Safe solution to get rid of a massive ant infestation in our kitchen?

[Joe_Danger]

This is a first, the kitchen has been infested with ants for over a month now.
It started out harmless enough on the balcony as it often happens in my apartment building, no biggie, since the cats don't go there we bought some ant killing pouder and poured it there to keep the ants from getting in, this normally works no problem and whenever ants show up they're gone within a day or so.

Now we've tried everything, even spraying the kitchen with some nasty smelling poison dangerous to cats and not allowing the cats access to the kitchen for days but all that did was make the ants hide for a bit, then they're back in full force.

The cats are really stressing over this, the ants get in their food bowls, I woke up just now to one of the bowls being black with ants, I should've taken a pic. The cats are at a point where they refuse to eat on their own and need company even if there is no ants there, Casper is the only one who doesn't care lol

What's a sure and safe way to get rid of this? Something that isn't exclusive to 1st world countries?

[Mollycat]

Where are you?

We used a liquid called Nippon which the ants take back to the nest and feed to the youngsters and it kills the colony.

[fjm]

I've used Nippon successfully in the past. An old fashioned remedy that might work for you is borax - mix with icing sugar and water, soak cotton wool balls in the mixture, and leave where the ants will find them but the cats can't. A similar mix is meant to kill cockroaches. Borax is toxic if eaten or breathed in, so I wouldn't sprinkle it around dry and I would hide the soaked balls inside plastic bottles with the lids off or similar.

[Ruth B]

I'm not totally certain, but I believe Borax is banned in the EU, so may not be available.

Some options I've come across:

Use a solution of spray window cleaner mixed with a liquid detergent and use that to clean any ant trails to remove the scent trails they leave behind.
White vinegar can be used either neat or in a 50/50 mix with water to mop up any you see as it can kill the ants and as they don't like the scent it can also help deter them from areas.
Black pepper again is a deterrent and can help if sprinkled around the trail areas or across entrances and skirting boards or kick boards in the kitchen.
Diatomaceous earth if you can get a food grade variant (it is available on Amazon in the UK) can help. It isn't actually a poison but absorbs the oils in the ants so kills them by drying them out. However it can be an irritant and the advice is not to breath it in or get it on your skin so you would need to put it where the cats aren't going to get to it easily.

[fjm]

I've read that bicarbonate of soda mixed with icing sugar also works - could be interesting if it gets wet though!

[Joe_Danger]

Borax is the same as Boric Acid? If so that's partially how we dealt with the cockroach problem, but after that I read it's poisonous to cats, however if I use the same method as with the cockroaches a few years back, balls made out of doe, boric acid and sugar maybe it's going to work?

It's just that I read that if an ant drops the piece it carries and a cat ingests it they could get posioned

[Ruth B]

Boric Acid is the refined and processed version of Borax. Both will kill ants, As I mentioned, and having checked, Borax itself is illegal in the UK and EU, but I think Boric Acid is still available.

[Joe_Danger]

Thanks a ton
Macedonia isn't part of the EU yet so I'm sure we can get both I know we have Boric Acid here, it's easy to find, we even use it for like home made remedies like for example if like people's legs hurt they sometimes wrap them in cloth soaked in Boric Acid and that supposedly helps, never done it msyelf but older family members do it all the time and works for them.

[Ruth B]

I couldn't quite remember which country you were from and whether it was EU or not.

Sometimes I wish I didn't live in such a nanny state that insisted on banning something just because someone might do something stupid and hurt themselves with it.

[Joe_Danger]

Haven't had ants since the 17th, so some 12 days now.
What we did was make balls of boric acid mixed in with corn meal, sugar and some flour.
We also left crumbs of this stuff along the wall near the cat food, then taped that up nice and good so the cats can't get to it, but ants should be able to get in as this seemed to have been their route anyways.

So far so good, hope they don't show up again