Small black ants in the coop

[Bryce Thomas]

So I need to get rid of them but you need to know that my chickens wont seem to eat the ants, not even peaches one of my silkie girls that will eat anything refuses to try to eat the ants. The ants are not after the feed or the waterrers but are just after something that I have yet to identify.

I have come up with a solution but I need to hear thoughts on if its safe or not: I take 1 cup of water and a couple drops of dawn dish soap and pour it down the ant hills to kill them. Yes I have plowed the soil on the ant hills and they rebuilt within minutes. Yes I have poured water down the ant hills, they rebuild. No I don't use insecticides around the coop. Is it OK to do the dish soap method?

 

[Mtnboomer]

Did you use boiling water? Pour a pot of boiling water slowly. This will kill everything it touches. Unfortunately, the ants colony is buried much deeper than anything you can use other than chemical pesticides.
You said they are in your "coop" but it sounds like you are describing your run. Are they in the coop too? If so, diatomaceous earth (food grade) will work.
Are the ants posing a problem? They usually do little to adult chickens, but can attack cracked eggs or young chicks.

 

[Krugerrand]

Here's a thread that mentions borax.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ants.704709/

I'm not sure it's any more toxic than dawn dish soap. ... worth looking into - especially if you keep it such that the chickens can't get to it.

I find the terro(borax) baits to be super effective for those tiny black ants.

 

[Krugerrand]

Did you use boiling water? Pour a pot of boiling water slowly. This will kill everything it touches. Unfortunately, the ants colony is buried much deeper than anything you can use other than chemical pesticides.
You said they are in your "coop" but it sounds like you are describing your run. Are they in the coop too? If so, diatomaceous earth (food grade) will work.
Are the ants posing a problem? They usually do little to adult chickens, but can attack cracked eggs or young chicks.

"buried much deeper" reminded me of aluminum casting of fire ant colonies:

 

[Pasha838]

In Russia, it is usually customary to drive ants away with the help of cooled wood ash, taken after cooking a shish kebab, or from some wood-burning stove. For some reason, local ants really do not like the smell of wood ash. Unlike the slag obtained from burnt plastic, wood ash is not toxic for chickens.
But I don't know, this method is used here, the ants are yes, small and black, but maybe they are completely different ants. In the place where I live there are three species of ants - black, red and large, which live in the forest. Termites do not exist here (the climate is too cold).

I usually have this technique - when I completely clean the chicken coop, before laying a clean bedding, I pour cold (cooled) wood ash under it. Chicken mites, fleas, ants and other unwanted insects do not like to living in ash.

 

[cmom]

I had ants in a couple of my coops. I sprayed with permethrin. The ants are gone.