At first, I used Terro and it seemed to work well, a few years ago. The past 2 or 3 years we’ve had the small brown ants getting into the kitchen, I’ve tried Terro, no workie. Tried mixing boric acid with a little jelly, no workie. finally tried some Raid ant baits, little black plastic things, they finally got rid of the ants, or maybe it was a combination of everything I could think of all at once...
For fire ants, a big problem here in Texas, I use powdered laundry detergent. Mix about a cup with a gallon of hot water, just at dark when they all go back to the nest, pour it on the nest and cover with a 5 gallon bucket. Ammonia used the same way works pretty well. You might have a yellow spot for a while but it will grow back.
I might try the diatmaceous earth for fire ants, but don’t know where the brown ants are nesting.
What I need is something for a rat. One has taken over the RV I’m in, chewing everything in sight and carried off a lot of stuff. I’ve kept a rat trap baited for 3 months, it’s been sprung a dozen times, no good. Peanut butter is the best bait I’ve ever used for mice, used it with rats several times with good results too, this time nothing. I’ve also tried pieces of a candy bar, sunflower seeds, the rat got all of them except the one lodged under the bait tab...even got a mouse bait trap, opened it up and used the poison block inside, no good. First one I put out it carried off the whole block, second one was used as bait in the rat trap, so far nothing...I’m almost ready to load the .22 with pellet shot and sit there and wait...or try a live trap...
Put peanut butter in a rat trap and fasten the rat trap down so it can’t jump when tripped. See if that works. If not, get a regular, small leg trap (like you use to catch fox)...a small one and use that. It may be something bigger than a rat. Now that, I could catch.