ANTS!!! what to do?

[dixiechick]

What might be the best way to rid our coops of ants without doing harm to my flock?

 

[coffeelady3]

I'm shocked that the chickens haven't eaten the ants. Mine love them! They would be stoked to have breakfast delivered every morning!

 

[Davaroo]

 

[EweSheep]

DE seems to do the trick LOL....had alot of picnic ants wanting to come in the house and I spread some DE on the landing and never had any coming in now!

 

[d_rooster]

Yesterday,morning I had ants coming after chicken food in the chicken/tractor coop. I bought some of those plastic ant bait traps and they seem to have worked within 8 hours. I don't really like using any poisons near my chickens, but I had to act fast as I had new baby chicks in that coop and I didn't want them to be the next meal for the ants. I pretty much felt that any spray pesticide was unwise as birds have very sensitive respiratory systems and I didn't want to risk killing the chicks. At least the poison in the bait traps is inaccessible to the chicks. However, momma hen (Silkie) had pulled one bait trap under her as if it were an egg by the time I got home from work.

I wish I had thought about the Diatomaceous Earth (DE), but I didn't know where I could buy that locally at 7:30 a.m. in the morning before going off to work for the day. I plan to seek out a local source of DE for future rapid deployment on ants or other pest insects.

~Donald in SC