A friend just stopped by moments ago to tell me that my suggestion of providing an alternative sugar water bowl for the yellow jackets worked wonders at drawing them away from his hummingbird feeders. He said he had hundreds of yellow jackets, and they swarmed around the feeders and prevented the birds from feeding. I suggested bowls of sugar water some feet away from the feeders, and sure enough they went to those instead, and bonus!, they landed up drowning in the bowls! The birds are back to enjoying the feeders and his yellow jacket problem has gone away. Okay, okay I don't want to hear about the poor yellow jackets...they're backyard terrorists! Step in a nest once and you'll agree. They also terrorize bees (yellow jackets are not bees) while trying to steal their honey. There's a reason for the term "mean as a hornet". Believe me, I try not to purposely kill anything unless it becomes an overwhelming pest like fire ants and yellow jackets. I love the birds, squirells, butterflies and bees, but yellow jackets gotta go, and it appears this technique really works well.

Backyard terrorists describes them perfectly, and as much as I love most all living creatures, I have no affection for these pests!!!

Is the bowl placed at the same level as the feeder, and if so, how? If I place it on the ground or on the outside window sill near 4 of the feeders, it would probably attract ants pretty quickly.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Donna

DLB--- Mainly I have just wasps here , but I have caught a few yellow jackets in the traps. The main ingredient I use in the trap is extra sweet sugar water like 1-1 with pieces of overripe fruit added. Im sure the same thing would work in a bowl as mentioned above. Plus you can downgrade your feeder nectar to a 1-5 and the hummers will still go to it. I still have wasps even though I have trapped nearly 200 this summer, but their numbers are down. I didnt start doing this early enough in the summer so I could catch a queen. Early in the year they say to add protein to the mix like fish or hamb.

Donna, you can buy little nipple gaurds for the Hummzingers, new feeders come with them, but you can buy seperatly.

Place another bowl or bottle close by with sugar water a bit stronger as bees and wasps hunt by smell.

Read my web page on feeding hummers, you will find some helpful hints.

Ron

Here is a link that might be useful: Feeding hummingbirds

I had a huge yellow jacket problem about 2 months ago but since I set and keep a bowl of super duper sweet sugar water out, the problem is nonexistent now!

At the end of the week, I end up with hundreds of drowned yellow jackets in the bowl and none on the feeders.

Hope this helps! Good luck!