Is Combat ant poisen traps safe?

[Twinkkitten]

Yesterday we had a major monsoon and it has washed up billions or ants. I have hosed and swept them off my porch but today there are some in my chicken coop. I have ordered diatomaceous earth but in the mean time can I put these disks in areas my chickens graze? Or should I keep them in my house only?

 

[chooks4life]

What's the active ingredient? Or just the ingredient list? If you google such questions, it's a safer bet than asking on forums, which gives you opinions but not necessarily validated facts in most cases.

This info I've quoted below is from the manufacturer. I'd bet they're glossing over its toxicity levels and the safety of the ingredients, they can pretty much as a rule be expected to do so, pretty much always legally too.

If I googled the ingredients they list, I'd bet other sites, such as medical sites, drug sites, chemical safety data sheets etc have a heck of a lot more to say about these ingredients, most of it downright terrifyingly bad, lol. That's generally the way it goes, no matter how 'safe' or 'virtually non toxic' it is claimed to be.

People on most forums tend to unquestioningly go with the manufacturers' labels in many if not most cases, rather than doing more extensive research for unbiased info, so will often also tell you it's 'safe' regardless of the authoritative sources out there who have less comforting things to say about it. Complicated stuff dealing with any chemicals, but always best to do your own research, no substitute for that.

Personally I won't use baits or chemical killers due to ecological knock-on effects. You can do the same things with harmless or far safer alternatives. If you bought a good few pots of flowering chrysanthemums for example they put out natural permethrin in levels that immediately send insects fleeing from the area... Provided they're the right ones for it. Easy to get hold of, generally. Wikipedia will even tell you the right species to get, the one that's commercially cultivated for permethrin, but it's the same one most people use to get rid of potato pests, just the orange and gold simple one, not some overly fancy ornamental with incredible amounts of petals and unusual size and coloring.

Best wishes.

.

 

[Twinkkitten]

Thanks. My daughter rescued me and gave me a huge bag of diatomaceous earth. I am talking literally 6000 square feet of ants. The washed up from the floods.

 

[chooks4life]

I take it they're live ants? Are they colonizing the cages?

I've had both good and bad DE, some worked great, some didn't. Best wishes with your lot.

 

[Twinkkitten]

The DE caused them to relocate. We have had severe rain floods and the colonies have washed up from deep in the earth.
It is much bettr today. I mixed the DE in with top soil and they are gone. My birdies are free range, they have a henhouse
they only go in to lay eggs. They also have a dog kennel to hide in.

 

[chooks4life]

Sounds like it's alright then.

Best wishes.