Saved by the ants!

[chrismahon]

Two weeks ago it looked as if we were going to be overwhelmed by red mite. The first coop we took out for creosoting was almost at the point of burning! We had red mite in three others and it looked like they were spreading out of control. We hit them with contact biocide and Nettex but it was just slowing them down.

Then the ants arrived! I puzzled as to why the ants were bothering to climb up into the coops and just what they were eating when they got there. Well now I know. They are feasting on red mite and two coops are now virtually clear of them. Perhaps this explains why the French stone built coops don't suffer that much from red mite? We've stopped the spraying because that was killing the ants as well.

Anyone else seen this? Is there any way to encourage ants to go into the coops, because they may be the best red mite treatment of all?

 

[Marigold]

That's very interesting, Chris. Do you know what species of ant they are? What happens when they have cleared a coop, do they just move on? Do they affect the chickens at all?
I had a bit of a scare a few days ago when I wondered if my coop had got some redmite. So far, touch wood I've never had any, but there seemed to be unexplained flecks of blood on the perches. The tissue test after dark seemed to suggest all was well, so I did a really good clean anyway and have started the girls on Red Stop, that stuff you add to drinking water to make the hens blood taste nasty to the mite so they either go away or die. Have you ever tried that? Like the ants, it sounds like a brilliant natural solution (in both senses!)

 

[chrismahon]

They are just normal sized black ants Marigold. We had a broody in a nest box who was completely undisturbed by them running around her. That was the box that the red mite were in. I haven't actually seen an ant eating or carrying a red mite, just noticed that the mites have completely gone from the areas the ants are in. They haven't left those two coops yet. I suppose the ants will eat the mites as they hatch until they can get no more.

Haven't tried Red Stop. I've heard mixed reports of the effectiveness and haven't looked into getting it here. We are creosoting instead. The wooden coops take a real weather battering here so any preservative I get on them has got to be good.

 

[dinosaw]

Best way to encourage ants is with anything sugar based Chris, boil some sugar in water and then spray it where you want the ants to go or just use a small dollop of honey, though initially I would expect they will gorge on the sugar before turning their attention to anything with less calories. As you know I'm a great advocate of ant killer powder and find it ruthlessly effective against red mite. I was even able to see what happened when I forgot to dust the cockerels coop and mite arrived, even though he had access to both other coops and the hens during the day the mite didn't spread onwards and on treating his they were gone within a day though you do have to dust everywhere and especially coat the perches top and bottom, it's toxic but only to cats and cold blooded organisms apparently and there have been plenty of studies.

 

[tygrysek75]

I had mentioned your story on Polish Forum and somebody had experienced similar thing.At first he tried to eradicate them but then noticed ant eating red mite and left them alone.The red mite had eventually had gone,ants still near the cop but chickens are not affected by them.My chickens love to eat ants and when they start to bring ant eggs near to the surface of soil I put some dish on top,the ants bring the eggs on top of the soil and then i take that dish out and call the chickens to gorge on ant's eggs.So something is going on with ants and red mite.

 

[chrismahon]

I have had a chance to observe the ants closely this morning and they are going along the gaps in the woodwork, hunting for red mite it seems. They congregate in areas where I can see there has been red mite activity. Perhaps they are waiting for the hatchlings?

I'm stopping the intermediate treatments completely. We'll just creosote the most urgent ones and try to encourage more ants into the others.

 

[chrismahon]

The empty mobile coop I built before moving to France has had ants in it for a few weeks, but now they have left. So on the basis that there can't be many red mite left I opened the pop-hole and let the sole resident (all the others have died) back in. She settled on the perch last night and I left her there. This morning I was doing my usual perch inspection for red mite -easy because all the perches lift out. Having found none anywhere else for the first time in a few weeks I got to the new mobile. Ollie was in the nest box and I took out the perch she had roosted on. I have NEVER seen so many red mite on a perch. Quick estimate gave a figure of 13,500 !!! So whilst the ants eat all they can get to there are still loads in the gaps in the wood just biding their time. Incidentally the perch ends are freshly creosoted and had no red mite on them. These red mite had jumped out of the walls.

I'm going to set up my old idea for a 'red mite trap' today and see how many, by way of experiment, I can draw out of hiding overnight. Mind you, it may not even work.