free range chickens and poisoned ants

[rainbowgardens]

I'm not sure if this goes in this catagory, but here goes.

I just found hundreds of dead ants in one of my flowerbeds in the yard where my hens free-range. I have not used poison in there for over a decade. Last spring, '08, I put down diatomatious earth along the whole bed because of ant colonies there. It didn't work. I find it hard to believe that more than a year later, there could be a residue that would suddenly kill hundreds, if not thousands of them in one area. They are just laying on the surface.

Does anybody have any idea what could have caused this and if I should be concerned for my hens that have free-run of the yard? I don't even know how long they have been there. I'm sure it's been less than a week, or the rains we had would have washed them away.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Are you using fertilizer or plant food in your flower beds? That could have caused the ant deaths. I don't know about the chickens getting into any poison, but I have yet to see any of my chickens eat ants, dead or alive. So if that is your concern I wouldn't worry about it

 

[rainbowgardens]

I don't even use chemical fertilizers. My chickens do the fertilizing in my yard!
My girls definately eat ants. They've been scratching around the ant colonies at the edge of the bed all year.

The only other thing that could have contaminated that portion of the bed is maybe my dog taking care of business.

 

[Zookeeper9000]

If you use a bloom booster like Preen then that will kill bee's, butterfly's and your ants.

Most people dont' know this.

 

[rainbowgardens]

Nope, didn't use anything, anywhere in my yard.
It's really strange.
There are ants nearby in their colonies in the bed. For some strange reason, there are tons of dead ants laying around in this one area. Whatever it was had to kill them immediately as they walked over this area.
That, or something deposited them there.

 

[Uppity Peon]

Curiouser and curiouser....

As I understand it though, DE does not decompose. Being a mineral, it can remain effective for a long time. It is abrasive and cuts holes in the exoskeletons of insects making them vulnerable to disease and dehydration. Maybe it is the DE that caused the ant die-off!

 

[Uppity Peon]

Maybe they are dying underground and being carried out and dumped there by other ants.

 

[chickachickadoo]

My first flock of chicks definitely ate ants. Our current batch haven't been outside yet.

That is curious. A lot of dead ants...outside. Are they fire ants, or sugar ants? If they are fire ants, if two colonies get too close to each other, supposedly they will try to kill each other. (That is why some people recommend as a natural remedy for fire ants that you mix two colonies. The two will wipe each other out, as fire ants tend to be aggressive.)

Could there be some kind of drift and a neighbor's pesticide have done something like that?

That is indeed curious. I can't wait to hear the answer.

 

[DiVon80]

I have also heard this. find the cure-ants are driving us crazy right now!!!

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[kees]

I sure wish that my chickens would eat ants!

Suzy