Thanks, Jerry. I posted a link to that story... I haven't seen any that look like that, but I'll keep my eyes open.

 

Uh, Jerry, how about this link that Lainey posted.

 

[QUOTE=Kyras,Aug 29 2008, 09:21 AM] Uh, Jerry,

 

Does anyone have issues with ants taking over the feeder? BTW, bought a yellow feeder with red flowers, not knowing any better.

We had a few hummingbirds fighting over the feeder a couple of days ago, but I haven't seen nearly as many once the ants showed up.

 

We have ant problems from time to time. The hummers will eat some of the smaller ant species. You can also take down the feeder and spray insecticide on the walkways the ants are using to reach the feeder. I use the ant, roach, and spider spray from Ace Hardware and it keeps them away for a few weeks.

 

Mike, I thought of you yesterday when I had to make a trip to Ace Hdwre. A guy in there was buying every feeder they had in stock. We got to talking and he said it's taken him 10 years, but he has over 100 hummers a day visit. He didn't say how many feeders he has in total, but said they line up and wait in turn for them. He makes his own simple syrup for them, very strong, and goes through 40# of sugar a month doing it. He looked younger than me, but all I could wonder was whether he was retired. That sounded like a full time job! But I would LOVE to see 100 hummers in a flock. I don't think we've ever had more than 2 or 3 at a time.

 

Being the typical air head, I put Andro at the base of the feeder. Killed the ants, but the big dumb dog with epilepsy ate it also. So after about 30 minutes on the phone with Andro's poison control people, he enlightened me that despite what the bag says, there is nothing in their product that would kill a mammal without ingesting MASSIVE quantities. They have to mark the bags as leathal to people and pets to avoid lawsuits. You gotta love our litigious society!

 

I think 100 would be almost scary! I do a lot of ducking around the pool deck when we have 20 or 30.

 

As a veteran of several years now of the fire ant wars I've finally found something that's benign but effective. Try using a 50/50 mix of white sugar and 20 Mule Team Borax. You'll have to make the mound look like it just snowed but 9 times out of 10 the workers feed it to the queen and she dies. I use the stronger pesticides on the stubborn colonies. I haven't used it on other ant species but I'm guessing it will work.

I think the worst that would happen to a pet is whiter, brighter teeth.

 

I think the hummingbirds have left me.

I haven't seen one in three-four days.

Over the weekend they were pretty busy and almost aggressive. I'd be at the window or door watching them at a feeder or the flowers and a couple times they flew right towards the glass and hovered right in front of me.

Either they were thanking me for feeding them all season or they were trying to chase me away.

Maybe they were just saying good-bye, see you next year.