It is raccoons. They seem to love sweet things. I have a raccoon that will climb up my deck eat the hummer food and proceed to the grape jelly I put out for the orioles. I only put up with this one time, I now bring all the feeders in at night. I know it was raccoons getting my hummer feeder because I have a motion light on my deck and when it went on I looked out the patio doors and sure enough, there the little bugger was. Looking all over for the feeders. You need to bring your feeders in at night.
Karen

Oh WOW! Can they climb? Mine is on a pole.

I discovered a squirrel on one of mine who chewed the flower off and was tilting the feeder to drink the nectar. I guess he had a sweet tooth. I moved the feeder to a more inaccessible place. I have trouble with squirrels with my regular bird feeders also. Dang squirrels. I buy them their own food but it is never enough!!!

Novice, Raccoons are VERY good climbers, that is why no one should ever put a nest box on a tree or wooden post. They can get to a nest box in a heartbeat. They will eat the eggs, baby birds and the adult sitting.

That is enlightening for us also because just this week we lost a nest of baby bluebirds, :-( We are just sick. We are as of today moving our nesting boxes and hope to discourage the racoon from coming back. Also bringing in feeders at night, ho hum, a battle with nature/

junie

Junie, as you can tell by my user name....I LOVE BLUEBIRDS! I too am sick at the loss of your baby blues. The nest box will have to be on a slick metal pole and a baffle. Please check the bluebird forum, they will help you setting up your box. I am a firm believer that if you offer nest boxes for bluebirds/chickadees/tufted titmice and so on, you need to protect them. Also....this is a sore subject, but house sparrows will kill any cavity nesting bird if they want to nest in a box. I know first hand I had a female tree swallow killed by a house sparrow and it began building it's nest on top of her. She was sitting on 4 eggs. Again, please go to the bb forum.
Karen

I will do that and also my husband said he will try to put the bluebird house on the side wall of our garage away from any down spouts etc. Surely they can not climb the metal siding on the garage, I hope. I will check the bluebird sight and take all precautions. thanks very much, Junie

I didn't know that squrrels would climb for sugar water either. I have the biggest problem with them getting the bird food though. After almost 30 years, husband 0 - squirrels winning.

novice - recommend Red Rider BB gun. Don't shoot your eye out :) Christy

I have a BB gun..lol...

I had to take my feeders in at night for a while myself.

Untill you said parts of the feeder were chewed off I was thinking bats. Those coons are rascals. When my sister lived in arizona she told me bats would drain their feeders and everyone brought their feeders in at night, which is what you will have to do in this case also.

Thanks for the recommendation about the bb gun. He tried that years ago and they just teased him, LOL.
Now. What can I do about the red wasps at the feeder?

novice 60,

I hate red wasps, their stings are so painful. I
have an old Dirt Devil canister vac that the DW
has tossed many times. The wheels are missing and
it's held together with duct tape, but it's small
and has a powerful motor, so I keep rescuing it
from the trash. I use it to vac wasps from my
feeders - they go in, they don't come out. Could
be because I also use it to vac loose fur from my
dogs. The noise scares the hummers away, so they're
not in danger. If they do become accustomed to the
noise and start getting too close, I'll cover the
end of the hose with a piece of 1/2" mesh hardware
cloth. Each wasp makes a new nest in the spring,
so every one that you can get now means you're
destroying a whole nest. Try it, it works for me.
AND IT'S FUN!!!

ctnchpr
Thanks, that sound like fun. However, I don't have an old vaccum. How does anyone else handle this?