Badseed,,.
To funny LOLOLO. My son does the same thing .
NB is 7 years old .
How old is yours???
Mama Japanese's Surprise!!!
Mine are 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. All girls. They keep me hopping.
One of the white chickens (Leghorn? Dleaware?) took a swim in the pond today. It was either really hot or thinks it is a duck. LOL
Wasn't gryndel the name of the creature that Beowulf fought?
Because you guys are killing me with these names and I can't stand to be left out, I had to go look! LOL Grendel was a monster?? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442933/ Are both Gryndel and Gryffin dragons? I could find a lot of Griffin, especially from Dragonheart. ;)
Grendel was the monster that Beowulf fought. I was always rooting for Grendel, myself.
Yep! You got me! That was what I thought of a little monster child with that great big bumpy head! Since the Big Foot names were taken I thought Nordic(?) Mythology would offer some great names!
I had to know that, my husband LOVES that story.
Eufaula,,
How are the hens doing????
I prayed they all made it for the fire ants...
NB asked what color are fire ants and I don't
even know what color they are????LOLOLO
My Chickens are fine now! I had to remove all places that would accumulate moisture. Like under the waterers and feeders. The nest box that sits on the ground ( Mama Silkie insists that her box be on the ground) I have to move it everyday! Fire Ants are just taking over! We finally got rain and light showers during the last 3 nights, that helped a lot! The ants now have other sources of water!
I now know that fire ants will kill Chickens! They will go after any source of water they can find and if a Chicken is in the way or sits too long in an area that a colony of Fireants has decided is their own , they will attack!
I have now lost over 8 Chickens to fireants! All but 1 of my tiny chicks, and 4 grown bantam Hens! Two Hens tried to nest on the ground in the Chicken coop, they had fresh hay and a dry area in two separate corners! But the moisture from their little bodies attracted the ants and they were killed over night! I found both of them last Saturday morning , one already dead and the other fighting for its life , covered in the hated ants!
I grabbed the Hen and submurged her in a pan of water to remove the ants but it was just too late!
I checked the eggs to see if they had been broken or if there was any sign of predator damage ... none! Just ants everywhere! So now I have pulled all eggs and refuse for the Hens to set any more! Just lay their eggs and get off. No more setting until we get the ants under control! Hopefully with the rain the ants will leave the area!
I have tried every kind of ant deterrant ,spray,powder, granule,and liquid on the market! None kill, only make them move. All the years of raising chickens I have never had one killed by ants! I had never even heard of such a thing! I never ever had a worry of chicks being killed still in the nest!
So everyone be aware of this ! If you are having drought conditions, just watch out for the fireants!
Tracey fire ants are Red!
Thank you Eufaula NB was asking about them and is afraid of ants now..
Tracey
how horrible Eufaula, We have them here in Texas but more so in Mississippi and Louisiana. The are horrendous.
I don't have an answer for you.. Spectracide, but I don' t know about using the eggs for a while after using that. I use that stuff that starts with a p.. permithum or something, we had a flea problem from the trashy neighbors that left and took their 4 dogs with them but left the fleas.
I don't know anything organic.
dam that's just horrible.
Beowulf isn't Nordic exactly, it's English or to be specific Anglo-Saxon so I guess that could make it more Germanic than Nordic. And it isn't a myth, it's an epic poem, one of the earliest in English.
We had to read it in Old English both in high school and college, which was interesting. Had to plow through the Canterbury Tales in Middle English too, which I actually thought was harder than Old English.
Eufaula, how awful to lose your chickens to ants! I'll search and see if I can find any info on how to get rid of them. Must be something that kills them.
It should be noted that the bait formulations tested—Ortho Fire Ant Bait, Combat Outdoor Ant Killing Granules, and Amdro Insecticide Bait—may require four to six weeks to work. These products have proven highly effective in other studies, but it takes more time for them to be distributed to all ants in a colony, particularly the queen. Also, these bait formulations can be applied as broadcast treatments to control fire ants over large areas. However, this test was designed to demonstrate products that provide prompt fire ant control in relatively small yards.
Two products—Hyponex Fire Ant Control and Spectracide Fire Ant Killer Granules—provided complete colony control within 24 hours of application. The active ingredients in both products are considered to be hard insecticides, which are effective against numerous insect species. Both products were watered into mounds according to label instructions, increasing the effort necessary for application.
Care must be taken during application to disturb the mound as little as possible, to avoid causing colony movement. Colony relocation is a natural process, but can be induced by disturbance to the mound. Colonies moved during the test regardless of treatment, with the exception of Hyponex and Spectracide. However, no conclusions about colony movement can be drawn from this study. The two treatments with the highest incidence of colony movement (seven total movements) were the untreated controls and Ortho Ant-Stop Fire Ant Killer. Ortho Ant-Stop, a non-bait product, provided rapid kill of some colonies, but other colonies moved and built new mounds nearby. Generally, when an old mound is found vacant and a new mound is seen within several feet, it is safe to assume that this is a sign of colony movement.
The bait formulations Amdro and Combat provided reasonable levels of control by day 14 (90% and 80% reduction in mound activity, respectively). However, Ortho Fire Ant Bait did not provide good control during the test. The active ingredient in this bait is a slow-acting insect growth regulator (IGR) that disrupts the reproductive cycle of the queen. Fire ant workers can live for several months, so an IGR bait is not suitable if very rapid control is required.
Baits do have advantages, primarily due to effectiveness against small, inconspicuous colonies not large enough for the homeowner to detect. Also, they generally require less effort for application and can be used over large areas. One control strategy often used is the broadcast application of a slow-acting bait, followed approximately one month later by individual mound treatments. This takes advantage of the baits effectiveness against less conspicuous colonies, while insuring elimination of larger colonies. It is very important when applying baits to be certain that weather conditions conform to suggestions on the label, since baits rely on foraging ants for their introduction into the colony.
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/aaes/communications/highlights/winter96/ants.htm
The two-step method can effectively control fire ants in heavily infested areas:
Broadcast Applied Baits: Begin the two-step method by broadcasting a fire ant bait (such as Amdro®, Award®, Ascend®, Distance®, ExtinguishTM, or Eliminator®) over the entire yard. When applied properly, broadcast-applied bait products are unlikely to harm pets. This is due to the relative low toxicity of the insecticides used, the small percentage of active ingredient used in baits, and low application rates. When applied at the recommended rate (usually 1 to 1½ pounds per acre), baits should be thoroughly scattered so they are barely visible on the ground, and essentially unavailable to contact pets. If the fire ants are active, baits will be rapidly picked up by worker ants and removed to underground nests, away from people, birds, and pets.
Individual Mound Treatments: Troublesome mounds near pets or other high-traffic areas are then treated individually with an approved dust, liquid, or granular insecticide plus water. These should be thoroughly watered into the mound and allowed to dry before allowing pets nearby. The use of baits as a mound treatment, or use of granular products without watering-in, may pose a hazard in backyards with pets, as pesticides may remain on the surface in high concentrations where pets can easily contact them.
Individual mound treatments provide quick control of the worst mounds, while the bait treatments provide slower, more complete control of fire ant activity over the whole area.
Organic methods:
Several organic methods of controlling fire ants can be safe to use around your pets. For recently produced mounds, pouring 2 to 3 gallons of very hot or boiling water over the mound will provide 50% to 60% control. Insecticide products containing pyrethrins (or a combination pyrethrin plus diatomaceous earth or silica dioxide), rotenone, pine oil, or d-limonene, can also provide adequate control of individual fire ant mounds.
Use caution
Despite their relatively low toxicity, caution should always be exercised when applying baits to pet territories. Remove pets during application and take care to sweep up any small piles of spilled bait product. When ingested in large enough quantities, some baits can be toxic to pets so store them properly in a manner to make them inaccessible to pets. Do not leave visible piles of bait on top of fire ant mounds, as this may tempt some pets to feed on the product.
For more information regarding fire ant management, see the Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project web site at http://fireant.tamu.edu.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=11&cat=1290&articleid=3147
http://fireant.tamu.edu/broadcastbait/products/
http://tcebookstore.org/tmppdfs/19616088-572.pdf This is their publication on a two-step method for controlling them
Thanks all! Hart thank you for all your input! I've tried for years to erradicate the boogers to no avail! I've tried everything , within reason! I cant just sprinkle any thing on the mounds for fear of endangering my animals, and myself! I am highly allergic to most pesticides! Plus the fact that most all of them will kill beneficial insects!
My chickens are not afraid of the mounds at all but will stay clear of them. Its the ants that will come after them , looking for moisture of any nature! But Im doing everything I can right now to keep the ants at bay. so far my efforts are paying off , and the rain is calming them down enough to make them stay in their mounds!
This is the left over mounds that we killed with hot salty water!
the problem is the criiters are leaving the mounds and hiding under waterers and feeders now! Here is a new colony under the waterer!
If I were you, I wouldn't worry about beneficial insects in this instance. I mean I think these things are bad enough to warrent using whatever you can to kill them. Perhaps just block off an area and keep the animals and yourself out of it until you can kill them all off.
Pesticides are so chemically different, there's bound to be plenty you aren't allergic to.
We've had the worst bug problems this summer, probably thanks to the mild winter, and all of them are biting me. I ran across some info on fireants bites when trying the other day to figure out what bit me that left blistering bites on my foot.
Probably a spider or ants bit me but no fireants here, thank heavens.
Plant mint and the ants will stay away - at least the ants in Connecticut do.
or perhaps you could entice them with water to another place. Better hunting grounds so to speak. Then kill them.
OMG! How terrible. I didn't know that fire ants could kill chickens. We don't have them here, Thank God. So sorry to here about your chickens, I know how upset you must be. If the mint works, I can send you some. I have it growing wild.
Cathy
I would love some mint Cathy! My Mom has grown it for years but I never seem to get it to grow . I dont know what I do wrong but it never likes where I plant it! If you would send some Id appreciate it , and please send some growing instructions. Please Dmail me for address and we can work out a trade! Thank You so much , Im willing to try most anything!
If Cathy doesn't have enough - I'll send you some from my yard. Mint likes to not get all dried out. It takes a lot of sun and it spreads like crazy!
Thank you Cat!!!! D mail me!!!!
e.