Boric acid might not work on pissants, unless you mix powdered sugar or cocoa with it. And since you have a cat, I wouldn’t recommend boric acid at all, unless you only put it in places the cat can’t go.
Since you’re in an apartment, you might ask the property manager to have an exterminator spray your unit specifically for pissants. Moving might be good advice, too: I was in an apartment for 2 years that had pissants during my entire stay, despite my best efforts. And this was on the THIRD floor.
If you can’t move yet, your doing well to kill them whenever you see them.
About 15 years ago, I rented a room in a house with pissants. When I opened my bottle of Yukon Jack, I saw that some of them had crawled under the cap, drank some of the whiskey residue, and died. You might consider putting a small amount of Yukon Jack, Southern Comfort, or various liqueurs in shot glasses and placing them in strategic locations throughout your apartment. Clear away the dead ants once or twice a day, so they don’t figure out it’s a death trap.
So I scrubbed the kitchen down yesterday with Pine-sol (it needed it anyway). I saw two ants at random times later on, and nothing since.
Is it the Pine Sol? The ant baits in the cabinets? Putting the sugar and other temptations in the refridgerator? Maybe any and all of the above. What matters is, thus far, they’re GONE. Yay.
A couple of days ago, I found ants had made a colony inside the pot of my Chamaedorea (the pot is fairly large). I should have known something was up when the soil near the base of the palm was starting to mound up. Anyway, I checked to see how they got in and they were crawling in through cracks in the baseboards! Obviously something attracted them to that pot. It may be because I put some new potting soil in it (the palm never had any problems before). I was so upset, I just took the pot (plant and all), stuck it in the bathtub, and flooded the suckers! They all raced to the top of the pot carying young, and with the removeable sprayer I blasted them into the water, where they were subsequently washed down the drain. I know they have been washed well away because I spent an hour cleaning up potting soil that had gotten out of the pot (the particles were large enough they got caught in the trap).
However, from here on out, to keep them at bay, I may go buy some boric acid, and try the techniques on the page posted here.
It’s worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance…