Comments on: How to Keep Bees, Ants and Wasps out of your Hummingbird Feeders!

By: Ellie Brown

Ellie Brown — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:51:26 +0000

Would it hurt the hummingbirds if I painted the yellow flower with red finger nail polish?

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:19:21 +0000

We got rid of the feeder with yellow on it and problem solved….for some reason the just didn’t even attempt to use the all red feeders.

By: Valeria Rogers

Valeria Rogers — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:43:44 +0000

The honey bee problem isn’t just for hummingbird feeders. My neighbors honey bees get inside and takeover 2 regular bird feeders with seed. They are after the sugar in the corn that’s part of seed mix.

By: Henry E. Tegtmeyer

Henry E. Tegtmeyer — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:42:32 +0000

Thanks for the great tips. We’ve had a nuisance type of problem mostly with wasps and some earwigs. The earwigs manage to get into the liquid and drown. There are a few bees ‘working’ the flowers in the yard but, not
very many. They don’t come to the hummer feeders. Summer is over here,
in northern Illinois, so the hummers will be leaving soon. We will certainly
be trying everyones’ good advice next summer, 2013. Also, good advice,
from the comments: Don’t do anything to harm the honey-bees.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:57:27 +0000

To keep bees away, could I wrap a dryer sheet around the pole of the hummer feeder? I have heard that bees do not like the scent of dryer sheets.

By: carol

carol — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 18:16:45 +0000

i read about using pam or rubbing olive oil on the feeder, i just used some pam with olive oil and the bees/wasps are flying around but not landing anymore. thank you so much for your help. we were getting so many bees and wasps i was afraid to sit on my own front porch, plus we have 4 dogs and i didn’t want them to be stung either. thank you again. it does not seem to be hurting the insects. grateful from murphy, NC

By: Ria

Ria — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:29:00 +0000

We have had a similar experience w/the bees as the video this year. We were just so grateful to see that many healthy bees we let this go on for the last two weeks. Our Hummers are pretty intrepid & have been feeding more at dusk, I will say I did whack the wasps that showed up. But, more to the point, since TD Isaac has finally passed, our ground is now well soaked & green is returning to our landscape, I feel it is time for the bees to be off doing their bee jobs. So I took the following steps:
1. Washed our feeders in very hot water mixed with vinegar (to erase the chem tags telling the various insects “There’s food here!”) actually I let all the pieces soak for about an hour in the solution.
2. Removed the various yellow “flower” pieces. (they were looking faded & somewhat sorry anyway)
3. Reduced my usual feeding mixture from heavy syrup to about a 3.5-4:1 ratio
4. Coated the plastic body where the bees & wasps congregated with olive oil.
5. Moved all the feeders to new spots (most shaded).
So far the Hummers are back, en force, fighting amongst themselves & feeding like winter is upon us.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 19:17:34 +0000

Yes, PLEASE DON’T DROWN THE HONEY BEES!! There are so few honeybees left, that we don’t even have any where I live (Arkansas). But we do have WASPS EVERYWHERE!!
If you still have honeybees in your area, DON’T USE BEE TRAPS!!

By: Magilla

Magilla — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:33:12 +0000

Don’t drown honey bees…….find every way possible to help them survive. Life as we know it on this planet depends heavily on their work…if they survive we survive.

By: Janie

Janie — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:44:30 +0000

Just tried the Pam tip and it worked! I sprayed some in a bowl and then used my finger to rub some on the port.