Ant guard for birdfeeder

thingiverse

Our Hummingbird Feeder Was Under Siege by Ants. There are numerous commercial solutions available to address this issue, but I wanted to attempt creating a custom solution myself. I sought to identify the essential components required to create an effective water trap and came up with: 1. A leak-free container for the water (a fundamental requirement) 2. An upper attachment point that prevents the container from toppling 3. A lower attachment point integrated into the monolithic design I designed the ant guard in OpenSCAD to leverage parametric design principles. The cup was relatively straightforward, and I opted for a conical-shaped cylinder for aesthetic purposes. A pillar inside the cup was necessary to prevent tilting of the container. Using a half-o-ring shape for the attachment point appears to provide sufficient structural integrity (at least, it hasn't snapped off yet like some other prototypes have). The bottom attachment is also a half-o-ring and may require improvements before heavier bird feeders are used. However, for our current plastic hummingbird feeder, it seems to be functioning adequately well. CAVEAT: As I mentioned earlier, the bottom support may not be suitable for heavy (read: glass) birdfeeders. Consider this design carefully before using it with Grandma's hand-blown-glass antique hummingbird feeder. If your property is damaged due to ignoring this warning, feel free to sue me. If my net worth were substantial, I wouldn't be 3D printing objects that can be purchased from Amazon for seven bucks.