No, ants will not leave if you keep killing only the visible foragers you see, because killing individual worker ants does not eliminate the colony, queen, or nest that contains thousands of members hidden in walls or outdoors, and can actually make the infestation worse and more persistent. Odorous house ants, tiny black ants common in kitchens, have colonies with thousands of workers and a queen that continuously lays eggs, so when you kill a few hundred foragers, the queen simply produces more workers to replace them, and new ants will continue following pheromone trails to food as long as food crumbs, sweets, and moisture remain available and entry points are open. Worse, when you squish odorous house ants they release alarm pheromones that attract more ants to investigate, and using repellent sprays kills on contact but causes budding where surviving ants split into satellite colonies in other parts of your house, leading to more trails elsewhere rather than fewer. Killing foragers also does not remove the pheromone trails that guide ants, so new ants will follow the same paths. To make ants leave permanently, you need to eliminate the entire colony including the queen using slow-acting gel baits containing fipronil, hydramethylnon, or borax such as Terro Liquid Ant Bait placed near trails, allowing workers to carry bait back through trophallaxis to kill queen within days to two weeks, combined with sanitation by storing food sealed and cleaning crumbs, sealing entry points with caulk, and fixing moisture issues for carpenter ants. Simply killing visible ants never solves the problem.
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