Ants!

[chichick]

I have a bit of an ant problem. This morning I woke up and there were ants in my brooder. I cleaned it out and soaked it in water to kill the ants. I waited until it was dry to put it in a different spot and to put the shavings and poults back in, then I just went back outside to check on them and there were some ants in there again! Is this something I should worry about or will the poults just eat them if they see them?

 

[sourland]

Depends on the type of ants. Fire ants can be a real problem. Set the legs of the brooder in cans containing oil so that the ants can not gain access.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I sometimes have an ant problem and I hate it.

Ants make me nervous. Do you know what the source is that is attracting the ants? My source is when I sometimes throw a treat in the brooder and they don't eat all of it. That attracts ants. So, I either don't throw treats or if I do, I remove any remaining treats that they don't eat.

Please keep an eye on those ants. You wouldn't want the ants to overpower your turkeys and kill them. Oh and yes, my poults do try to eat the ants.

I wouldn't suggest that you do this but I spray ant spray on a paper towel and I will rub the saturated paper towel on the wood and the wire in the brooder. I don't spray directly in the brooder because I don't want the poults (and chicks) to have any type of respiratory reaction from the spray, so please don't try this. I don't want to be responsible if something happens to your turkeys.

Can you move the brooder somewhere else and possibly raise it up and away from the ants? I don't know what your setup is, so you may not be able to do that.

 

[chichick]

I made a new brooder and put it on top of an outdoor freezer that has condinsation on the outside... I'll see how that goes.

 

[nes]

I have heard that ants will not cross a border of vaseline.
Worked when we had a problem of them getting on our fridge. (old house, long story)

 

[Stingrayg4]

Quote:
Tried this in an attempt to keep them out of my beehives. Did not work, the ants walked right across it.

-S

 

[Keltara]

Put ant traps near the area that you are finding them. They will take the poison from the trap and feed it to the queen. The enitre colony will die out within a couple days. They are VERY effective.

 

[nes]

You can make home-made ant poison with borax & sugar mixture. I don't leave that kinda stuff laying around because my dogs will eat anything...

@SR that sucks! what did you end up doing?

 

[ColbyNTX]

Ivomec and cornmeal!

 

[Benelli]

We have a major problem with little black ants where I live. They have little mounds and at times in the summer it looks like the ground is moving we have so many. They usually seem to be attracked to water. That's why I bought chickens, to help with the problem. They bite, but don't leave marks or those nasty little puss blisters like fire ants do. If your brooder isn't off the ground, get it up. The ants will still bite them. With the poults that little, I wonder if they don't go into some form of anaphylactic shock from the bites. They bother the larger chickens but they seem be able to handle them once grown vs. a little peep/poult.

Then, get Swat from the feed store, usually in the horse section. It's like Vaseline with insect repellent and put thick lines around the legs of the brooder.

Then, get a container, like cool whip. Put a few holes about the size of a quarter in the lid. Mix three cups of warm water to 1/4 of sugar and 1/4 white vinegar and set it around the brooder or where else you're having problems. They love that stuff and once they get in the gorge themselves and normally end up dying in there. If it gets knocked over it won't hurt anything because it's all natural. I also hang this mixture out for fly control with my horses and most insects love it. It usually takes about two days for them to find it and then they start loading it up.

This is what has worked best for us. Our black ants are so vicious that if a fire ant colony comes up, they will attack the fire ants and kill the queen/nest. No fire ants, but tons of these little nasty guys. They're even smaller than the fire ants, but apparently pack a punch.