How do I get rid of ants in the kitchen

Make sure all the food in your house is sealed, so that the ants can’t get to it. Be relentless about this for 3-7 days. The ants, having nothing to eat, will go elsewhere. This works because the ants are following the chemical trails left by other ants, who DID find food. Use laurel leaves to keep the ants away from a specific place. Put laurel in your sugar can. You will be amazed! Use chalk to keep ants away from kitchen areas. You will be amazed to see how they move away from any chalk lines - make sure you plan these carefully however. You can also use corn meal. This method is especially great around pets or children, as corn meal by itself is not poisonous. The ants will carry it home and try to eat it, but they can’t digest it properly. Be sure to put corn meal wherever you see that the ants like to frequent. Use boric acid, a natural derivative of the mineral “boron”, used in borax, and also in saline solution. It is about as harmful to humans as table salt. Buy it at the local drug store (about $2 a bottle). Pour about a tablespoon of real maple syrup (or anything you know ants love) on a flat plate or saucer. Sprinkle the boric acid around the syrup so that the ants must walk through it to get to the syrup, you may even use a q-tip to ensure a good distribution of the powder around the the syrup. Put the concoction somewhere you know there will be ants and just leave it. Put out Cream of Wheat (farina). Don’t cook it first. The ants eat it, it expands, boom! My exterminator tells me Boric acid disolves their skeleton. This works on all insects with external skeletal systems. This is why they need only pass through it and not eat