My hens uncovered a large black ant home, they are everywhere!!! HELP!

[chickgrl]

Will these hurt my chickens? How do I get rid of them safely?
They have their home right up against the fence line of the coup, my chickens uncovered them now they are all over the place.
Just want to get rid of them,

very creepy.

Thanks for any help given,

Stephanie

 

[chickgrl]

I found a thread here on the site about getting rid of ants, anyone know what works?
Cornmeal, peppermint oil, etc?

 

[chickenlver2013]

I found a thread here on the site about getting rid of ants, anyone know what works?
Cornmeal, peppermint oil, etc?

Bleach

 

[MimiChick]

I would turn the soil over where the ant hill is and let your chickens have a feast. They'll eat the ants, any larvae or eggs they can get to (hence turning over the soil so they can get into it) and they may even be able to dig out the queen. Lots of good protein in there.

 

[coffeychicks]

My chickens love a good ant nest. We don't even have any more in the yard.

 

[uglychickens]

I have several huge fire ant nests in my neighbors horse pasture they keep coming into my yard... Anything I could put down as a deterrent? They have several " highways" through my garden!! Their absolutely huge,red things! My chickens won't touch them, I wouldn't either! Lol

 

[mrstomcat]

Those black ants are called carpenter ants and they are worse than termites. We had some and had to have them exterminated because of the damage they do. You can get some spray and spray them yourself. Just make sure you tell the people at the feed store what they are. I have found spraying them yourself they only move not die. My chickens don't like any kind of ants. :/

 

[Arizona Son]

Will these hurt my chickens? How do I get rid of them safely?
They have their home right up against the fence line of the coup, my chickens uncovered them now they are all over the place.
Just want to get rid of them,

very creepy.

Thanks for any help given,

Stephanie

Stephanie, try this: Get some Amdro & put it all over the ant nest AFTER DARK, when the chickens are asleep. The ants will work hard all through the night, carrying the poison granules down to their queen. In the morning, they should have it all moved already, so no worries about the chickens getting into it. I've had excellent results using this method here in Arizona. Hope that helps.

 

[smedly9921]

My chicken eat the ants. But if your chickens and ANT vegans then the best thing to get rid of ants is vinegar. Gig out the hill and pour it all over. It kills them and its smell keeps the one who were not home from coming back. Before i had chickens i had an ant problem didn't want chemicals around my kids did some research and found that vinegar was something to try it worked great. But now that i have chickens i have not ant problems, i call them free treats.

 

[chickgrl]

Thanks everyone! After my post here I did do some research and found that a lot of chickens will eat them, mrstomcat is right they are huge carpenter ants that are making a home and munching away at a straw bale I have sitting in the coup. Mine is a large coup and so the bale was my chair in there to sit and visit, which my hens decided it was a good perch and now of course I can't sit on it anyway.....

These guys are coming out while it is cool and hide as soon as it heats up, so don't really know how many are getting ate if any, I have watched my hens and seems like they aren't bothered by them, the ants crawl right across their feet and my hens don't pay attention. But they creep me out!

I've decided that the straw bale has to go in order to get rid of these guys, so that's coming out, I'm not looking forward to that at all there is hundreds of them.

I'm a little scared of the amdro? My hens are very spoiled and they think everytime I visit them it's treat time, they follow me around its funny, will they do this at night?

Thanks everyone for your input, will be trying these suggestions today.

Stephanie