So the pile of junk has been reduced by half a dozen bags of trash and the ants are indeed the ones I found online
see here and they are not the easiest things to get rid of says the nice exterminator man, who also says he can't help, his gel stuff won't go UP into the ceiling. But hey, he did confirm that mint and cinnamon make ants go away, so that is a good thing.
P.S. Sorry I can't get the link to work, just put Crazy Ant into your browser if you really really want to know more...