Thirsty. Or hungry. Just annoying.

When I added a couple of new hummingbird feeders earlier this summer in an effort to get the hummers to settle down a little and share, I made more work for myself. You see, hummingbird feeders get filled with sugar water, and there are lots of critters that like sugar water. Hummingbirds, yes, but also woodpeckers, wasps, and ants. Don't forget raccoons too. There's only one creature from that list that is a real problem in my yard though.

Can you guess which it is? Yep, raccoons. Wait, I mean ants. (I'm so used to blaming raccoons for every problem in my garden.)

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These new feeders have a built in reservoir in the lid, which should be filled with an ant-deterring liquid. The problem is that liquids evaporate, so unless I check the feeders a couple of times a day the reservoirs dry out and the ants move in.

These big ants have only been a problem for a couple of weeks, but they're persistent.

I'm going in!

I'm coming out!

They climb up the pole (which is also being climbed by a cypress vine seedling now):

Climb down to the hook, sometimes stopping to get directions from their hive mates:

Then help themselves to a nice drink, or meal, or whatever it is to them:

They're pretty defensive -- at least they look that way to me:

Put your finger down here, I dare you!

When I remove the feeder to clean and refill it, they quickly form a mob, searching for the missing feast:

With the feeder back in place they feel only momentary relief, as the reservoir is now full and they can't cross it:

Eventually they will make it across and the cycle will start over. I know I can't win, but at least I can hope to let the hummers get a few drinks before the ants reclaim this as their own again.

Incidentally, I've read that you shouldn't use oil in the reservoir, as it can get on the birds' wings, which would cause all sorts of problems. That's why I stick with water with a couple of drops of soap in it as an extra deterrent. The soap becomes a problem when it rains as it will overflow and run down into the feeder area, contaminating the sugar water so the birds won't drink it -- but since it hasn't rained in weeks I'm not too worried about that right now.

I do wonder why the woodpeckers don't take care of the ants for me. Maybe they do -- perhaps they've already eaten their fill but the ants just keep coming.

So I'll keep battling them until the sad day when all of the hummingbirds head south for the winter, and I put away the feeders until next year.

Stupid ants.

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