Fire ants and chickens ???

[halo]

Rice does not work. Just makes them move their mound.

If things like rice and grits worked, there would be no fire ant problem. They would just drop tons of rice from a C-130 flying over Texas and Florida.

 

[carolinagirl58]

Rice, grits, gas, boiling water, DE, boric acid, etc do not work on fire ants because it does not kill the queen/queens. As soon as her workers start to die, she simply moves the mound and starts over again. The queen is fed a liquid diet, provided to her by the workers who consume food, partially digest it and then feed it to her in a liquid form. Any toxins that start to kill the workers never make it to the queen. She is too smart for that. That's why Amdro works SOOOO well. It kills slowly, so the queen is fed the poison by her workers before the workers begin to die. By the time she realizes there is toxins around, it's too late. I don't like using chemicals but there is no alternative with fireants.

 

[RapidEye]

My 10 Rhode Island Red Hens did a good job wiping out a couple of fire and mounds near their pen. I let them free range around my pasture and they spent a couple months over the winter scratching at and eating the fire ants until the colonies decided to move on. Keep in mind, over the winter, the ants don't move really fast and the girls had no problems eating whatever ants came out of the mound. During the heat of summer when the ants can really swarm, I'm not sure they'd get off unscathed, but I'd knock out any mounds myself before they got big enough to be a problem.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Predatory nematodes should work for fire ants. They're microscopic and invade the body of larvae.
I think Heterorhabditis bacteriophora is the variety that uses ants and termites as hosts.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
You know of a commercial source? I'd love to order some.

The University of Florida has been working on and releasing natural controls for years which I believe is why fire ants aren't as much of a problem around here as they once were. Would love to alleviate the problem even more if I could. They are a misery in a mulched garden.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
You know of a commercial source? I'd love to order some.

The University of Florida has been working on and releasing natural controls for years which I believe is why fire ants aren't as much of a problem around here as they once were. Would love to alleviate the problem even more if I could. They are a misery in a mulched garden.

Here's one http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes - there are lots of others.
I've never bought from them because we have a store in St. Louis called The Bug Store that sells them.
I use them for grubs and there is a variety you can use on fruit trees or anywhere where the larvae is above ground.​

 

[hippiehen]

Nematodes work wonders on fire ants but you have to apply them before it gets hot, which it's already too late in my part of Texas. I buy them wholesale through my parents who run a tree nursery, but I'm pretty sure Territorial Seeds and other nurseries have them. FYI: They aren't cheap! They kill grubworms too.

 

[Whodafigured]

I had to laugh when you said your silkies weren't street smart,, live here in Ga. and it's a little before 8pm and due to what you wrote I thought I would go and watch , just to see what mine would do ( I have two silkies) I watched them and low and behold they both went into a temporary coop, I got them Saturday, said nite girls!, and off I went, well I forgot something inside the fenced area and guess I made to much noise, one of them I named Grrrtrude, came out and let me know I was disturbing them, said I was sorry and again said goodnite. She made more noise, watched me leave, when I came up stairs I looked out on the back porch and there she went right back in her coop. Lol having fun with my new silkies. And I do have ants in there I saw them pecking away at them as well. And someone on here said DE what's DE?

 

[Whodafigured]

I had to laugh when you said your silkies weren't street smart,, live here in Ga. and it's a little before 8pm and due to what you wrote I thought I would go and watch , just to see what mine would do ( I have two silkies) I watched them and low and behold they both went into a temporary coop, I got them Saturday, said nite girls!, and off I went, well I forgot something inside the fenced area and guess I made to much noise, one of them I named Grrrtrude, came out and let me know I was disturbing them, said I was sorry and again said goodnite. She made more noise, watched me leave, when I came up stairs I looked out on the back porch and there she went right back in her coop. Lol having fun with my new silkies. And I do have ants in there I saw them pecking away at them as well. And someone on here said DE what's DE?
P

 

[Novaleigh]

My lovely younger pullet (about half full grown) was swarmed and eaten by a red ant colony in my back yard. I couldn't believe that they did that to her in a matter of mere hours! I read a few things, Food grade DE and something that the AZ zoos use against fire ants http://www.extension.org/pages/4245...d-other-birds-such-as-guinea-hens-ducks-and-g