What do you do about ants in feed trough

[Farmgirl]

We checked on our heifers today and realized the minerals and accuration troughs both have ants in the them. Don't think they will eat the feed with ants in there. Anybody else had problems with this? Anyone have a solution?

Thanks,
Farmgirl

 

[jerry27150]

move them to a new location & don't use anything sweet

 

[Beefy]

dump them out and move the feeder, put new feed in and only enough so that they eat it all in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[msscamp]

You might try a ring of diazinon around the trough/mineral feeder. It will get tromped in, but should retain it's effectiveness. Rain will also renew it's effectiveness. Just replace it on a regular basis. I believe the renewal time is listed on the package. Might it be possible to suspend the mineral feeder?

 

[Medic24]

Unless you are talking about fire ants, I would not worry or waste money and time .
Imagine how many ants they consume while grazing?

Imagine how many ants WE EAT while grazing on our vegtables, salads,and grains etc? If I remember my science correctly...it's almost all protein! :cboy:

 

[msscamp]

Imagine how many ants WE EAT while grazing on our vegtables, salads,and grains etc? If I remember my science correctly...it's almost all protein! :cboy:

Ewwww! You had to bring that up, didn't you?

 

[Farmgirl]

Unless you are talking about fire ants, I would not worry or waste money and time .
Imagine how many ants they consume while grazing?

Do you think they will eat feed with ants in it?

Thanks,
Farmgirl

 

[jerry27150]

even seen them eat bees in grain

 

[Beefy]

i dont think ive ever seen an ant in my salad.

 

[flaboy]

Unless you are talking about fire ants, I would not worry or waste money and time .
Imagine how many ants they consume while grazing?

Do you think they will eat feed with ants in it?

Thanks,
Farmgirl

Mine do. If they are REALLY bad you might want to do something. If it is just a few don't worry about. They are just more protein. Depending on how long my feed sits in the trough, I get ants but the cows don't mind. Like someone else said they eat them in the grass anyway.

 

[jt]

if i wanted to get the ants out of my trough, i would put ant poison on the ground, move the troughs or both.

jt

 

[krusader]

I'd just move them to a new location. But you know them ants probably won't eat too much.

 

[Beefy]

you could feed your ants grits and wait for them to blow up.

 

[flbullrider]

ya might be puttin out too much if there's enough time for ants to get to it. my bulls get fed once a day - dont have enough muck buckets for everone, so some of em I just dump it right on the ground. Within 15 minutes, everybody's done and there isn't anything but dust left in the muck buckets. Never had an issue with ants in the feed. Fire ants in the pasture is another story ;-)

Mike Bishop - http://www.flbullrider.com

 

[Medic24]

As far as puttin out any kind of poison, even ant poison,,, my idea is to nix that idea.... try to keep as many toxins out of the feed area as possible, out of the cattle areas period, although it may not hurt them, it may get "taken up" and we wind up eating it by proxy, would rather eat a few ants in comparison...............trust me, a few ants, or even a few hundred ants aren't gonna bother the cows... plus they don't eat much anyways ;-)