Keep in mind watching ants as an infant?
Keep in mind how they always travel in six lines?
Those six lines move in opposite directions, one line travels from “home” to a food source, the other line carries the food from the source to “home”. Those ants don’t follow each other intentionally. They actually follow a scented path left by the ant that first found the food.
Like Hansel & Gretel’s breadcrumb idea, the pheromone keeps the ants from getting lost. When you wash their path with soap & water, you remove the pheromone, destroying their “road.”
Get rid of the ants (temporarily) by putting bait near their exit point at the “home” finish of their trail. Baits work well for treating ants. By placing it next to the trail ants smell the bait, pick it up, & over it home in lieu of invading your food.
Baits normally wipe out most of the colony. The reason I said you’d get rid of them temporarily above is that if only 10% of the colony survives the bait treatment, that 10% has the ability to rebuild the colony back to its original size…and larger.
The fact that such a little percentage of the colony rebuilds the population makes ant invasions very hard to eliminate. Vary the type of bait each time to prevent bait shyness. Bait shyness happens when the ants recognize that the present bait is not healthy for them. Constantly switching between six or six different baits creates a lower potential of bait shyness. Make sure the baits have different attractant odors.
Ants are not hard to control, but they are persistent. Be obstinate & diligent in attacking them, & you’ll enjoy an ant-free life.