The Ants Go Marching Round and Round

My new abode seems to have an ant infestation. I lamented to my mother, keeper of old wives tales and goofy home remedies, and she suggested I use pepper. "What kind of pepper?" "Any". Now, this seems like a simple, economical and healthy alternative to the harsh chemicals in commercial insect spray, until you come to the application. My particular ant colony seems to live in the laundry room and commute to work in the kitchen...MY kitchen. This means leaving a trail of pepper from one end of the house to the other. And if you just leave a line of pepper along, say, the trim, won't the ants just develop another route?

A few nights later, while watching a movie with my guy, I saw them. The home invaders were casually wandering about my living room, with a stray member occasionally venturing onto our legs. That was the breaking point, I strode purposefully into the kitchen and came back brandishing the pepper shaker. I started by sprinkling pepper near where we assume the nest is, then following their path to the kitchen, As I spread black pepper through my home I reflected on the importance of having a shaker as a back up to a pepper mill. I spread pepper down each side of doorways and across the thresholds. 

Much to my surprise, ants really don't like black pepper. They don't hate it enough to move out and they definitely don't die. What they do is wander aimlessly, sometimes zig-zagging across a patch of un-peppered floor, sometimes in circles. The braver among their numbers will even cross the dreaded pepper line, but most just seem to bump into it, turn and head a different way. As you can probably guess, I spent some time watching their reaction. Ok, I spent a lot of time watching them, waiting for one to escape from the pepper prison, shaker poised to dump a flurry of pepper on any who dared come too close. I may have spoken to them harshly. I may have "sounded like some sinister bad guy in an old movie" and "a little crazy". Whatever, this is my home and my instinct to protect it came to the fore. 

The ants are confined to small patches of unpeppered floor around and just outside the laundry room with only the rarest sighting in the kitchen. Confused ants aside, we now track pepper all through our house whenever we walk and the smell of pepper hits you as soon as you open the front door. We're sneezing a little more than usual and I am on my way out to buy some ant traps.


**Update**
The ants have either built up a resistance to or acquired a taste for the pepper and are marching in greater numbers. I am out-legged. Send help!