Fireants in Coop

[Sillystunt]

Quote:
I am guessing you don't cook them first...

Right?

no, just toss them around .......kinda like the alka seltzer on birds. Horrible i know but works...................

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Does anyone know where to get DE in florida???

 

[Sillystunt]

Quote:
yes, i have some!!! LOL could also check out www.custommilling.com

I got mine in lakeland.................

Florida...
Family Feed & Pet - Plant City, FL 813-752-0011

Chris Kuchcicki - Punta Gorda, FL 941-637-1372

Judy Anderson - Palmetto, FL 941-722-4809

Dianna Kinney - Dade City, FL 813-546-2009

Bill Leslie - Brooksville, FL 352-238-4970

Blaine Mangum - Live Oak, FL 407-908-8501

Barbara Zimmerman - Lake Butler, FL 321-287-5399

Jean Riley - Homosassa, FL 352-628-0156

Bobbie Golden - Monticello, FL 850-997-6599

 

[MaggieRae]

My method may not work for you, but when the fire ants were just so populous that the chickens couldn't even eat them all (as they do to most small piles. They dust bathe in the dirt and peck the ants off as they come out to defend their home. I'd pity the ants, but I'm allergic and fire ants are mean little stinkers), I get out my shovel. They really don't like it when you pop that shovel in deep and toss their tunnels a couple feet away. If you're brave enough, go in for a second round. Hose off shovel. Come back in a few hours. Remove new pile. Hose shovel. Next day, remove pile with shovel. I've chased one big fire ant pile all the way off my property in two days this way.
When DE doesn't work and the chickens don't work, the shovel always does.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

grits work great on ants, they eat them and the grits swell up and no more ants

I hate to tell y'all this, but plain grits do NOT kill anything.
The ants dont swallow them whole, and even if they did it is STILL just ground up corn.

If you feel like using grits, soak them with sugar water with a little boric acid mixed in.
They will take it back to the nest and feed it to the Queen​

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Thanks for the info. Guess I'll take a ride to Plant City. I hate going to Lakeland

 

[jeb251]

try the plain uncooked grits it will work, I do it all the time

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Grits do nothing for fire ants. I've tried them repeatedly. And corn meal. Finely ground, coarser ground, whatever.

IF the ground remains dry you can use DE to keep fire ants out of an area you want them to stay away from. I use it in my nest boxes and in my feed storage area. Works well there because those places stay dry.

But for areas where it gets wet (such as from rainfall) you'll have to go to a chemical pesticide. Fire ants are the only thing I use synthetic pesticides on. For my birds I put it down on a day when I won't be letting them out to free range. I broadcast a wide circle of the bait outside the perimeter of the hen yard. The ants will find it it. Follow the label directions. By the next day after there has been a rain or a heavy dew the bait will have essentially disappeared and I can let the birds out again. Had to put it down for the first time this year week before last. When it starts to raining nearly every day as it is at the moment the DE loses effectiveness even in the nest boxes. I may have to reapply come September, but some years I can get away with putting it down just once.

 

[jeb251]

get some grits, turn you birds out to free range when it has been dry and isn't supposed to rain, it must be dry, put grits close to the ants, if it doesn't work your out what a buck and then you can poison them

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

There is a theory that fireants will eat grits, the grits will swell up inside their bellies and then the ants will explode. Boom! This is in fact false, and an old wives tale. Ants cannot eat solid foods, and therefore this theory does not work.

http://www.fireant.net/Control/

There are many myths concerning fireant (or ant) mound elimination or colony elimination. None of the foods (grits, oatmeal, etc.) will cause any type of internal problems with an ant. They do not get fatal flatulence; they do not blow up --it just does not work that way!

When people dump grits or other such objects onto an ant mound, the ants do not appreciate the door of their home being disturbed. They then build another door (mound) to their colony, deserting the one covered with grains. Ants have many uses for their mound (incubating young, etc.) and do not appreciate it when you dump things on top! When all is said and done, the colony did not even move (as most people believe), it just built another doorway to the colony.

http://www.pestproducts.com/grits.htm

If any of you who keep saying grits work can show a SCIENTIFIC reason why they work, I'd be happy to see it.

Otherwise, logic says it's impossible to kill ants by feeding them corn​