Culling the Beetle Population

After picking up a hummingbird feeder some weeks back I finally found time to make some saturated sugar water and mount the feeder.  I got upsold by the proprietor of  “Wings and Things” on both the ant trap (water moat) and bee preventers so I decided to install them.   I Couldn’t help be reminded as I put the ant trap on of reading about the early days of the construction of the Panama Canal before the connection between malaria and mosquitoes had been made where hospitals would put the feet of their cots in buckets of water to keep ants off the patients which may not have been so effective a measure against mosquitos.   After some discussion with Cristin we decided to mount it on the window just outside the kitchen.  This would be the best for the sake of the ladies but for various reasons (see photo) it fails to be inviting to hummingbirds.  The only interaction with nature that it has encouraged seems to be as a rather dangerous swimming pool for small beetles.  We have since learned that our neighbors across the way have a half dozen hummingbirds at their feeder so our new approach is to lure some of them to what many consider to be the more upscale side of the street, that panel consisting solely of people that find a driveway full of tricycles, strollers, and scooters to be classy.