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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Two hummingbird feeder questions (1 Viewer)

MrBJones

Well-known member
I put up a hummingbird feeder earlier today, without an ant guard....one is coming from Amazon, should be delivered tomorrow. Anyway, the ants have already found the feeder. So my question is -- Is there any reason I shouldn't leave the feeder as is (with ants) until tomorrow, and just clean everything and add the guard when it gets here? Or should I take it in now and put it back out tomorrow, with the guard?

Thanks
 
Oops...second question was How long will Kaytee ElectroNectar last before it goes bad and needs to be thrown out? Daily high temps here are running mid/high 90s every day. The stuff has some sort of a preservative...will that make a difference?
 
First, I hope you get the ant guard today. Ants can really be a problem.
I don't recommend the red pre-made sugar water. Some say it's bad for the birds.
Mix 1 cup of sugar with 4 cups of boiling water. Until you have lots of hummers, just put a small amount in the feeder and store the rest in the fridge for up to 7 days. I change my feeders daily, and sometimes more, when the temps get to the 90's. Sugar water does go bad quickly in the heat so be sure and keep it fresh. Also, be sure to keep plain water in the ant guard as some of your other birds might stop for a drink.

Welcome to BirdForum!
 
I have my feeders either on iron shepherd's crooks or on iron S-hooks hanging from the house eaves or rafters over the patio. I don't know why but the ants do NOT go on the iron at all. Never had an ant problem with any of the feeders. I did have ant traps on the feeders when I first put the feeders up a few years ago but took them off ages ago. The ant traps became difficult for me because I'm in a wheelchair and refilling them with water was a pain. Still no ants. Spiders and bees, yes, but never ants.

If the ant traps are the kind that require you putting water in them and that gets tiresome, experiment by getting a short iron S-hook for one feeder, take off the ant trap and see if the ants still stay away. My garden store has the S-hooks in several lengths from 6" to maybe 30", found in the plant hanger sections. They are painted with a green anti-rust paint but that doesn't seem to change the iron's unattractiveness for the ants. The shepherd's crooks are not painted at all.
 
We have 13 hummingbird feeders in the yard and each has water ant moats. They have worked well for us for many years. Yes, you have to refill and sometimes clean out algae but they work

Something New---There is a company in San Diego that sent us samples of their new 'antCant'. We have been testing for the last few weeks and it appears to work well at deterring ants..

https://www.crittertechnology.com/
 
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