My Perky Pet feeder has to have the bee guards on to keep the honeybees and yellow jackets away. Does this one keep away bees and wasps?
1287916
I have not had any bees or wasps. You do not need to buy an ant mote, it has a built one on the redtop where the hook is. You just fill that part with water. The birds also use it for a drink of water so I keep an eye on it and mke sure there is water in the ant mote.
1287917
Megan: I have not had any problems with bees with my feeders in Tennessee and northern NY. I find the feeder easy to wash, clean and fill. I've owned a number of feeders and find this one is the best by far. I love the ant guard on top of feeder too !!
1287918
We had a lot of wasps this summer but I didn't see any near this feeder. It was only ten feet away from where I sit so I would have noticed if there were many of them there. The hummingbirds, however, did like it quite a bit!
1287919
If you make sure and not make the water solution too sweet, then the bees tend to not hang around as much. Mix your water 4 parts of water with one part sugar. Don't add any extra sugar as it will not make the birds drink more, but it will make the bees and ants find and it and hang around it more.
1287920
We bought ours back in the summer. Have had no problems with bees or wasps. Did have ant problems until I bought the ant mote and filled it with water. No more ant problems. The birds flock to it like bees to honey.
1287921
No, it didn't stop them but I didn't have very many. Not enough to call it a problem. None got inside. I make sure that none of the nectar gets on the outside when I hang it up.
1287922
I bought this one specifically to keep bees away because the bees were swarming on another First Nature model that had slots but not the yellow ports. This one kept bees away for me here in central Ohio. I like First Nature bird products very much.
1287923
Unfortunately, no it does not keep the bees away. I have yet to find a solution to keeping the wasps and yellow jackets away from my hummingbird feeders. I have tried moving the feeders to different locations, maybe the bottle neck type feeders are a bit better. The problem with those is that the hummingbirds don't seem to like them either! Good Luck Megan!
1595470
I've not had that problem and I'm not quite sure. The plastic covering the top may prevent the rats. I know the wire around the feeder sure helps keep the doves and pigeons out. Good luck.
943575
I am not sure, I use it to keep bears away from my bees. However, the bears seem to go where they want to go!
2154418
Our trap catches mostly yellow jackets and flies, but bees can get in. The one time a bee got in we opened the top and let it out. Hope that helps.
946743
I'm not sure about yellowjackets, but I know that honey bees have little to no interest in pollen sources near the hive. I have 2 of these traps set up around my house. I had to empty them regularly and only use the attractant they come with. I got an early start to prevent them from building nests in the first place and it has worked great. I hardly see them anymore. Give them a couple more days and if they don't go to it, move it away from the nest.
1193157
I don't understand the question. The feeder itself retards bees, and the little water moat keeps ants at bay pretty well, although some reviewers mentioned needing an additional ant guard.
1592605
Think the answer from "Smart Shopper" was misleading. The purpose of the Nectar Guard Tips is to prevent bees & wasps from getting into the nectar while still allowing the birds access. The tips work well for that but they have to be replaced periodically as they eventually get scuzzy despite your best cleaning efforts. To prevent ants you either need a feeder with a built-in ant moat or a separate add-on ant prevention device like Smart Shopper was referring to. You really need both features.
1682915
The ant moat is the little ring around the hook on the top. You can fill that with water to help keep the ants out. I have found that the ants (wasps or bees) don't really bother the birds. The thing that will really bother the birds is if the feeder gets dirty or moldy; especially in hot weather I clean the feeders every 3 days.
435645
Bees are attracted to the color yellow, so without the little yellow plastic flowers [on most other feeders] they should largely stay away from this one [the plastic flowers are red].
1139982
Does not keep bees at bay. Does not kill them. You can try 'Safer Soap' for bee control, will deter them away, and spray late in the day. Bees see pollen in a fluorescence and the Safer Soap covers the plant and then the bees do not read the fluorescence correctly. It washes off with moisture, dew, rain etc so reapply. Bees help keep other insects off the plants and are beneficial for the plants health. You may not have as healthy a plant if you get rid of them. Bees are needed for pollination and therefore flowers and blooms. My instructions to use Safer Soap will not kill bees but will keep them off the plant and they will go looking elsewhere for pollen. he Safer Soap will also protect your plant from mold, mildew and more.
2013605
Nothing. Actually, there are "ant" guards you can buy that can be forced into the hole that help. I mostly bring them out when we sit on the porch in the afternoon. The hummingbirds find it quickly, but the bees don't. The other option that's works temporarily on the one we leave out all the time is to spray the tip. It seems to affect the wasps but not the hummers.
589648
I am no expert, but this hangs free in my carport and it has at least ten bee's over last summer. Not sure if mounting it would have caught more bee's, possibly and I will give it some thought. Maybe buy two and try an experiment.
1492373
Nope! Doesn't hurt them and doesn't deter them. We still have bees buzzing around our flowers - right under the product hanging on our porch. Both our fruit trees got pollinated and produced fruit.
1986088
I do not have trouble with bees or yellowjackets getting into this feeder. I hang it from a hook that hangs down from under the eaves. I don't invert it until I'm out there ready to hang it so it doesn't get any nectar on the outside of the feeder.
1416210
We had three kinds of wasp and a few yellow jackets. The traps worked well in thinning them out. Now we can sit on our back deck and seldom see wasp unless they are in the trap. One added advantage is that the traps have gotten rid of hundreds of flies also.
1986090
Personally, I have not had a problem with bees getting into this feeder. I think that the sugar water solution is too far down and they can't reach it, whereas hummingbirds have long beaks that go down further into the reservoir. On a side note, my birds seem to like this feeder over my more expensive Hummzinger Feeder.
32970
I bought this mid-Summer. It does NOT keep wasps/bees away. They still buzz around the area. I did read that the idea is to keep queens from nesting near the device, I guess I will find out next summer.