Help ants in pen.

[S n M Poultry]

My serama/showgirl pen is being overrun with ants. Is there anyway i can get rid of them? there hole is smack dab in the middle of the pen. is there any poisin none toxic to chickens? thanks in advance.

 

[SueNH]

What kind of ants? My birds eat them.

 

[dlhunicorn]

have you posted in pred and pests? ask for Docof Dirt to help you...
ETA: I jsut put out a call for him for you

 

[LynneP]

You could put borax in that nest and cover the spot with a piece of scrap wood for a while. After the ants are dead you'll need to clean out the spot. The cheapest source of borax is Borateem laundry additive. Ideally, moving the birds for a couple of days to clear out the problem would be a good idea. Another option is to hang a No-Pest strip on the roof above the nest. The strips are made by Black Flag, Vapona and some hardware chains, cost about $10 and can be left safely with poultry remaining active for 3 months.

 

[patandchickens]

Dump a buncha (food-grade) DE earth on the anthill, if you have it.

I would not use Borax with birds still in there unless/until you can confirm that it really *is* harmless to them -- I knw that it can cause digestive upset if cats lick too much of it off themselves, and chickens might peck it out of the dirt.

Pat

 

[S n M Poultry]

could i spray poisen on it then cover the spot i srayed witha board?

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
Personally, I wouldn't use anything poisonous around my birds. We use food grade DE (there's a link in my siggy line) on their "hills" to get rid of them.

Hope this helps!

Dawn

 

[Kev]

Hey Jeffrey,

What I do with anthills in spots where I don't want them is just dig down a foot or two and as wide, then fill it back up(clean dirt might be better). This usually either destroys the colony if it got their chambers with eggs and babies or seals them in. May have to do this a couple times if their nest is deep.. pretty much the idea is to keep a lid on them until the whole colony dies or moves. You can put something over it afterwards to make it harder for them to dig out again.

p.s. be good idea to water down the fill dirt to make it much harder for the ants and also to re-compact the soil.. the chickens probably will regard it as a very nice dust bath once it dries off.. lol

 

[leslie0815]

I had a problem with them in my brooder/hatcher I had an old man who raises chickens tell me to use full strength apple cider vinegar, I [put it in a spray bottle and it worked good. So it should work for your problem. Good luck Leslie

 

[S n M Poultry]

ok thanks guys im gonna go fix them in a lil bit