Thanks. Borax is extremely toxic to dogs, I think. For the mailbox I sprayed Raid in it. Such a small area didn't bother me. Our dogs would eat the cotton and anything else. They especially like to eat grass, and try to help me with clean up if you get what I mean.

Sammy

The two organic fire ant killers that I use probably are labeled for use around dogs, but you'll have to Google and read their labels and see. I don't use them in the dog yard because we don't have ants in the dog yard. I use them in the veggie garden.

The organic fire ant killers are derived from natural organisms that target ants, and I do know people who've used them in yards where both dogs and children play.

Conserve and Come And Get It both have Spinosad as their active ingredient. Spinosad also is used in some pet products, like heartworm pills, for example. Most dog breeds can take those heartworm pills, but in the back of my mind I am thinking there are some breeds that can't. Regardless, property used Spinosad products would be broadcast over a wide area and watered in so they wouldn't be lying around on the ground for a pet to lick up anyhow. I use another ant bait sometimes whose active ingredient is Avermectin.

Here is some info on Conserve:

Conserve Fire Ant Baits

Here is some info on Avermectin, which is the active ingredient in Advance ant killer. In the Q&A section, they answer a question about using it around pets.

Advance Ant Bait with Avermectin

Both of the above ant baits are biocontrols derived from natural sources and biologically they target ants, not pets, but research carefully to your own satisfaction. I use them in gardens, not in dog yards, so I've never researched them for pet use. When used in my garden, which my dogs and cats both are allowed to enter and roam around in, neither the dogs nor cats ever have shown any interest in the ant baits used in the beds.

You could sprinkle Sevin dust along the foundation of the house. My dogs never bother Sevin and they are into everything.

Our old house has ant trails and every year, here they come. My most effective method is corn syrup and a compost pile. first, I place the syrup on the outside walls of the house and slowly, day by day, lead them over to the compost pile with the syrup. I try to continually throw compost for them to eat. I've tried everything else under the sun, but there are far too many of them. I just keep 'em happy away from the house. I'm certain your dogs would favor the compost pile, tho.

I used the borax treatment Macmex described--it worked like magic last year and I'm doing it this year in the house and out. We have a cat and a dog. So I make sure I put the cotton balls where they can't get to them. We had a trail of ants, thousands upon thousands, all the way across the front of our house at the meeting of the logs and foundation. I tucked the cotton balls up between the base of the logs meeting the cinder block (which were out of the way for the dog to get). Three days later there was not an ant. Not one. My husband and I were flabbergasted. And sold.

boiling water poured directly in the ant pile works wonders.