Guest Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Hi all.......we've just discovered lots of ants in the garden. There seems to be an ants nest and they are eating our prized plants. We want to get rid of them but we have 2 hens!!! Any suggestions? We thought about poison but worried about the girls eating it. HELP! Many thanks, Angela and Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahJo Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Really hard call ... we are plagued by Ants at the moment .. they were even coming into the en-suite shower .. and had managed to eat a hole in the grout. . As the road outside is block paved they have loads of nooks and crannies to nest in, and given the "dry" weather we have been having they seem to be everywhere. I have put ant powder ontop of plant pots covered with paddle stones, but the girls don't free-range unless I am in the garden with them. Personally I have become a bit wary of herbicides and Pesticides since the chooks became resident .. so I would prevent their access to any "treated" areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twickenham chickens Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Show them to you're chooks and hope they take a liking to ants! Although i've never seen mine eat ants - theirs always a first time! Drawing a chalk line is meant to stop ants - or is that an old wives tale? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Frugal Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 We pour boiling water onto ants nests. I suppose that's cruel but I won't use poisons etc in the garden. Yes, a chalk line works and I also just read about sprinkling curry powder around too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahJo Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 See ...there is always someone around to save my bacon ... quite literally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 ..... ants nests....... sprinkling curry powder around too. Curried ants, yum. Mine love eating ants so perhaps you could dig up the nest in front of your chooks? My 20yr old son loves ants ...we nearly got a tank with leaf cutting ants when he was 13/14! So, I have mixed feelings about seeing them eating ants, and have to distract him so he doesn't see! Did you know that ants have very big brains in proportion to their size? So, if they grow to our size they could take over the world! Unless chickens get there 1st. So perhaps the chickens should eat the ants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Chickens love ants eggs - turn over a nest and let the chickens in. We shovelled the whole ants nest into the chickens run last year whenever we found them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cate in NZ Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I'm afraid I'm one of the cruel ones, boiling water for me, on the same principles as Kate, & it is horribly effective even though I feel evil doing it, but we get plagued by huge ants coming in from the woods. One year (pre-chooks), we went away for a weekend, not realising that one of the children had left a tin of golden syrup not quite shut properly in the cupboard. I will never forget walking into my kitchen when I got back, ants everywhere I spent half the night scrubbing things clean. We get the flying ones too But Onion & Brie both seem to like eating ants, so I'm hoping that my ant problem might diminish this year I've tried chalk around the exit/ entry points to the house- I'm not convinced that it works, but then the ants don't seem to worry about doors, they'll work their way in anywhere. Mine like the airbricks and then through the wooden floorboards in the conservatory, and maybe I didn't cover all their entry points in my chalking. Curry powder could be good, but if they eat it that could be pretty painful for them too. At least boiling water is quick, I hope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Frugal Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Oh goodness, talking about ants invading reminds me of the year at the old house when I turned into Sigourney Weaver! I went into the kitchen to find the walls completely black with big flying ants. I was horrified but I kept thinking about little baby Tom asleep in the next room - images of them crawling all over him sent me into a frenzy! I grabbed the hoover and started sucking them up. It was just like a scene from Alien!! It took me an hour to get rid of them all then when poor LSH got home, he had to remove the kitchen cupboards to find where they were coming from then make up some cement to block their entrance! I hate them!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happymama Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 LOL! Ants are our Town Council's Pest Department's biggest call out, apparently, and we're beset with the bloomin' things. Ants nests on the grass are common, I just slice the top of them with the mower and watch them panic! It's spooky, but today I discovered them eating my red hot pokers, and there's a programme about ants on the PCTV right now that I'm watching. Wierd. Can't help, I'm afraid. In the event of a nuclear war, the only thing that will be left will be ants and cockroaches. I'm very interested to find that there's a chance my chickens may like them, though, very. Will experiement later on in the year. They live under our drive, and come up the water pipe sleeve when the males (this programme is GOOD!) expand out of their nests with wings, so the utility and hall fill up with them. Cue the deployment of the Dyson Destroyer. They come up between the slate tiles on the kitchen floor too, but I've got an electrical plug thingy that sends an EMP (Electro magnetic pulse) around the house electrics, and apparently they don't like it, it upsets their CNS. So they give up after 2 weeks and go away, and at this time of year never come near the house, just eat my garden (first time this year, and I'm ever so hacked off, my lovely red hot poker - 44 pokers last year! - has only five and they look very chewed. All the others have been chomped). Apparently they don't like clove oil (get from chemist for sore teeth). Around here, you have to keep your compost heap quite wet, or the ants move in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 24, 2005 Share Posted June 24, 2005 Hi Guys! Ants a million for your input and help!! Have tried the boiling water (upsets me as they are living things, after all) but that doesn't see them off completely as we need to get the Queen I think. The chooks love the ant eggs but won't touch the ants. Will give the curry powder a go and the chalk. Having read your posts I realise it's a big problem in some areas. I suppose it's this weather we're having.....will keep you informed of how we get on! I did read somewhere that ants love aphids and the way to see aphids off is to plant marigolds next to the invested plant, so I've done that and now awaiting the aphids to wander off. Angela and Ken (Barbie and Hen) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
