I went into the kitchen the other day to make some coffee, and saw an ant crawling around on the counter. I killed it. Damn, it's that time of year. By the next day, there were hundreds of them, all over the fucking kitchen! Holy shit!
Stopped at the store, got a bunch of ant baits, laid them all over the counters, in the cabinets, etc. The theory is, ants grab the bait, which contains some kind of time-release poison, take it back to the nest, and basically wipe out their own colony. This process can take up to two weeks, and I'm not thrilled with that, but it's still a hell of a lot cheaper than calling an exterminator.
We have a cat and normally leave food in her dish for her to nibble on during the day, and for whatever reason, they hadn't yet discovered her food dish. Last night, the area around the cat's food and water dishes was crawling with ants. Dammit.
I know that the correct approach is to clean the kitchen top to bottom, get rid of any food lying around, and set out more ant baits. But here's the question: What do I do about the cat's food and water? If I move them to another location, not only will the cat (possibly) not partake, but I'm basically introducing the ants to another location. How do people with pets normally deal with ants? The cat has to eat, but I can't leave the food out.