RAID and chickens,.

[n2h20]

SO i have ants all around and in the coop and run area. How bad is to spray RAID in small doses around the run?
Will this hurt the chickies???

 

[Heather J]

Chickens eat ants. Unless they are bothering the chickens, I wouldn't worry about it. However, if you can't let it go and are worried about chemicals, I found a little white sugar kept in an obvious place works wonders. Apparently it makes ants sterile after a generation or two and they die off. We've tried it a couple of times and sure enough, they disappeared after a little while, never to return.

Anyone have other suggestions? I'm curious about RAID too.

 

[n2h20]

Mine won't touch the ants... They look at them and turn their heads... I guess they are still learning.. Ha ill have to try the sugar.. Thanks

 

[EweSheep]

Table sugar?????? I thought they would love that!

DE seems to do the trick for me when I was getting ants coming in the house. Havent had any come in since then!

 

[PAChickenChick]

How Ironic that you should ask about ants...as I have just had to take everything out of my kitchen and give it a total bath to get rid of the little household ants....(it was NOT fun!)

Anyway...the internet said ants don't like Cayenne Pepper and won't cross it....they don't like Cinnamon and won't cross it...they don't like clove and won't cross it....

So let me tell you what I've found...when plunked down in a circle of Cayenne the ant will look for a way out and when not able to find one WILL cross Cayenne...the same goes for Cinnamon. SOOOOO...you can use both of these powders to direct traffic but the ants will cross it if they have no other choice. I didn't try clove...but an over-the-counter organic ant killer that I bought contained clover oil and DE. It did work wonderfully but I suspect that was because of the DE.

What I did find out in my searches was.....if you happen to be lucky enough (well, depending on how you look at it) to have TWO ant mounds in two different places this usually means you have two different colonies. The sure fire way to deal with all these ants is to take a scoop/shovel full of the ants from one mound and dump them on the other mound. Ants from different colonies will fight each other to the death. So, not only will this be safe for chickens and enviroment alike, but it is also completely free. And if you don't have two colonies handy...keep your eyes open for ants somewhere else that you can use.

 

[Gazinga]

my girls love the ants! I have a string on here somehwere about when i first built my run, it was ontop of a sizable colony. At first they paid little attention to them, now i cant find a single ant if i try to! they chase them like its fun. No more antys here.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i think this house we recently moved into is built on an ant hill. We have them literally everywhere. There is a constant parade around the perimeter of our house, all around and through the chicken pens, and they occasionally make a break for it into our house. i have tried DE around the house, but that just redirects traffic. i think the DE may be killing some, because what we have are teeny ants.

We are, reluctantly, having our house sprayed tomorrow (in areas the chickens never go). But i would love a safe longterm solution. i'm going to try that sugar!

 

[Anny]

When I had ant in my kitchen we put hot chilli powder along the wall where they walked and they dissapeared. I don't think the chickens would much like the hot chilli powder though

 

[purplebaby]

Quote:
i think it might be like the cayenne pepper that u put in the bird feeder. it keeps the squirrels out of the bird feeder but it doesn't seem to bother birds. i buy it at the dollar store by a large amount. no squirrels, which is good since they make my dogs crazy and one kills them.

 

[patandchickens]

To answer the other part of the original question, DO NOT spray Raid around your chickens. Yes, it could indeed cause problems for them. Periodically people lose chickens that've eaten roaches etc that have been sprayed with Raid, and I doubt you'd want 'em scratching around in soil that's been contaminated that way either.

Have you tried hanging your feeders, if they're currently sitting on the ground?

Good luck,

Pat