I have tried "everything" over the years to keep ants out of my hummingbird feeders without success, but have finally solved this problem. As usual as soon as the weather warmed up they arrived in great numbers. I used a wire to hang the feeder, and then twisted an old fashioned fly strip around the wire above the feeder. It has been in place for about 2 months now and not one ant have I seen.
Source: My daughter helped me figure this out.
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All websites warn against using anything sticky or greasy. It's possible that when the birds squabble one could accidentally fly into the glue. The best solution is to find the anthill and eliminate it.
It is rather difficult to locate the anthill when they are climbing down the wire from the roof.
Rather hard to do, since they are finding their way up to my roof and down to the feeder from the roof. not one problem of any kind. Even after the sun and rain washed away all the sticky from the fly sticker.
This is very good news. Thank you!
A hummingbird, could get caught in the flypaper, couldn't it?
Yes, it is very likely that a hummingbird would be caught by the flypaper. They perch all over the feeder and feeder pole. Ants do not cross water. The safest way it to hang an ant moat.
It is not impossible, but very unlikely as they come straight to the feeding tubes at the bottom of the bottle. However, if you are worried that this might happen, just lengthen the wire extension, or cut the flypaper off. It only needs to be a few inches long rather than the full length that is shown in my posting.
HOW DO YOU KEEP THE GUM OFF YOURSELF AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU REFILL FEEDER
I didn't have any trouble hanging my sticker without getting it on myself, but you could use a disposable rubber glove, or if it gets on you, use some household cleaner such as Awesome on a paper towel to get the sticky off. As for refilling the feeder, if you look at the photo, you can see that I have used an extension to hang the feeder. The sticker is wrapped around the extension, and not around the feeder hanger. Just remove the feeder hanger from the extension.
I think your solution is better than what I Just unfortunately did at 10 O'clock tonight. I sprayed the hook and my posts and deck with RAID Ant killer. I hope I haven't done harm to my Hummingbirds. Now I feel terrible! I figured if I did it late at night after the birds had gone to nest that it would be better than spraying during the day when the birds are at the feeder.
This seems dangerous to the hummers. I would be afraid they would get stuck to the paper!
And the little Hummingbirds don't get stuck on it? I am very leary of this idea.
this is a terrible idea as the birds may get stuck to the fly paper!
It seems this could be potentially dangerous to the hummingbirds
I can't believe how easy it is to keep ants out of my humming bird feeder. Just spread a little cheap vaseline jelly around the pole or hanging hooks in a nice lump. I watched them come up and stop then turn around after several days of them coming up and stopping the trail of ants got smaller and smaller til there was no ants at all.
Skin-So-Soft from AVON works very well. I just pour a little on a waded up paper towel and wipe it on my Sheppards crook. re-coat after a heavy rain
Using a fly trap is harmful to not only the humming birds but ALL birds they can (and will eventually) get stuck on it :(
Funny, I thought of this same trick and it has worked great for me as well. I hadnt seen your post but just thought it would be interesting to se if this was a widely used practice to keep ants off the feeders so I googled it.
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