Ants and wasps are the two reasons a working feeder goes quiet in midsummer. Hummingbirds will not fight insects for a feeding port — they just leave. Both problems have cheap, permanent fixes.
Ants: use water, not poison
Ants come down the hanger. Put water in the way and the problem ends.
- Hang an ant moat — a small cup that sits between the hook and the feeder. Fill it with plain water. Ants will not cross it.
- Keep it topped up. A moat dries out in hot weather in a day or two, and a dry moat is just a decoration.
- Plain water only. Never oil, never insecticide, never petroleum jelly on the wire — anything greasy gets onto feathers, and a hummingbird cannot preen it out.
If your feeder has no moat, a small plastic cup with a hole in the bottom, threaded onto the wire and sealed with silicone, does the same job for almost nothing.
Wasps and bees: deny the sugar, do not kill the insect
Wasps cannot reach nectar that sits below a properly designed port. Most fixes are about the feeder, not the wasp.
- Use a saucer-style feeder. The nectar sits lower than the port, out of reach of a wasp’s short tongue but easy for a hummingbird’s long one. This is the single most effective change.
- Fit nectar guards — little plastic inserts that narrow the port. Cheap, and they work on most bottle feeders.
- Fix every drip. A feeder that leaks, or one in full sun where the air inside expands and pushes nectar out, leaves a sticky trail that advertises itself. Move it into shade.
- Clean the outside, not just the reservoir. Dried sugar on the body of the feeder keeps wasps interested after you have fixed everything else.
- Move the feeder a few feet. Wasps navigate to a remembered location. Hummingbirds will find it again within a day; the wasps often will not.
What not to do
- Do not spray insecticide near a feeder. You are poisoning the food supply of the bird you are trying to attract — and hummingbirds eat small insects constantly, not just nectar.
- Do not grease the hanger. Oil, petroleum jelly and cooking spray all end up on feathers.
- Do not weaken the nectar to make it less attractive to wasps. You make it less attractive to hummingbirds too. Stick to one part sugar to four parts water.
- Do not hang a wasp trap next to the feeder. It concentrates wasps exactly where you do not want them.
The order to do it in
- Add an ant moat and fill it with water.
- Move the feeder out of full afternoon sun.
- Wash the outside of the feeder, not just the inside.
- If wasps persist, switch to a saucer-style feeder or fit nectar guards.
- If they still persist, move the feeder ten feet and wait two days.
While you are at it
Insects on the feeder often arrive alongside the other summer problem — nectar that has fermented in the heat. In hot weather, clean and refill at least twice a week; every other day is better.
Sources
- Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute — nectar recipe and cleaning frequency
- Project FeederWatch, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — sugar water guidance
Last reviewed: October 2026.