Love those humming birds, hate those ants.

July 21, 2018 4:45 AM

I glass ball hummingbird feeder that hangs from filament off a 10 inch hook on the side of my house in front of my library window. Ants quickly figured out the path from the side of the house out the hook down the filament and into the feeder. I have nothing against them sharing, but apparently they're not good around water and within hours it's filled with putrid dead ants. As this old answer suggests, I've put vasaline on the filament to repel the ants, but when temperatures hit the low seventies, like they did last night, the vasoline hardens and boom, ant soup for breakfast. What should I do about keeping the ants out of the hummingbird feeder on cooler summer nights?
posted by Stanczyk to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

Best answer: I can't quite picture your feeder setup, but would an ant moat work? I use this one—it's perfect.
posted by cellar door at 5:01 AM on July 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

(I should say—I don't find that the ants drown in it; they just stop trying to get to the feeder in the first place. Last year, we had a parade of them until we added the moat, and this year, nada.)
posted by cellar door at 5:06 AM on July 21, 2018

Response by poster: It's like one of these.
posted by Stanczyk at 5:21 AM on July 21, 2018

Seconding both the ant trap (I have this one) and that it functions more as a preventative moat than an actual trap (and I forget to fill mine with water 80% of the time, so I think it's just made it enough of a hassle that they don't bother). From your photo, you'd need to put it between the two S hooks. It's not the absolute most attractive solution, but I agree that the ants just don't bother anymore (and I say that as someone who's currently battling ants in my kitchen, so the ants are definitely still around).
posted by lazuli at 6:45 AM on July 21, 2018

Have you tried tanglefoot? It's the same idea as vaseline, but is more effective (and doesn't harden the same way as Vaseline.)
posted by eleslie at 6:46 AM on July 21, 2018

Chalk works great for this. In my experience ants will not cross chalk. I doubt you can chalk the filament, but can you draw a ring around where the hook attaches to the house? For example, my feeder hangs from a branch of a lilac bush so I’ve girdled the branch with a chalk ring. Of course I chalk the portion of the branch between the ground (where the ants presumably originate) and the feeder thus obstructing their path. The line only needs to be about 1/2 to 1 inch wide depending on the size of the ants. Then when you fill the feeder just check the line and renew as necessary. It will usually last until a heavy rain. I especially like this method because it is harmless, even to the ants, but surprisingly effective.
posted by probably not that Karen Blair at 8:01 AM on July 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

I don't know how much you care about aesthetics but outward-facing sticky tape higher up the chain would also work well.
posted by jessamyn at 8:29 AM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Dust the hook with diatomaceous earth (chalk).
posted by humboldt32 at 9:00 AM on July 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

We use moats on our hummingbird feeders and they work great, no ants ever. Please don’t use vaseline or other creams or oils, etc, if a hummer gets it on their feathers it can be very dangerous. You could literally be killing the birds you want to attract! This applies to seed feeders too, grease on a pole or feeder to repel squirrels is worse for the birds than the squirrel. Moats are available on amazon, wildbirdsunlimited website, and any store that carries a full line of feeders should have them, for under $10. Added bonus, other birds often drink from the moat.
posted by RichardHenryYarbo at 9:09 AM on July 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

A smooth polished bead on the hanging line
posted by hortense at 11:12 PM on July 21, 2018

Response by poster: Yeah, the ant moat did the trick. But I learned something in the process. I bought this one because it looked pretty, but it didn't just look pretty to me. It also distracts the hummingbirds. Not in a dangerous way, but it's the exact same color red as the silicon flowers in the holes of the feeder. A lot of hummingbirds investigate it for an opening. Some even leave the feeder to check it out. Seems hummingbirds have an attraction to red and therein the distraction.
posted by Stanczyk at 4:37 PM on August 22, 2018