And cat food is also a recent invention, no? In the past, mice and other pests getting hunted down was the primary benefit of having cats around!
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In the right environment cats and other predators serve a useful balancing. Unfortunately, over the last few hundred years, various animals and plants have been transported into quite different environments, where they do enormous damage. This has been a particular problem in places like New Zealand that had no almost no land mammals (just a few bats) before people arrived…
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If only we could train the cats to herd the mice back outside.
Ants don’t like vibrations. If you tap your finger or your foot near them they will run away. So theoretically one could set up an indoor cat lure track on the perimeter of your affected area and having the cat running around would deter the ants.
Really, this thread has deviated just a lil bit. 
But it has got me wondering if one could set up a bass speaker facing the floor near the cat food to protect it?
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That’s interesting Venerable. One time I was having trouble with ants in a mediation monastery in Northern Thailand. They were coming in up high and coming across a wall to the refrigerator. I tried putting repellent on the wall but they just worked out other routes. I finally reasoned that they were coming for the water in the refrigerator drain. Since I didn’t actually need anything to be refrigerated, I turned it off and drained the water and the ants mostly went away.
[The accommodation was setup so mediators could be self-catering, hence the refrigerator. However, I had food delivered (for a small fee) from the village.]
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I guess where there are vibrations, such as a tapping hand or foot, there is the likelihood of being squashed. If you have a dish wish some ants on it trying to get food, you can tap the dish and the ants will retrace their steps.
I think this depends on the species. There are some aggressive species where I am which will go on the offensive! They’ll seek out the tapping finger and start biting.
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Thai ants really sound like a whole other thing. And to think people are scared of Aussie wildlife!
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Reminds me of the expression we have around here: “Don’t throw a rock on a puddle of pee, it’ll get on you”. 
I watched a documentary on slave-making ants 
They invade other ant colonies (of a different ant species), enslave the ants and make the ants work for them . That’s not a nice thing to do but I guess it’s nature…
Thanks for the information on diatomaceous earth! I will be mindful from now on.
My cats are rescues, a bonded pair who help my neurodivergent kids in what’s been a life full of Dukkha since the pandemic. We have been through hell and continue to struggle in daily life. Cuddling the cats and taking care of them helps.
The cat rescue volunteers spay/neuter and vaccinate all the cats they can catch and find homes for those who can live with humans, as ours could. There are a lot of grey areas around pets and khamma but we are sharing our lives with these cuddly murderers and they have helped my kids.
AND before our cats go outside they have to wear a “Birds be Safe” collar that reduces bird kills by 80% according to studies, as well as mammal kills, by making the cats visible. Without a collar the one sister would take up to 3 birds a day. With the collar maybe 2 a month.
I feel like this helps even out their environmental impact, so that we can enjoy them in our lives. Maybe this is delusional, but things are rarely so clear cut.
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Two other things that can make a big difference - enough protein in their food (cats need way more protein than most commercial feeds provide) and enough enrichment (play). When these are taken care of cats have a reduced urge to hunt.
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