Ants !! invading my house ....

Is a very "anty" summer here this year

.... often get ants coming into in house in summer (usually the bathroom and on the kitchen benchtops) but this summer they seem particularly pesty .... little brown and black house-ants a what we are getting.

I'm having a problem with ants invading the bathroom and lounge - dining areas, but not the kitchen yet.
They even invaded a couple of my small storage tubs to get at the carrot and crickets. (Was fun going through the crickets and removing the ant infested tubs (tubs with a couple of dead crickets in them , wound up with ants all over me and the lounge.)

Been using Combat Ant Rid baits since mid January , don't seem to be killing the ants off. Put baits down a month ago still have ants.
Will try Mortein Ant Baits next.

Also found a few red back spiders under things ( we have lots of boxes and storage tubs with stuff in it in the bedrooms & lounge & dining room) and found a few behind the lounge too (when rescuing stuff that fell behind there) .... all duely squashed on site using a boom handle.
Never had redbacks in the house before mom went into the nursing home and sold her house , we got some of her furniture ( I think the redbacks come with the buffet, the display unit and maybe a few beds & bases ??? ).

If we didn't have pet lizards and feeder insects in the house , I'd be using crawling insect barrier and surface sprays to eradicate and keep the ants, spiders and roaches at bay. But I don't want to poison my pets so , it's remove them or kill on sight by either squashing them or sucking them up with the Bug Blaster or the new super doper vacuum (boy does that have great suctions - literally lifts the rug off the carpet even on the lowest suction power setting !!).

What do you guys use to deal with ants who invade the house - that's SAFE around reptiles ?

I live in Southern California, so I’m no stranger to ant invasions. Here are two pet-friendly ways I’ve found to send ants packing:
1. Sprinkle black pepper where you see them congregating and they’ll run for the exit. Then sprinkle the pepper at their point of entry to keep them from returning. Most ant species HATE this stuff.
2. Make a mixture of 50/50 water and apple cider vinegar and pour it into a spray bottle. Spray the solution in the infested areas several times a day. Ants guide themselves using their scent, but apple cider vinegar has a natural chemical that alters ants’ scent and makes it offputting.
Both of these methods have worked well for me when ants decide to invade my home and remind me that despite the fact that there are 10 Starbucks in a half-mile radius, I still live in the middle of a frickin’ desert.