Do Chickens Eat Fire Ants? Yes, but They Won’t Clear a Mound

Short answer: yes, a chicken will eat a fire ant. The ant specialists who write for eXtension (the land-grant universities’ shared extension site) put birds on the list of animals that “have been known to eat fire ants when given the opportunity.” Then they add the part that matters. Those animals “are not known to have a major impact on imported fire ant populations.”

So your flock isn’t pest control. And honestly, the question runs the other way around. When Texas A&M surveyed poultry producers back in 1996, one of them summed up the whole problem in four words: “Fire ants eat chicks.”

I read 15 sources for this rewrite. Most are from Texas A&M, eXtension, the University of Florida, the University of Arkansas, NC State and USDA. Here’s what they say about fire ants around a coop, what pulls them in, and how to treat a yard without feeding the bait to your hens.

Yes, They’ll Eat Them. They Won’t Clear a Mound

A hen pecking around the run will pick off a few ants. That’s about where it ends, and the numbers show why.

The University of Florida’s fact sheet on the red imported fire ant says a typical colony has 80,000 workers. A big colony can hold as many as 240,000. Some colonies have more than one queen. On land infested with those, says an appendix Texas A&M’s fire ant project coordinator wrote for Texas Parks and Wildlife, you can find 200 to 800 or more colonies per acre. No flock is eating its way through that.

Then there’s how the ants fight back. eXtension says that if a mound gets disturbed, “hundreds of ants immediately rush out” and climb on whatever disturbed them. Stinging generally starts 10 to 20 seconds after they climb on. A hen scratching into a mound is the thing doing the disturbing.

The one study I found that fed fire ants to young birds didn’t go well for the birds. USGS researchers split 60 bobwhite quail chicks into two groups of 30. One group got starter feed. The other got starter feed plus fire ants. The chicks did eat the ants. But the ones that ate them “had reduced survival and weight gain,” and the authors called the net effect on the chicks deleterious. That was quail in a lab, not chickens in a backyard. Still, I wouldn’t count on ants as free protein.

Texas A&M’s Two-Step Method leaflet is blunt about the bigger picture too. Fire ants can’t be eliminated entirely, it says, so the goal is to keep them down as much as you can.

Is It Even a Fire Ant?

Check before you treat anything. The same Texas A&M leaflet says there are hundreds of ant species in the southern US, some native fire ants among them, and most are considered beneficial. Here’s how it tells the imported ones apart:

• The workers are dark reddish-brown with shiny black abdomens.
• They run from about 1/16 to about 1/4 inch long.
• A fire ant mound doesn’t have a central opening.
• Disturb it and they come out fast and start biting and stinging. They’ll even run up vertical surfaces.

USDA’s plant health service (APHIS) says open, sunny spots draw them most, like pastures and lawns, or meadows and fields. If you’re not sure what you’ve got, APHIS says to ask your local extension office to identify it.

Where you live matters too. APHIS puts imported fire ants on more than 367 million acres in 13 states (Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia) plus Puerto Rico. Outside those places, the ant on your feeder is probably something else.

One more tell, and you’ll find it the hard way. The University of Florida says a white pustule usually shows up the next day where you got stung.

Chicks and Hatching Eggs Are the Ones at Risk

Grown hens can move off. Chicks can’t, and that’s where the sources put the danger. APHIS says it flat out: “Young and newborn animals are especially susceptible to the venomous sting.”

Texas A&M’s guide to protecting penned animals goes further. Foraging ants, it says, “are attracted to the moisture associated with newly born or hatching animals, stinging them repeatedly and, occasionally, killing them.” It also says confined animals (chickens are on its list) are at higher risk than animals that roam free.

That Texas Parks and Wildlife appendix says ground-nesting birds are hit hardest during and soon after hatching, and “the risk is greatest during the warm months.” Hatching quail and ground-nesting waterfowl chicks get attacked too. It’s careful to add that the effect on whole wildlife populations is still argued about. For a hatch in your coop that doesn’t help much. It’s your chicks, not a population.

That Texas survey had 242 poultry producers answer. Fire ants caused problems for 94 percent of them, and about half the market broiler producers reported losing money to them.

So if you’ve got a broody hen setting in fire ant country, or eggs due to hatch in summer, watch the nest closely around hatch day. Our egg incubation and hatch date calculator tells you when that is. And before young birds go out on the ground, it’s worth reading when chicks can go outside.

If a chick or a bird does get swarmed, Texas A&M’s advice for pets is the closest thing I found, and it carries over:

• Get the animal away from the ants as fast as you can.
• Brush the ants off quickly, and protect your own hands while you do it.
• Don’t hose them off. They hang on with their jaws and keep stinging.

After that, call a vet who sees poultry. Texas A&M says a vet’s treatment may be needed depending on how bad the attack was. We aren’t vets, and there’s no home dose I’d hand you here.

What Draws Fire Ants to a Coop

Food and water, mostly. Texas A&M says fire ants follow the flies and other insects that breed in manure, then build nests nearby. They come to water in dry spells. And they’ll go after many kinds of animal feed, including feeds with molasses or oil in them. An animal stung in the mouth at the feeder can “go off” its feed for a while.

eXtension adds broken eggs. Fire ants on poultry farms attack the chickens and forage on broken eggs, it says.

So the cheapest fire ant control is plain housekeeping. Here’s Texas A&M’s list, in its own order:

• Give the animals only the feed they’ll eat, and don’t leave any sitting in the bowl.
• Store feed where ants can’t get into it.
• Keep the pens clean of food and extra water.
• Clear out manure and soiled bedding, plus boards or other junk.
• Fix leaky faucets and improve the drainage if you can.
• For caged fowl, pick up cracked eggs.

eXtension’s list for poultry farms covers the same ground. It says to clear out trash, spilled feed, broken eggs and dead chickens. Then it names the spots ants like to nest, like pieces of lumber, old equipment and manure piles.

Not sure how much to put out? Our free chicken feed calculator works out how much your flock actually eats in a day.

Eggs are the easy part. Collect them often, and toss any cracked ones instead of leaving them in the nest. I went through the timing in how long eggs can stay in the coop. And if your brooder or a cage stands on legs, Texas A&M says to set the legs in cans of soapy water so the ants can’t climb up.

Bait Works if the Birds Can’t Reach It

Bait is what most of the experts reach for. The catch is that your hens will eat it. Texas A&M’s penned-animal guide says “chickens, ducks, and turkeys will eat any bait particles they can reach.” (That’s a park crew in Hawaii in the photo, spreading bait for little fire ants, a different invasive ant. Bait goes out as small granules like that.)

So every source I read on baiting around poultry says the same thing first. Keep the birds off it. Here’s how they say to do it:

• Shut the flock in the coop before you bait the yard. Or bait at night while they’re on the roost. Texas A&M says that in warm weather the ants usually haul off most of the bait by morning.
• eXtension says to keep birds out of the treated area while you spread it and for at least 24 hours after. Studies show the ants pick up most bait within 12 hours.
• Bait when it’s above 60°F, best at 70 to 90°F, with no rain coming. Rain ruins bait.
• Check that the ants are out foraging first. eXtension’s trick is a few potato chips near the mound. If ants are on them within 15 minutes, it’s a good time.
• Around pens, Texas A&M says to treat a strip at least 120 feet wide, so ants from colonies nearby can’t forage their way in.

Then read the label, all of it. Texas A&M says to pick products whose label covers the site where your animals are kept. And labels really do differ. Texas A&M’s 2017 list of fire ant products says Clinch’s label rules out using it “around chicken houses where birds are allowed outdoor range.”

The experts don’t fully agree past that point, and I’d rather tell you than pick one quietly. eXtension says “incidental ingestion of baits labeled for sites where birds are free ranging should not harm the birds.” Seth Nagy, the extension director for Caldwell County, North Carolina, puts it the other way: “baits and backyard chickens are not a good combination.” Where you can’t keep the birds out, he suggests Conserve SC (spinosad) as a mound drench instead, following its label. eXtension’s own page for poultry farms just says “Do not allow chickens access to fire ant bait or bait-treated areas.” I’d go with the strict version and keep the birds shut in.

For a bigger yard, Texas A&M’s Two-Step Method is the standard plan. Step one is broadcasting bait once or twice a year, which it says cuts colonies by 80 to 90 percent. Step two is treating any mound that moves back in. And the University of Arkansas points out why bait beats a mound-by-mound fight. The workers carry it home, and “to kill a fire ant colony, you must kill the queen.”

The Home Remedies, From Hot Water to Grits

Here’s how the home remedies stack up, according to the same extension services.

Hot water. Texas A&M says 2 to 3 gallons of almost boiling water on a mound wipes out the colony about 60 percent of the time. It also kills any plants the water touches, and it’s hard work. Arkansas adds that it’s hazardous, “especially the person transporting the water.” Carrying a pot of boiling water across a yard full of chickens is a bad idea, so shut them in for this one too. And the University of Florida notes that a drench may not reach the queen. Miss her and the colony comes back.

Diatomaceous earth. Arkansas says DE kills some ants but isn’t very effective when the soil is moist. It rarely wipes out a colony on its own.

Grits and molasses (aspartame too). Texas A&M’s word on these is that they “simply do not work.” Skip them.

Gasoline or diesel. Don’t. Texas A&M says it can contaminate the soil and groundwater, it’s dangerous, and it’s strongly discouraged. That’s the dirt your flock scratches in every day.

Nematodes from the store. The same leaflet says the biological controls sold at retail don’t sustain themselves or spread once you release them.

If you’d rather stay organic, Texas A&M lists hot water drenches and products made with d-limonene or orange oil among the mound treatments that can work around animal pens. Spinosad baits are on the organic list too. Follow the label on each one.

And one last line from the Two-Step leaflet that I like. Where fire ants aren’t causing you trouble, “doing nothing is certainly one option.” Keep the coop clean, keep the feed put away, and keep an eye on the chicks.

Updated October 2026: rewritten from the sources below. The old version’s first-hand stories are gone (a Texas keeper’s vet bill, a rooster, a home dose). So are its homemade numbers, from ants per square foot and safe mound sizes to waiting periods, bait prices and residue limits, and its drug doses.

Sources: eXtension Ant Pests, “How do you kill fire ants where free ranging chickens and other birds occur?”, “How do I kill fire ants on poultry farms?”, “Natural Enemies of Fire Ants” and “Are Fire Ants Good or Bad?”; Texas A&M AgriLife, “Protecting Penned Animals from Fire Ants” (Keck and Drees, 2019), “Fire Ant Control: The Two-Step Method and Other Approaches” (L-5496), “Fire Ant Control Methods around Pets” (ENTO-014), “Texas Poultry Pest-Control Practices” and the 2017 list of fire ant bait and control products; Texas Parks and Wildlife, appendix on red imported fire ants (Drees); N.C. Cooperative Extension, Caldwell County Center, “Your Questions Answered by Extension” (Seth Nagy, 2025); University of Arkansas, FSA-7036; University of Florida IFAS, “Red Imported Fire Ant” (EENY-195); USDA APHIS, “Imported Fire Ants”; USGS, Myers, Allen & Birge, “Consuming fire ants reduces northern bobwhite survival and weight gain” (2014).

Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe