In California we put the pet food in dishes of water to help discourage them.

What worked well in the kitchen was a mix of orange oil, lemon oil, and mint extract(all the real thing). I suppose plain citrus oil would work too instead of a mix of both. It was a little more mint that citrus but I don't remember the exact amounts.

I drew a line around one on the counter to see if it would stop it crossing the line. It started going into convulsions. It works best fresh.

This year ants come in after the honey so we sat the honey on the counter and started catching ants for Pua but they seem to catch on and stop coming.