When ants heard the Lord’s command to be fruitful and multiply, they took it to heart. 
Myrmecologists (those who study ants) estimate that there are far more ants than any other kind of insect. So far they have named 11,000 species, with possibly another 9,000 yet undiscovered. What makes ants so important is the sheer number of them in each colony. The ant bio-mass in the rain forests of Brazil is four times the biomass of all other jungle amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals combined! The only places you won’t find ants are the poles and high up on freezing mountaintops.
For the most part, ants mind their own business, which is finding food and making babies. But too often they across paths with us, and we take exception to fire ants expanding their colonies into our yards, or harvester ants excavating our gardens, or pharaoh ants taking up residence in our homes or offices, or sugar or grease ants foraging for food in our kitchens. Where they have food and appropriate housing, their colonies will expand, and we all see them swarming, then landing, losing their wings and going quietly underground again.
When ants invade our spaces, some spaces, some choose to call an exterminator. If entirely professional, they will know the type of pets in your area and will poke around the house before positioning ant traps and/or spraying toxic chemicals. Although effective, such toxic products lack specificity, thus killing beneficial insects and potentially harming or sickening pets and people. Is there a safe, nontoxic alternative?
When I find a trail of ants in the home, I mix a couple spoonfuls of water with a quarter spoonful of borax (shelved with laundry detergents in any store) and half a spoonful of granular sugar. I stir till the sugar and borax have dissolved. By studying the ant trail, I try to find which end is closest to their home and then present a few drops of this brew to them on a small square of aluminum foil. If the ants are sugar eaters, they will quickly discover it. Gathering around the drop, they will fill their little bellies and take it back to the colony to feed all the members including the all-important queen. In a day or two, problem solved. Mix the borax with butter if they are greater ants. Either way, borax dehydrates and exterminates completely.