When I was a kid I used to play with ant lions. I would catch ants and other bugs and put them in the pits. If I got tired of that I would dig up the ant lions and see which ones were the biggest. The sarlacc in Star Wars always reminds me of ant lions, except it had tentacles.I've always worried a bit about the ants getting to my chickens, my yard is just filled with a variety of ant species. When I was planning my coop and reading this thread (and others) the stories of chickens killed by ants made me want to see if I could design the coop to promote antlion habitat around it. So, I built larger eaves on the two exposed sides of the coop. With the soil around the coop softened from the digging of the foundation and the laying of the apron, the eaves created the perfect sheltered area that antlions prefer to forage from and within a very short time after the coop was set in place they colonized that area. It only protects the coop on those two sides and ants can still get in through the side by the pop door and from behind over the wall, but I've never seen seen an ant inside the coop. Of course I probably just jinxed myself.
For those that don't know about antlions they are larval insects that make and maintain these pits while hiding burrowed at the bottom. When an ant gets crosses over an edge, the antlion pulls sand from below the ant, throwing it up over the ant and causing the ant to fall into the bottom of the pit. Once it's finished eating the ant, it throws what is left of the carcass up and over the wall of the pit. You can sometimes see the tracks of their wandering around in seemingly aimless loops as they search for new foraging sites. You can see short tracks in the pic above.
Please post your results for using the collar.
Ty. BTW did you get moved yet?
