So I found a little line of ants a few days ago. I didn't know they went this far off the ground, but I found a little cluster of them mobbing a forgotten piece of breakfast cereal that was under the couch, so maybe it was my fault and they were highly motivated by whatever else is under there.
Anyway, I don't want ants. I tried a couple of different things. I don't want to poison them or anything like that, I just don't want them in my house. Eventually, what I arrived at that seemed like it worked was this:
- Smush a bunch of the ants. It doesn't actually take that many, I think I did 10-15.
- Leave the corpses in place. They won't really react all that much to them, they'll just keep doing their thing and periodically getting smushed. And then, at some point, they seem like they specifically switch over as a team, and start gathering up the corpses and taking them away.
- Ever since I did that (and specifically since I let them gather up the corpses and let them take them), I haven't seen any ants.
I know that ants have a specific way they operate by laying down scent trails: They wander around at random, laying down a trail of "this is the way back to the nest", and if they find a bunch of food they will return along the same trail laying down a "this way to the food" trail. So it kind of makes sense that they would also have a function to lay down a new trail "this is we found all those bodies so let's not go there anymore." I don't know that that is what's happening but that's what it seems like.
Anyway, ever since the described operation, I haven't seen any ants. I share this in case my logic is sound and it is a good solution and one that is useful for you.
Stairs?