hitbotter going at it...
 

some jerk thinks it's funny to hitbot a page with sponsor links.
So now, I have a sponsor that used to convert at 1:120 doing 1:25000 !!!
what can i do to repel this attack if anything at all?

Ask your sponsor , they check out the ip's he is sending..
after , if he dont only use anonymous proxies , his real ip
will be so many time repetive.. just an idea hope ..it works

Unfortunately it's all anonymous ip's.
is there any kind of htaccess trick that can block this?

i am not quite sure but ,
you have to filter your site with different connect methods

$filter_method=array ("POST",
"HEAD",
"PUT",
"CONNECT",
"DEL",
"DELE",
"DELETE"
);

some php guys can help ya about it

:thumbsup
thanks for putting us in the right direction