LIZARDS AND ANTS

My current rented place in a semi-detached house has lots of lizards and ants. I am trying to buy those 'poison' and traps to catch them. I see how effective they are to combat these insects. Most of the time, lizards will just crawl around ceilings and walls and we won't bother about them. However, the lizards in the house will crawl down the floor in a group of 3-5 to find food. This is getting ridiculous and they are extremely bold. The ants also are bold, attacking any food left there like for 5 minutes. It is extremely troublesome especially when you want to prepare food to cook.

You see, my room has a balcony and we cook at the balcony because I rented a room at the upper floor. The lizards are always very bold in wondering around on the floor and even table at the balcony. The toilet is not spared too. It is time to get rid of them since it does start to look very unhygienic to cook in such circumstances.

Do you guys have any great methods to scare them off that you tried before?