I just bought 3 feeders last night from Wal-Mart for around 5.oo and they are the spill proof ones. Filled 2 up this morning and they seem to be doing great, no spills or leaks so far. It was pretty windy today too. Hope they live up to their name....lol

I dont know what the answer is , I had wasps all last summer and could not get rid of them. This year I have painted over any yellow parts or removed them and I will try to set some lures out of 2 litre bottles with sweet juice and see what happens.

Any gravity feeder is prone to spillage...try the basin feeders. Not often available at Walmart, but you can find the Hummzinger online or at specialty shops. I have three and no wasp or bee problems on my feeders (although plenty of wasps and bees in the garden!).

The Hummzinger solves all feeder issues...I have become a salesperson in here. Should request a commission, really...! But they seriously are the best feeders availbale; and with a lifetime guarantee.

I bought 6 2oz. single feeders with one yellow flower on them. I just threw them away because of bees.. never in my life did I see so many bees feeding.

I also bought the ones at wal-mart for about 5.00 (last year they where 3.88) they have a red, flat, plastic base which is a round 8 port feeder, flowers are build on and red, they hold 16oz, (but I never fill them full) they are made of plastic.
I had one since last year, dont' have a problem with it leaking, unless we have really, strong winds then only a little bit.
This year, I have been buying about 2 a week.. (now have 6) and need a few more. : )

every once in a while I do find wasp at the feeders, but not like the little ones I bought this year.

I had so many bees i had to put my feeders away. After a week I decided to try again , I put up the one I had gotten at wal mart, which is all red and has the built in flowers, it doesn't drip, but I still find a couple of bees a day on it, I put up one from the dollar store with the yellow flowers which i had painted with red nail polish,it does drip, but I haven't seen any bees on it, I guess if you have the time to try different things, and you want them bad enough , something should work for you, I do know that I am painting all my other feeders an putting them all up again. good luck...

Wally has bee traps that you fill with hummer nectar. Place them at the edge of your property and this keeps them away. Looks to be another bumper year for yellow jackets, outdoor activities are going to be difficult. My wife'GMC pickup was covered with them today, probably the wax (Collinite carnauba).

Bees, flies and wasps will always be a pest around humming bird feeders, to combat them I use 1 Gal. or 1 Qt. reusable fly traps (purchased from Rural king although I am sure they would be available from any well stocked farm or feed store).

These traps are baited with humming bird nectar and hung lower towards the ground and several feet away from the humming bird feeders themselves which we hang quite high (Most of our feeders are hung about 10-15 feet off the ground suspended over the edge of our deck rails, while the traps are hung primarily 4-5 foot off the ground below the edge of the deck itself).

(The waste or spoiled nectar from your feeders make excellent bait for these traps but you can use just about anything that will attract bees, wasps and flies into the container like, waste soda, sweet fruits and juices, or soda pop that has gone flat).

Being proactive helps since it is much more effective to dispose of pests before they have an opportunity to multiply, so start these traps as soon as the weather warms and run them as long as you run your feeders.

NOTE: We have never had a problem with common honey bees but that may be an issue in your area that should be of concern to you! I certainly would not want to wipe out a colony of these beneficial bees so please take that into consideration.

However we are buried far out in the country completely surrounded by large tracts of timber and farm fields (including live stock) thus have abundant flying pestÂs (wasps, bees and flies) yet even with the large number of feeders and humming birds we host annually our pest problem is manageable and not nearly as bad as it was before we began using traps.

The video below gives an idea of just how effective these traps are, three years ago in the summer of 2005 we were inundated by wasps, bees and flies; there must have been 10 of them for each of the hundreds of humming birds we had, but as you can see we now just have swarms of birds without swarms of nasty insects.

This is a large file (128 MB) 8 minutes long but crank up the volume and enjoy!

http://piasa.info/hummervidsnpics/Hbrds10Aug2007fnl.wmv