Are you talking about carpenter ants, or what? In what part of the house do you usually see them? Ant baits (the commercial ones) are often boric acid (not borax) laced attractants that must be placed in a location that will not be disturbed for a couple of days or more. These products are NOT to be used around animals, because the attractant is often tasty to the animal as well as the ant! There are no effective baits that you can leave out around dogs or cats. Hopefully, you have a location where a bait station can be placed that will be out of reach by your pets.

Baits need to be allowed to sit where the entire colony can come and collect some of the stuff. It can be pretty horrifing until you realize that they are only swarming the bait and simply returning to the nest. After a short time, the activity lessens (12 hours or so) and eventually ceases.
Commercially manufactured baits are highly effective and should be used rather than homemade remedies which may be fine for the occasional visitor...or for prevention.

Ant baits cannot be used in conjunction with contact killers, as this is counter productive.

There carpenter ant baits as well as baits for the others. I've attached a link for the brand that we used with wonderful success. We found it at Lowes. I believe that it came with 4 or 6 pre-loaded gel bait traps, and I only had to use one. Be sure you read the directions carefully on any product that you decide to use. If not used properly, these baits won't do the job for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ant bait systems

Thank you very much. Unfortunately and disgustingly we seem to be seeing them mainly in the bedroom. We'll try the baits outside where the animals can't get. We're also going away for a weekend in a couple of weeks so perhaps this may be a good time as well. Thank you so much!