Ants in my garden

I've been working on a small patch of land in front of the house. It already has a bunch of vegetation at the boundaries and a central dirt area with two or three plants of grass. I've been trying very hard to make this area grassy and I'm happy to see the results in a couple months.I also make compost pits to make use of the kitchen waste.This patch of land has always had a very bad ant infestation. Easily 20 different colonies with giant to tiny ants, both red and black.They don't let me work, and we've had too many people bit now.Last week I tried to get rid of them by pouring boiling hot water into the anthills. I've been trying not to kill them, but they've been eating baby leaves from plants I'm rehabilitating.The next day, instead of less, I had waaaaaaaaay more ants. The entire dirt area was covered with tiny ant hills, mostly red ants.So I gave up and went to the store and got some "safe" pesticide for ants. (Azadirachtin 0.03%). I tried to use it sparingly but half the bottle is gone.Now the seller and bottle didn't specify if I can water the plants/soil after using it.Can I?The research paper I read said that it has an oil base so less toxicity to earthworms as long as it stays in upper soil..... So maybe not