They are carpenter ants which do not eat the wood in your house, but they burrow in it and weaken it, unlike termites that do eat the wood.

Your goal it to kill the queen ant - it's the only way to get rid of them completely. The ones you see are soldiers collecting food and water for her so she'll make more ants.

You have to kill the whole nest, else another queen will be born. Or the nest has to be so dwindled that the remaining soldiers wonder aimlessly away and their new queen is born elsewhere.

Like any colony they can be large or small. You can have a small colony that really only bothers you in the spring. You can spray a little and not really see much more of them until next year. This doesn't mean you got rid of your nest.

Spraying the house will only kill the ones the spray comes into direct contact with and won't get rid of your problem. Ants breed like crazy.

There are ant baits on the market that are dry chemicals in a small container. You poke holes in the side, put it along their paths, the ants go in and take the chemicals back to the nest.

Better than that is the liquid ant bait. Put a few drops of it in a bottle cap ('cause it's sticky) and put the cap in the paths that the ants travel. They leave scent behind and the next ant follows the path of the last ant. This is why you can find the path if you watch them.

They usually travel into your home at exterior doorways or windows. And you'll notice them walking along your baseboards. They seldom cross the middle of a large room. Check the outside of your house, it's often easier to locate the path outside. When it rains, you'll have more... they are always thirsty.

The liquid stuff is irresistable to the ants. You'll see gangs and gangs of them come out and drink the stuff until they are drunk with it. Then they bring it back to the nest, others eat it and the queen eats it.

What will happen when the liquid stuff starts working, is you'll have drunk ants staggering around your house and dying for sometime as the nest slowly dies.

This part took weeks for me. When I'd come home from work or when I got up in the morning, I'd sweep up dozens of dead ants.

But I'm finally ant free!!