I had too many visitors (graphic pics)

[Ace_king_brahma]

If you can't look at graphic pics this is the time to walk away from this post. I dealt with too many problems this morning and now several less ants in the world and another predator.

I walked into my shop this morning and as I got ready to feed everyone I noticed that some of the cages were too quiet. Upon looking I saw that fire ants some time in the night had killed and ate my newest splash araucana and a dark cornish pullet. Looking into another I saw two muscovies dead and being eaten and in the main brooder 3 polish chicks being devoured and another 2 dying. I ran and got all I had at hand which was a can of wasp spray and took care of the lines of ants.

After searching about and killing ants I was ready to start up the tasks I had to do. As I thought about checking my big quail cage to see if the ants had attacked them as well I saw something huddled in the corner of the cage. Without much thought I grabbed a graden hoe and machete. Soon as I poked the hoe in the bundled up thing turned out to be a 5/9 to 5/11 snake.

It tried to get away but the quail it tucked down kept it from escaping out the cage. I got it out and it kept trying to bite the hoe the entire time. I pinned it's head down and then hacked away until it's head came off. I'm not sure what kind of snake it was and I was tempted to skin it and keep the meat for the grill but I had to get to work so I just disposed of the body.

I'm hoping if I see another one it will be before it eats something. I'm curious to find out what it is though I'm thinking it's just a chicken snake. A friend at work got after me that if I saved it he would have bought it off of me because he said it might have been a rat snake which he is looking for another one.

So here are the pics but again they are graphic:

Headless beast

Snake's pattern

Tail

Solovieno trying to act like he made the kill

Snake's head

Snake's head 2

My Poor big fat Texas AM Quail Hen it ate

 

[chickflick]

Are you serious? Fire ants can kill chickens? Wow! Did not know that. Sorry man. That must have been really tough to deal with. Use to live in Humble, TX and hated those fire ants. Use to put gas in their mounds and light it up. Again, sorry for your losses.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Thanks. And yep if enough attack they can. These were all caged chicks they attacked. They had been in the shop but since they had been only eating spilled food before I left them alone. Now they have to go.

 

[dixygirl]

DE or Sevin will kill ants. We all need to remember to keep one of them down at all times.

So sorry about your losses and congratulations on rescuing the body of your quail out of that slimy predator.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

I had a real old bottle of Sevin liquid concentrate that I used on them and it looks to be working. I picked up some Ortho Max which said will kill them on contact and work up to 6 weeks.

As for the quail it had just killed her not long before I showed up. It was only about a foot and half down it's body. So I just pushed on the lump until she popped out. I had to confirm which one he ate...the male looks like her in a lot of ways.

 

[jjthink]

Gotta wonder about a world cruel enough to let a poor being be tortured to death by ants. Makes me sick and sad. I'm so sorry.
JJ

 

[chickbea]

Oh, dear. I'm so sorry.

 

[HillCountryMomma]

That is <was!> a rat snake. Pretty common through most parts of Texas. Good snakes to have around right up until they start eating big things like birds. Real bummer when they do too. Typically they won't eat eggs/birds unless they run out of other options or the birds are an easy target.

We just rescued and released a little (3') one under our feed shed. I know we have them all over around here (amongst a variety of other snakes), never had one mess with my birds (knocking on wood).

If you catch another, just rehome it. They really are beneficial to the environment.

Might want to reconsider the way you are keeping the birds penned. I've raised chickens for many, many years in C. Texas. Never, ever had fire ants attack and kill them. That's really horrendous. Those darn fire ants are just evil incarnate. They're killing local less agressive species of ants in addition to the general havock they cause people and animals. Really just no good miserable pests.

Sorry you lost your birds.

Liz

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Thanks I was wondering what kind of snake it was. The ants are destroying me! I put poison along the walls of my shop and the ants are no longer attacking my birds but have moved on to another room and attacking my mealworm and cricket bins! Things are slowing down so I might shut down for the season and bring the chicks to the brooders at my house.

 

[cjeanean]

Is there any way to completely poison the perimeter of your shop??? Or call a pro in to exterminate the little &*(@$^@??? Sorry you had to go through that! I had no idea about fire ants, either, but I don't think they're in my area....