If You Love Hummingbirds, Try These Tricks For Deterring Praying Mantises

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Hummingbirds are extremely popular among backyard birders across North America. From adding certain colors to their yards to attract hummingbirds to creating water features to ensure hummingbirds stay hydrated, bird enthusiasts go to great lengths to ensure these tiny avians flock to their outdoor living spaces. However, little do they know that while they grapple with where and when to put up hummingbird feeders, they may actually be luring these acrobatic birds to their death. That is because praying mantises are known to use feeders as ambush points to prey on hummingbirds.

The fact that mantises will prey on hummingbirds is quite a conundrum. Mantises are among the insects you never want to kill in your garden, as they help control a wide range of garden pests. But, while gardeners are grateful to mantises for consuming plant-eating bugs such as grasshoppers and beetles, most are less enthusiastic about them snacking on hummingbirds. However, you don't need to banish mantises from your backyard in order to protect hummers. If you love hummingbirds, you can try these tricks for deterring praying mantises before resorting to pesticides or other more drastic measures.

Praying mantises undoubtedly have value in your garden, given that they protect your plants by eliminating pests. The key to protecting hummingbirds from them is assuring they stay in the garden and don't end up on your hummingbird feeders. One way to do that is to ensure your garden area is mantis-friendly. Organic gardens are the most likely to attract pesky insects that mantises prey on. Additionally, flowers will help attract wasps, which are also high on the menu for mantises. Planting ornamental grasses can provide habitat for praying mantises. Typically, if a mantis can keep itself full on smaller prey such as insects, it won't seek out hummingbirds as a meal.

However, if hunger or other factors motivate a mantis to climb your feeder to hunt hummingbirds, the simple solution is to remove and relocate the mantis. This can be done by allowing the mantis to climb aboard a long stick, then slowly and steadily moving back to the garden or elsewhere to release it. Another way to handle the occasional predatory praying mantis on your hummingbird feeder is to remove the feeder until the mantis moves on to other hunting grounds.

There are a few ways to prevent praying mantises from ascending your hummingbird feeders at all. One is to consider the placement of the feeders. If they are near a mantis-rich garden or hung from bushes or trees, the chances of them being breached by a mantis are much greater. Instead, hang feeders from a shepherd's hook away from such areas to remove easy access for mantises. Placing a Squirrel Baffle Hummingbird Feeder Shade Cover or a similar cover above the feeder can also make it more difficult for mantises to have access to hummingbirds.