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I heard this works for mice too, and I can assure you, it doesn't! I've also heard rosemary and cloves deter ants--again, no dice. Never tried peppermint oil with ants, but again, did with mice and it's almost as if it enjoys the minty freshness.

Hot pepper powder.
Find where they're coming in and seal it up.
Cultivate a friendly spider - really, it's fascinating.

living in south fla its always ant "season" they seem to be worse when it's rainy...which is often in south fla. I've heard that coffee grounds work. So far I've had 75%-80% success with it. I read that it can be sprinkled around the outside perimeter of house (haven't done that) or sprinkled on ant mounds (haven't done that either) and it can be sprinkled in corners of windows and doors (have done that, and it seems to work). But I've tried sprinkling them on ants while they were running around on the counter...and it doesn't kill them or scare them. So I guess it's a good preventative but not exterminator...which is more my style anyway. :)

pixie, I've got one or two daddy long legs in my bath (they just keep showing up) and after a day or two the stray ants that tend to roam the bath floor (about 1-5 per day - I can't always keep up with them). After a couple of days that the spider moves in I notice there will be a "pile" of dead ants around the corner where the spider sits. LoL.
Sometimes I think of leaving the spider and just cleaning up the dead ants, b/c for a couple of days afterwards there are a lot few ants that randomly walk across the floor, but i dun like the spiders either. lol

I've tried the peppermint oil with mice and it definitely does not work! I think it actually draws them in...

Talcum powder works for ants.

spiders eat a lot of more annoying bugs.

We have house centipedes in our apartment. They are nasty and keep showing up. They are like the Usain Bolt of bugs-- very quick. Anyone ever deal with those?

i've heard borax works. fortunately, i haven't had to use it.

Cayenne or other hot pepper powder works great. Sprinkle it on the ant trail and across doorways and windowsills. Ants won't cross the line!

After many a "natural" attempt at lessening the invasion, I finally went with an exterminator who only sprays outdoors. No, it's not natural, but I am finally ant free.

Orange, lime and lemon zest did the trick for us when we were being attacked by the little buggers from our kitchen door that leads out to the back. I just sprinkled the zest generously around the doorstep and they stopped coming in.

I've also heard turmeric does the trick, but I haven't tried that one yet.

i once had a trail of ants in the kitchen. i hate to kill things, so i kept sweeping them up and dumping them outside. unfortunately they kept returning. i finally read that if you wash over their trail with soapy water it erases their scent trail and they won't find their way back. so i scooped them up, put them outside and quickly washed down their path with soapy water.... and they never came back.

I tried Borax and cayenne pepper when I had an ant problem last Spring, and it did nothing. I finally resorted to those ant motels, and in less than 24 hours, the ants were gone.

Peppermint oil has worked for me, but only on relatively non-porous surfaces (not on, say, concrete).

Another solution that works for me (in the same vein as cayenne) is salt. Finding where they are entering is key, and putting small mounts of salt in the hole keeps them fully at bay. The reason, I have been told, is because the salt leeches moisture from their bodies and is painful to walk across... one would assume.

I have also been told that this is the genesis of the old practice of blessing a house by sprinkling salt across the sills and step.

Whatever the reason is, it works and is scent-free. The only problem is that you have salt lying everywhere.

stuzzeo - I have some centipedes (or some bug like that) in my condo. I don't see them all the time, just now and again. They are HIGHLY amusing to my cat, who eats them.

I've heard that ants hate cinnamon.

How does one cultivate a spider?

Mint oil sprays haven't done diddly to the ants that find their way into my house. I always reluctantly go back to the poison because it's the only thing that works to stop the trail.

Isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle kills ants on contact, but won't stop more ants from following the trail.

EasilyAmused - don't kill them or wreck their webs. When I was cultivating a spider in an apartment with ants, the spider had a web spun directly next to and below a counter, where there were ants, so it was easy to brush the spiders off the cliff of the counter and over to the web. Those spiders are fast. I'm not kidding, it's fascinating to watch them work.

I had no luck with peppermint oil. I resorted to using Raid (I know, I know - don't scold me!), which worked great.

I tried cream of tartar once. I guess they don't like to cross it, so I sprinkled it along where I saw them coming in and it worked.

My landlord used to put out those ant bait things, which didn't work at all. Ironically, it was my jar of cayenne pepper that finally made them go away.

I've had some luck with baking soda, too.