Sorry to hear about your struggle with ants. When people refer to “sugar ants” they’re most often complaining about odorous house ants, Tapinoma sessile, which the public also refer to as sugar ants or grease ants. An easy way to verify their ID as odorous house ants is that they produce an unpleasant, acrid odor when crushed.

In any event, you need to know that it’s impossible to eradicate these small invaders. Even if you could do so, others would soon take their place.

You should be able to limit their uninvited indoor excursions with a multi-pronged approach. Only wiping down their trails with soapy water, peppermint, and/or witch hazel won’t stop them because, as you’ve found out, they will either make new trails or re-create the old ones. Further, killing only visible ants also fails because they represent a mere 10 percent, or less, of the colony.

The bottom lines for managing your frustrations about house-invading ants are these:

1. Sanitation (regularly clean counters, floors and used dishes), and store perishable foodstuffs for people or pets in tight, rigid containers.

2. Caulk and seal entries such as cracks in the foundation or gaps where utilities enter structures. But realize ants will still find a way in.

3. Limit insects that produce honeydew– the sticky stuff on leaves – on outdoor plants: aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, and scale, both soft and cottony.

4. Limit access indoors by trimming foliage – bridges – away from structures.

5. Use commercially-formulated ant baits and repeat as needed. Effective over-the-counter baits against odorous house ants as well as other common house-invading ants have one of the following active ingredients: borate based, such as in Terro; fipronil, such as in Maxforce or Combat gel; and hydramethylnon, which is in a number of brands. Many ant baits available at retail outlets reduce activity within 24 hours but require a week or more for maximum mortality.

6. Homemade ant baits seldom work because they may be either too weak, functioning as food for the colony, or too strong, killing the scouts before they share the bait with the colony.

Perimeter treatment is best managed by a professional pest control company. As always, interview 3 or more companies to compare their suggestions. See “Selecting a Pest Control Company” - http://npic.orst.edu/pest/selectpco.html.