I glanced at the hummingbird feeder the other day, and it looked like a twig had fallen into one of the “flowers” of the feeder and was sticking straight up.  Then, the twig moved, and I realized it was a wasp.  The bug was standing on its head in the flower, trying desperately to get a drink of the sweet nectar.

But, Ah Ha!  He failed!!  How did this great win come about?  Well, here’s what happened.

After I put the hummingbird feeder up this year, the bees and wasps discovered that they could get the nectar themselves.  At first, it was just a bee or two.  Then, I was looking outside and the feeder looked like a nest of bees, wasps and who know what other little nectar-sucking bugs.

So, I searched the Internet.   The first thing I found was a suggestion to take the feeder down for a few days.  The concept was that insects are so stupid that they’d forget about it if it was gone for a bit. 

Evidently, they’d never seen a nature show describing how bugs send messages to their buddies, giving directions to good food sources.  No matter how long the feeder was gone, by the afternoon of the day I put it back up, I’d have another busy hive outside.

Another piece of advice was to put vegetable oil on the “flowers” of the feeder.  What was that supposed to do?  Make it so slippery the insects would fall off?  What would happen to hummingbirds who were also coated in vegetable oil?  I rejected that solution.

The next solution I came across was to put out a separate feeder for the insects.  What??  I’m supposed to fill another feeder with sweeter nectar than the one for the birds to attract the insects?  So, I was supposed to have a permanent hive on a corner of the deck somewhere?  Please.

The final answer, of course, cost money.  A new birdfeeder.   It, naturally, cost more than the original feeder I purchased.  It was also shaped differently.  Rather than a vertical glass jar with flowers extending horizontally, this one is shaped like a flying saucer. 

And, it comes with little plastic caps to go over the holes into the feeder from the inside.  The caps have a thin membrane covering the opening to the nectar.  Birds can poke through it, but supposedly, insects can’t gain access.

So, rather than having a bee hive right outside the door, I decided to give this bug-proof feeder a try.  It seemed to be working, but the final confirmation was the sight of that silly upside-down wasp.

Victory is sweet!  (Some days you just have to take what you can get)