Ants (1 Viewer)

[FernandoBatista]

Does anyone have issues with ants?

I have 4 ground feeders in separate locations, about 16" long each, so they take quite a bit of seed. All of them are getting attacked by ants. They deplete a feeder like this at a rate of one everyday, so obviously it's a big concern right now.

Any ideas of how to deal with them?

Right now I left the feeders empty so they loose the habit of getting back there, but that wont last...I think.

 

[Mari E]

Do you put normal seed mixes in them? I've never heard of any ants stealing seeds.

 

[FernandoBatista]

Me neither, but apparently it happens

I have regular sunflower seed, no mix. Recently I added some peanuts and corn, and they take everything.

It's happening in two separate locations within my property, the first I fixed without realising, apparently the ants trail was passing right inside the ground water bath, witch was empty at the time. I filled it with water an in the next day I had a couple of hundred ants dead in the bath. After that, ants nearly disappeared from there, don't know if this was the cause or not but they never been a problem again at this location.
On the second spot, it's been more problematic, they emptied several feeders and eventually they slowed down after a few days, and they've been completely gone for two days...until this afternoon. Now they're coming back but with another approach, before they use to take the seed and peanuts whole, now they're cutting it in pieces and taking it. I imagine a few hundreds ants going down the nest carrying each a seed had to become a problem, the nest isn't that large, at some point they to start having a very congested nest ... I think.

Anyway for this spot I raised one of the feeders, with a special home made support, so far the ants have been at the base of the feeder but unable to climb up...hope it keeps that way. The other feeder at this location is completely empty again.

BTW here are two photos of the "thieves" in action