Do Chickens Eat Fire Ants?

Chickens will eat anything they find remotely edible, including fire ants. However, they might not be a great way to dispose of large amounts of ants, especially if there’s a nest nearby.

While a few individual fire ants will pose no threat to chickens, large amounts can pose a significant threat to them. Fire ants are known to be territorial and very aggressive, so if chickens start wandering close to the nest, they might get overwhelmed by fire ants, putting their life at risk.

This is an even bigger problem to the smaller ones and can get overwhelmed faster and easier. If you have chickens and spot a nest of fire ants, it’s best you directly deal with it to avoid putting your chickens at risk.

A fire ants’ nest can be identified by big mounds of dirt in the soil. After spotting the nest, move the chickens to a safe spot, as fire ants tend to swarm out of the nest and attack anyone nearby when disturbed. Using a combination of diatomaceous earth in the soil around the nest area and applying boiling water with soap in the nest will kill most of them.