Do Not'sĭon't put any oils, Vicks Vapor Rub, Pam Cooking Spray, Duct Tape, Off, Skin-so-soft, or Vaseline on your hummingbird feeder. Feel free to send us a picture of your and moat. There are lots of different variations of this. Use a hot glue gun or candle wax to seal the hole in the cap to prevent leaking.String the cap to rest on top of the ball point pen body.Take a cap from a soda bottle or paint can and put a small hole in the center.String the body of a ball point pen (or large thin bead) on the string.It is best to use a non-absorbent string like fishing line or wire so there is no issues with a breakdown of material due to wetness. Attach a string to the top of your hummingbird feeder.You can also make an ant moat for a hanging hummingbird feeder by following these simple instructions. Some feeders will have ant moats built right in such as the feeder such as in the HummZinger feeders. If you have an ant moat, it needs to be kept clean, just as you would the hummingbird feeder. Some more industrious ants will drown themselves in the moat and eventually fill up the water with ant bodies to create a bridge. Ant's can bypass the ant moat if debris falls into the moat creating a bridge. When you fill the cup with water, the ants cannot travel over the water to reach the hummingbird feeder. This is a cup filled with water that will prevent the ants from crawling down to a hanging hummingbird feeder. Ant MoatĪn ant moat is an ant trap that works a little differently. The ants where unable to cross the water, the hummingbirds have a nice place to play in the water, and the woman got a wonderful water feature. She then hung all of her hummingbird feeders off of that pole. We heard of someone who placed a pole in the center of the fountain pool. Maybe the ants in your area will be a little pickier. Some ants however could care less about chalk and walk right over it. Ants are not suppose to like crossing over the chalk and will leave the hummingbird feeders alone. Use the chalk to mark around the area where the hummingbird feeder is attached for hanging. We have heard of many people who have had great success with using plain white chalk. We would recommend one that had a stronger supporting rod. The rod broke during a small wind event, breaking one of the larger, heavier feeders. We had an absolutely wonderful one that had a plastic rod in the center to support the feeder. When getting an ant trap, make sure to get one with a metal hanging device. Ants don't want to cross this sticky substance. The way they work is that there is a portion of the ant trap that has a sticky substance somewhere between the top of the ant trap and the feeder. There is no need to continuously add water like you do with an ant moat. Ant TrapsĪnt Traps are terrific ways to preventing the ants from invading feeders with minimal maintenance. Hanging the feeder with fishing line also works well because ants can have a problem gripping the plastic. If you notice this happening, try using a bowl type feeder like any of the HummZinger models. When this happens, nectar can leak out of the feeder. If you live in an area with hot temperatures and have a bottle feeder, the nectar in the bottle can heat up causing the nectar to expand. Preventionįirst thing to do is to make sure your hummingbird feeder is not leaking. So what do you do? Here are a few options. It's not good to use pesticides near a hummingbird feeder since pesticides are just as bad for hummingbirds as they are for bugs. Hummingbirds find ants annoying and they taste bad. And let's face it, seeing decomposing ant bodies in a feeder is just gross. Ants will also get inside the feeder and start to float in the nectar. The ants will come in to steal the nectar from the feeder while bringing with them disease and contamination. An ant raid on a hummingbird feeder is a big problem.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |