See how small they are
Eating the Nest as well
They are hard to be seen. They reduce Bird population in Swiftlet
farm without being noticed. They kill young birds. Few days old chicks without
feathers are their favorite pray. Their soft skins cannot protect them. They
cannot bear the pain of being bitten. Attacked chicks often jump out from their
nests and die. If you find Swiftlet chicks on the floor there is high
possibility ants are living in your Swiftlet farm.
Without failed routinely you have inspected your Swiftlets
farm looking for the sign of ants .You cannot find them on the floor or walls.There
are no traces of ants. You are very sure that your Swiftlet farm is free from
these small creatures because you had put Ant poison bait everywhere. But
occasionally you still see few days old chicks on the floor.
Yes Ants are in your farm but you are unable to find them.
They hide behind the Nesting Planks.They are inside the ceiling. They are in
the gaps and the cracks on the wall crawling out only at night.These are not
Black Ants. They are small and tiny, red color, not those red ants from our
garden which are bigger in sizes.
These small tiny red ants often active during night crawling
out from their nests and attack chicks it could easily evade our search.
I found them in my Swiftlet farm and I have used Ant bait to
poison them ( the biscuit type poison
from China). Initially it killed many ants but unable to wipe out the whole
colony after a couple of months they came back. This time they don’t take the
same poison bait again. They prefer to feast on the soft and tender flesh of the young chicks which contain
fluid. Ant poison baits don’t contain fluid they are packed dry. I have tried
adding some sugar water. It worked well the first few times, later they are not
interested anymore. Perhaps they have learned through instinct or they prefer fresh juicy flesh to dry Ant baits.
I discovered the ants came from the ceiling. The ceiling of
my farm is of cement boards insulated with Styrofoam. It is a 3 storey
intermediate Shoplot unit. My neighbor had rented out the top floor to some
foreign workers. They cook and eat there, the ants must have been originated
from there and now they have adapted to eating
juicy flesh of young Swiftlet chicks. I had put Ant poison baits in the ceiling but failed
to kill them all.
I was worrying… I need to solve this problem or else the
population growth would be seriously affected.
I called a good friend of mine, who had worked in the Agriculture
industry for many years which specializes in Chicken farming in Setiawan. He is
also into Swiftlet farming. He owed few successful Swiftlet farms in Setiawan. He had
faced the same problem before but managed to solve it. He has this special liquid
which is safe for birds but kill the colonies of Ants effectively without
affecting Swiftlets. I guess he must have borrowed this idea from his vast
experience in Chicken farming.
I got a bottle of this liquid from him and sprayed inside the
ceiling and some at the walls of the nesting areas. To my surprise after a week
I don’t see any dead young chicks on the floor. This really saved the young
chicks. This unique liquid is totally odorless as most Ant poisons have strong
smell.
I asked him, “where did you get this special liquid which can kill those small tiny red
ants?” He jokingly replied, “ I formulated it myself”. He told
me this liquid also kills cockroaches, Spiders and Kutu effectively.
I will ask him to send me few more bottles of this special liquid
so that I could pass it to some of my readers to try it out. Those who often encountered
dead young chicks on the farm’s floor may contact me. Please email me for reservation
(swifjames@yahoo.com). Only limited bottle to be given out for free trials.
Good Swiftlet Farming All.