Friends, I have never had a hummer feeder before this year and today I discovered that ants had found it. I have been reading about various methods of dealing with this and for the moment I just took the feeder down for a couple hours, got almost all the ants away (I know, where there is one there is an invasion, but temporarily......) and wrapped sticky tape backwards around the wire the feeder hangs from so h opefully ants will get trapped instead of getting into the nectar. I did read some concern about the birds encountering the sticky, but I have not seen any of them close to the wire, so not too worried about that. I will likely try to put an ant moat up there anyway.
One question I have is, on one forum I was just reading a couple of people said, oh, I never worry about the ants -- they don't seem to bother the hummers! So I had assumed the birds would not come if there were lots of ants, but is that true? And then one person speculated that, since hummers do eat soft bodied insects maybe they would eat the ants?
That would be nice. ;-)
Anyway, questions I have at the moment are, one, are ants a problem for the birds, or just for me? and two, will the birds actually eat the ants?
Thanks a bunch!
Kyla
Please educate me about ants and hummingbird feeders
hummers will not drink from a feeder with ants in it and, those ants are annoying!! Last year I found an ant guard sold at Ace Hdw. that you place on a hanger above the feeder, the feeder hangs from it. Have not seen ants around since. Hummers do eat mosquitoes, not sure about ants.
I also use the ant guards on both my hanging feeders. I got mine at Wild Birds Unlimited. When they are filled with water a nice bonus is that the small birds come for a drink. Hummers will not touch a feeder invaded by ants.
No luck at either place for me but thanks, I think I will try to make one.
I use petroleum jelly smeared on the feeder hanger, the ants won't cross it. It works perfectly, I just replace the jelly every time I refill the feeer. Trust me, it works!
Good luck!
I use a concoction called Tanglefoot--similar to petroleum jelly, but a lot stickier. I think it has pine resin in it. I've been using it for 4 years now with great results.
Mark
I got an ant moat and it works wonderfully.
Thanks all for the input!
Kyla
I've done both the petroleum jelly and double sided tape. Both work great.
I found that the water rapidly evaporates in the ant moat and they're back. I found ant guards at Farm and Fleet that really work. They have a small disc inside that the ants will not cross (some sort of insect repellent). The disc is hidden from view and none of the birds can access it either
I can easily check the water level in my ant moat as it is close by my front door. Rather do that than insecticide even if the birds are protected from it.