When we were little, we stole aerosol cans of bug spray (dichlorovos) and sprayed it into the colony entrances. When the ants began to run out and die, we'd use matches to switch to flammenwerfer mode. It was fun but punishable when adults caught us.

Borax works, you can mix it with egg yolk and sugar until it's like play-doh in consistency, form marble-sized pieces and spread where there are ants. It's more attractive than just sugar. I'm thinking adding a bit of glycerine into the mix will improve it because it won't dry out as fast.

Also, biocontrol works. You can order some Beauveria spores, it will infect and weaken the colony and will deter future queens from recolonization. Combined methods always work better.

Thanks for all the info everyone.
I will try the more readily available methods first and move on to the other methods if I have no sucess.
The ants dont really bother me but they make my lawn look ugly.

"The ants dont really bother me but they make my lawn look ugly."

LOL, my "lawn" is ugly too...but I don't care, as long as it's green ish, it's all good...

Burn them. As a teen working on our little ranch in Oregon, I got rid of many ant colonies. We had several types of ants, but the real buggers that had big colonies, and built big piles, were the reds and the red and blacks. After trying multiple products and various teenage-type ideas, including scraping the ant piles flat with a tractor blade, I just soaked their hills with gasoline and lit it up. Let the gas soak in for a minute or so, then add another dose. Do NOT just toss a match or burning paper towel on the pile! I poured a gas trail from the pile to about 10 feet away and lit that. In hindsight, a diesel trail would have been better.
The result was always the end of that colony.

https://www.reddit.com/r/funnyvideos/comments/1huyjqj/man_blows_up_backyard_trying_to_kill_a_pest/

))))

LOL Tatiana.
I dont want the fire department at my house.

Inside I like Adivon bait gel. Works great. Better than the Terro stuff from Lowe’s. Outside for spot testing a fire ant mound I use Rainbow Ant poison pellets. Kills them fast. Two days at most.

Boco... have you tried leasing an ant eater..?

I am a commercial operator so what we can use, the average consumer can be limited. However, Fipronil is the active ingredient in a few ant and termiticide products. It is a transfer kill mode of operation which is very effective with the proper application. A couple of 7 to 10 days or less is the average length of time needed to achieve control of (a) or multiple ant colonies.

They also have a good carpenter and small ant bait that is very effective if applied in the active foraging areas. Advance carpenter ant bait is an excellent bait to use along with a liquid application. Advance 375A is a small ant type of bait with a broad label of ants.

permethrin. mix to recommended strength mostly .05%, spray the mound, soak it good, they will be dead.

Pour molten aluminum down their hole. Ants are gone and if you dig up the nest, you have a cool sculpture.

I use the same stuff gcs uses called Terro. I works well on the ones that turn up in the house. It seems to take longer since their recipe was changed a few years back. I believe the original stuff had arsenic (sp?) in it.

J...funny you mentioned that.....I must of had a large ,or multiple colonies one spring that was eating the Terro but was still coming back for days, usually they're gone in a day....So I called Terro's hotline...they swore the formula hasn't ever been changed and just give it time....The ants finally stopped and I haven't had a problem like that again....