I just lost a pet quail

[JoseCruz]

It's pretty sad, I woke up to see that ANTS killed one of my three quail and bit my other female. It's pretty sad to lose a quail to something like ants.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I am so sorry you lost your quail and having trouble with ants.

What type of ants are these? Fire ants kill quail very easily. One sting can kill them. I have lots of fire ants here and have had to use chemicals on the fire ant mounds. You need to find the source of this ant colony or where they are accessing your quail and either use some sort of poison at the ant location, (not near the quail) or remove the colony all together. If you are leaving food in the quail area that might be attracting ants, you might remove the food after the quail have done their nibbling.

I hope you can get this figured out soon!

 

[JoseCruz]

Thanks a lot, I think they were black ants. The sad thing is they got to them in there sleep

 

[kingmt]

I like to keep my quail enough food to last to the next feeding especially growouts. So that wouldn't work for me.

I didn't know ants stung so now I have something I need to Google. Lol.

I agree with killing the colony. You can dump about a cup of 50/50 kerosene/used car oil on top of it if it is small(around 3" at the top. More if it is bigger. Boiling water as hot as you can get it & about 2 gallons in you don't wasn't to use the oil. You can also spray bleach around the perimeter where your quail are housed. It is rare that ants will cross the bleach line. It sends to last about two weeks & by then they have moved on to something else. It probably will wash away if I rains tho.

Good luck with your ant problem.

ETA: There is a few natural things you can use around your quail to kill ants but sadly I don't know how to spell them. Boric would be safe to use around the pin.

 

[JoseCruz]

Thanks quys, I will try some of that

 

[DesireeM81]

Diatomaceous earth is great to keep away ants as well. If they are on the ground you can put some in their bedding. It is safe if ingested as long as it's food grade. If they are up high you can put some around the legs of the coop. I use this around all my animals, in my rats bedding (even my nesting moms), my ferrets litter boxes etc. I'm sorry for your lost. Ants are a huge menace.

 

[TwoCrows]

I like to keep my quail enough food to last to the next feeding especially growouts. So that wouldn't work for me.

I didn't know ants stung so now I have something I need to Google. Lol.

Yes, fire ants sting. And wow, even one sting burns like crazy and causes a welt that lasts a week!!! They are evil little devils too. Very aggressive. Just standing anywhere near their mound and they quickly all run up your leg and sting. Too many stings can kill a human as well!! Nasty buggers. LOL And VERY hard to kill. There is only one type of poison out there that I know of that kills fire ants. Other wise you have to burn the mounds to kill the ants.

And in this case of food, I was talking more on the lines of leaving apples or fruit or something ants go for. I can't leave out any sweet fruits for my quail and what ever they don't consume right away I remove to keep the ants from invading.

 

[JoseCruz]

Yes, fire ants sting. And wow, even one sting burns like crazy and causes a welt that lasts a week!!! They are evil little devils too. Very aggressive. Just standing anywhere near their mound and they quickly all run up your leg and sting. Too many stings can kill a human as well!! Nasty buggers. LOL And VERY hard to kill. There is only one type of poison out there that I know of that kills fire ants. Other wise you have to burn the mounds to kill the ants. 

And in this case of food, I was talking more on the lines of leaving apples or fruit or something ants go for. I can't leave out any sweet fruits for my quail and what ever they don't consume right away I remove to keep the ants from invading. 

yeah that's kind of what I did, but we learn from our mistakes right ?

 

[TwoCrows]

Definitely! And the faster we learn, the easier it is on us!! LOL

 

[JoseCruz]

Yea