Thanks to Alfie for clarifying the difference between catmint and catnip; saved me the trouble! Since I have to fence my catnip to allow it to survive the depredations of my own and the neighborhood cats, I have but one plant. However, since the cats care nothing for lemon catnip, and because it self-sows with the same gleeful abandon as the regular sort, and because I much prefer its aroma and taste in tea to the standard (which to me smells like skunk, although I confess I do not find that scent--at a reasonable distance!--terribly off-putting), I have masses of that around, duking it out in one wild corner with the lemon balm, equally enthusiastically self-sowing calendula, and several mullein plants that I encourage for their medicinal properties as well. ANYhow--my point is this: if plain ol' catnip is a good 'skeeter repellent, seems my lemon catnip would be even better, as it has that citronella-like scent, same as lemon balm. We, happily, have not too many mosquitoes this year, but I will sure give it a try tomorrow for the ravenous black flies that have plagued our area the last couple of summers. I have little hope, though, since the lemon balm did not faze them...CK

You said it is a new feeder and that is a similar type to other that you have. I have found that my hummers are funny creatures. They will go to my yankee droll saucer type feeder, but not the hummzinger which to me looks exactly the same. Tried them in different locations too. Strange since there are a lot of folks that have luck with the hummzingers. I would try two things. Switch the feeder they are using to that location and see if they go to it, then you will know it is the new feeder. Second thing to try is to move the location of the feeder in question, even just ten feet. They say that hummers will find the moved feeder right away, but it will take the bees a few days to a week to find it.

12 Steps for Overfeeders Anonymous Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs Step 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character Step 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings Step 8 - Made a list of all earthworms we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all Step 9 - Made direct amends to such earthworms wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs This version of the 12 steps is an adaptation from the original 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and is intended for general use with any addictive or dysfunctional behavior, such as overfeeding your earthworms, obsessing about bin size or breeding habits, etc.

I've tried many things and many of the suggestions,,one man that has a hundred hummingbird feeders says he has rubbed tea tree oil on the tips well that didn't help at all matter of fact it seemed like the yellow jacket start climbing into the nectar through the hole. One man said reducing the amount of sugar. So I'm going to try that but right now ,so I took my hummingbird feeder down because some have said that yellow jackets have a short memory. Some have suggested moving the hummingbird feeder to a different location I haven't tried that one yet because I want to be able to see the hummingbirds.. but mine don't start being overtaken until August. I've read it's because the yellow jackets are done with the work they have to do so then they have more time to do other things like annoy hummingbirds,,and I've also read that one Sting from a yellow jacket can kill a hummingbird. 😢so I'm definitely going to buy a hummingbird feeder that has be guards on it because my whole on my hummingbird feeder is big enough for them to climb right in and contaminate the nectar