fire ants?

[frittata]

I don't have any chickens (yet), so please bear with me if I ask dumb questions! One of the many reasons that I'm considering getting some chickens is that fire ants are starting to invade my kitchen garden. Will chickens eat the little buggers? Is that okay? Thanks for your help.

 

[enola]

My chickens avoid them at ALL costs ! I was hoping they would help by eating them. . . .

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I would not allow small chicks to get into them and not sure about large chickens. DE works good on them in my garden.

 

[frittata]

Boo-Boo's Mama :

I would not allow small chicks to get into them and not sure about large chickens. DE works good on them in my garden.

What is DE? We eat a lot from the garden, so I was hoping to avoid chemically treating for them. I heard that ducks like fire ants? I'll have to check into that...​

 

[jjparke]

I've never had any of my chickens eat any kind of ant

 

[frittata]

Darn! Looks like I need armadillos, not fowl! I wonder if they lay eggs?

It seems fire ants can be bad news for chicken domiciles also. Luckily, I only have one small mound right now. It appears that physically removing and disposing of them is best at this stage. Thanks for your help guys!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

What is DE?

Diatomaceous Earth

Basically a finely powdered type of rock that cuts and dehydrates insects
Its organic​

 

[cletus the rooster]

guineas worked fairly good

 

[frittata]

Cletus, thanks, I didn't really know what a guinea was. They seem like cool little birds but I'm on a suburban lot. I think their noise and flight capabilities might be too much for me. Thank you!

 

[cletus the rooster]

if you pour a little feed on the anthill the chickens will get the hint

we have fire ants all over the place here (sunbury,nc).got the guineas for that and other bugs but apparently it is a learned behavior.poured some feed on the anthill and the guineas and chickens went right for it with the chickens busting the hill open with their scratching