocked they’ll bugger off.

Thank you @Soubresaut. I’m not even sure what they’re after in some rooms. If you leave a crumb on the kitchen bench, they’re there. I will try to find their colony over the weekend. Usually they come in for a few days (I think the weather has something to do with their behaviour), but right now they’re shocking!

@Coloma, if it was just in one place, I wouldn’t be too bothered, but when I’m sitting in bed with regiments of ants walking behind my head that’s a bit much. And if I go in the kitchen… oh my goodness. Annoying little things. And I too hate killing things. If it was just a few and they weren’t bothering anyone, I’d let them be until they get bored and move on.

Borax kills ants. Holistic solution – Ants leave scent trails. If you disrupt their trail they won’t find their way. Find where they are coming in and block it. Find the nest outside and poor boiling water on it. It takes their numbers down without killing the entire nest.

I go after them like I do with all home invaders: I hit them hard, fast and decisively.
Can you can stand having them around one more day? If yes, then I suggest using poison bait. Place several of both types, sweet eating, and fat eating, along the trail and at the ends. Then sit back and let the ants do the work. Do not spray any killer; do not disturb their trails, do not bother them in any way. The ants will bring the bait back to the nest and in 2 days the job will be done. On the 3rd day you can wipe up the trails with any of the above mentioned products.
If this is all indoors I’d sprinkle a little diatomacious earth around and sweep it into the cracks. Tat will handle any stragglers or scouts planning te next invasions.

You can kill them with any of the above methods. Or you can just remove what’s attracting them: food. Always keep clean surfaces, keep your trash in closed containers, etc. They’ll just go feed elsewhere than in your home.