Despite the fact that my house is spotlessly clean, I have a problem with ants. I steam clean my kitchen every day and in between wipe down with vinegar solution, but the mites are coming in and on my worktops. I hate using insecticides – is there anything organic or natural that they hate?

You might try baking soda, they won't cross it. They obviously found a food source and you also need to find where they are getting in. Follow their trail in both directions. Find what they are feeding on. Then find where they are coming in. Do whatever you want to get rid of the ants that you see and get rid of what they are feeding on (probably something in a food cupboard). Lay down the baking soda near the entry point. Now if you have access to the outside of where the entry point is, look for the entry point on the outside and the location of the colony. I use a garden hose to flood them out of the ground. After flooding them wait a few minutes and you should see them, perhaps thousands of them, coming out and looking for high ground. At that point, you use a good commercial grade insecticide (for outdoors) and zap them. Repeat the flooding and insecticide a few more times. The reason you are doing this step outdoors is that these ants are getting food from the ants that came into your house. When their friends fail to return, they will start coming in on their own, so you have to get rid of them also.