Last year I had a lot of ants come in the house, but
with boric acid I killed them, except for some that kept
on eating the cat food. So on the advice of a friend, I
put down some mint breath fresheners, and the ants
left and didn't return. Since that was so successful, I
tried it outdoors and the ants LOVED them and swarmed
all over them. Had to revert to boric acid and sugar again
there. Possibly a different kind of ant outdoors.
As for the cats, they thought the mints were play things
and I had a hard time keeping track of the mints.