I have read that if you wash you cabinet tops in vinegar they can not follow their trail back to there nest therefore they will not come back to your house. it erases there trail which they leave to let other ants know where the food is.
I use baking powder. They bring it in their nest and eat it. The powder starts to expand and kills them. The other way I destroy a nest is to boil water and poor it over the nest. Pure biological ;o)
What about the red ants that leave a terrible bite. They make little hills all over the fields and yards down here in South East Alabama. As soon as I kill one mound another one pops up somewhere else in the yard.
I have another remedy....sprinkle cornmeal (outside) where they are coming in ... they take it back to the rest of them and they all eat...they cannot digest it and they die.
I got mine using chili powder! It took a while, however if you cut off their supply line, they will disappear!