Their ability to access food and water sources in your home create the situations where ants are prevalent in the living area of your home. The first effort made to control them is to kill the nests in the ground surrounding your home or at least provide a chemical barrier that deters them. Once that is done, the problem can be centralized and an interior treatment may be necessary and usually required for adequate control. Properly directed, a one or two time treatment is enough. Beyond the chemical treatment, it is possible for you to deter the ants with a couple of common household products.
Ants communicate with the colony in the form of what is called pheremon trails.
They are what tells the whole colony where to go for food and water. These trails can be erased with either peppermint soap or citrus. The regular application of either of these two products will deter the ants and cause them to go another way. That and closing any openings you know them to travel through will reduce their prominence.