[Arid_gardener] Bees on Birdbaths and Hummingbird Feeders

[Carolyn Hills]

Hi Rose --

For bees on your birdbath, I do not know of any way to keep the bees away,
but they do not do any harm, and are only looking for a drink of water.
Unless the bees are a nuisance to you or your pets, it's best to learn to
live with them. Remember that they are pollinating all of the plants in your
landscape! If you do not bother the bees, they will not bother you.

Some of the hummingbird feeder manufacturers (like www.perky-pet.com) offer
"Bee Guard Feeders" or Bee Guards that can be put on existing feeders. These
guards make it very hard for a bee to get to your sugar water, but still
allow hummingbirds to access the food.

Hope this helps!

Carolyn Hills
Master Gardener Volunteer

----- Original Message -----
From: <RKnapp at supreme.sp.state.az.us>
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 12:55 PM
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page


> Rose Knapp
> 85007
> RKnapp at supreme.sp.state.az.us
>
> I live in Surprise, Arizona.  We like to have humminbird feeders in our
backyard, as well as bird baths.  It went along fine for about 1 year and
now all of a sudden I had to take them down and eliminate the bird baths as
we had about 50-60 bees all the time all around the feeders and bird baths.
What can I do to deter the bees??? I bought a product called Bee-Tour, but
that did not work at all!  Is there anything I can do to keep the feeders
for the humingbirds and not have the bees all over it?
>
>
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