Chlordane is a good pesticide for killing ants. It comes in a white
powder and Shell Oil, among others, manufactured it. I say "manufactured"
because it was taken off the market in the '70's. It belongs to a
class of pesticides called chlorinated hydrocarbons, and as some
scientists suspect chlorinated petroleum compounds are responsible
for global warming. The stuff available to us nowadays pales in
comparison to what they had in the 50's and 60's.