I have an ant nest under the one corner of my garage which I've been doing battle with. A couple different chemicals haven't seemed to have made much difference, so at wit's end I looked up some organic remedies and saw someone mention turmeric.
I have a ton of stuff in the house because I cook Indian food, so I thought, why not give it try? Sure enough, ants hate the stuff. I sprinkled it around the entrance to the nest and within minutes there was a traffic jam of ants on both sides of the turmeric unable (or unwilling) to cross.
I'm not viewing this as a permanent solution, because I'm sure the ants will dig a new way out, but it was nice to torment them...the jerks.
Interesting to know how you tried to torment those little buggers ;-) A warning thou, turmeric stains are very difficult to remove once set, especially on clothes, so you might not want to sprinkle turmeric too much, especially if you have kids and pets who like to roll on floors.