Bees, wasps and ants

Why one generic page cannot be right

Most sites publish a single “keeping bugs off your hummingbird feeder” article. That page cannot be correct, because the two main problems have nothing in common.

Ants walk. They arrive down the wire from the hook or the branch above. The fix is a small cup of plain water hung between the hook and the feeder — a moat. Ants will not cross it. That is close to a hundred percent effective and it costs a few dollars. Audubon describes feeders equipped with moats to drown ants and attachable ant guards you can buy separately.

Bees and wasps fly. A moat is irrelevant to them. What works is denying access to the nectar: a saucer design that puts the nectar surface below the ports, out of reach of a short insect tongue, or a fitted guard like a Nectar-Guard tip that closes behind a hummingbird’s bill.

The thing both problems share

One cause underlies almost every infestation: the feeder is dripping.

An inverted-bottle feeder leaks as the trapped air above the nectar warms and expands, pushing liquid out through the ports. That nectar runs down the outside of the feeder and onto the ground. Bees feed on it. Ants follow it. Audubon puts the point plainly — the easiest way to deal with these pests is to keep your feeders tidy, and if the feeder is covered in sugar water, barring bees from the drinking hole will not do much good.

So the highest-leverage fix in this whole section is not a product at all. It is switching to a saucer feeder, which cannot drip, and wiping the outside of the feeder every time you refill it. Why bottle feeders drip.

What never works, and what actively harms birds

Two pieces of common advice are worth naming because they are genuinely dangerous rather than merely useless.

Insecticide. Audubon warns that pesticides can injure, kill and reduce population numbers of birds, bees and other animals. Nothing sprayed goes near a feeder.

Oil or petroleum jelly around the ports or on the wire. It does deter insects. It also damages feathers if a hummingbird contacts it, and a hummingbird will contact anything smeared around the hole it feeds from. A bird with fouled feathers cannot thermoregulate or fly properly.

And one that is merely useless: aluminum foil. Ants walk over it without difficulty and there is no mechanism behind the tip. Addressed properly here.