Ants in the coop!

[TinyBirds]

We switched to moveable coops with wheels we attach periodically, so we just move them every week or so or if ants cause trouble. We have fire ants here and also use boiling water on mounds to control. We had more trouble though when coops and pens were stationary.

 

[brucifer]

What I use, and it works great, is a good squirt of Dawn dishwashing liquid (NOT anti-bacterial) mixed into a gallon of water and poured into pesticide sprayer. Just spray the ants. The soapy water will break down the waxy coating that helps ants retain moisture. Once their protective wax is gone, the ants shrivel up and die. This works great on fire-ant mounds as well. In the case of ant mounds, you just pour the mixture over the mound, and you will see in a couple of hours all of the dead ants.

Soapy water is also good for your plants and it won't harm the chickens at all. This is a very effective, eco-friendly method.

 

[sspare]

What I use, and it works great, is a good squirt of Dawn dishwashing liquid (NOT anti-bacterial) mixed into a gallon of water and poured into pesticide sprayer. Just spray the ants. The soapy water will break down the waxy coating that helps ants retain moisture. Once their protective wax is gone, the ants shrivel up and die. This works great on fire-ant mounds as well. In the case of ant mounds, you just pour the mixture over the mound, and you will see in a couple of hours all of the dead ants.

Soapy water is also good for your plants and it won't harm the chickens at all. This is a very effective, eco-friendly method.

Thanks for that helpful suggestion. I was searching for a solution after I accidentally stepped on a fire ant mound. GRRRRRR. I didn't want to use poisons in my coop. I tried your Dawn method on some of the mounds in my front yard before using it in my coop area. I was stunned!!!!! The next morning there were thousands of dead ants on one side of the mound. It took me a minute to realize that the piles of brown/red stuff were dead ants. There were some survivors that just moved and started another mound but I hit that one too. And I will continue to hit more as they pop up now. I have a small sprayer of dawn and water in the coop and will battle the little pests when they show up.