Keep Ants out of Your Hummingbird Feeder

If you live in a part of the country where you can enjoy hummingbirds, you may have noticed that ants love sugar water even more than hummers do. The little gals quickly learn the source of any drips from your feeder; parade up the wall, across the rafters, and down the hanger; and then drown in suicidal droves, contaminating the food and repelling the birds.

Here’s an easy, cheap way to keep ants out of hummingbird food. The one thing you’ll need that may or may not be immediately at hand is a plastic lid of the sort that comes on cans of spray paint: it has an inner ring of plastic that creates a kind of “moat” inside the lid. If you don’t have a can of spray paint around the house, ask your friends, relatives, and neighbors — someone who will let you mooch the lid is bound to have one.

You need:
spray paint can’s lid
piece of cardboard
sturdy tape, such as duct tape or packing tape
scissors
ice pick or large nail
hammer or tack hammer
vegetable oil
hummingbird feeder with stiff wire or rod hanger extender

In the past, I’ve taken a pair of wire cutters to metal coat hangers to make hanger extenders for my hummer feeders. A couple of years ago, though, I discovered that nurseries and Home Depot have rods with hooks on each end that work nicely to hang bird feeders from a rafter. Either will work — the hanger just needs to be stiff enough to support the gadget you’re about to make.

Take the ice pick or nail and gently tap a hole in the center of the lid, using a small hammer. With the scissors, cut out a piece of cardboard about the size of the lid — you can trace the lid, for a neater look, or simply cut out a three-inch-square piece. Punch a hole in the center of this, too.

Now push the metal hanger rod through the cardboard and through the hole in the lid, so that the lid sits atop the cardboard with the open side facing upward. Position it near the top of the rod, and tape it firmly in place, so that it will stay as level as you can make it. Finally, pour a small amount of vegetable oil in the outer “moat” of the lid. Fill the moat about 1/4 to 1/2 full. Attach the rod to the hook in your rafter and then hang the feeder from the lower hook.

Ants hate oil. They will not go through it. Even after it has dried up and congealed, they still won’t get into it! This gadget absolutely positively keeps ants out of hummingbird water, without harming them, you, or the birds.

Hummingbird photo copyright Mdf, from Wikipedia Commons