Purple Martin Forum

Sad to hear, but if nobody is buying the castle it does not make economic sense to keep producing them. My castle is 30 years old and when I switched to gourds about 18 years ago the martins completely discontinued using the castle. Gourds are so much safer and have so much more usable room inside f...

Does the lanyard lock for the MSS12-r Trio house also fit the MSS8 Trio house. At our local golf course there is an old MSS8 house with a rope and lanyard lock system. The rope is so old that it has almost entirely dry rotted and the house is missing 4 of its 8 doors. An ASY male has laid claim to t...

Terry: If your intruder has a long tail and stripes and the chest and flanks, it could be a House Finch. Just clean the nest material out 3 or 4 times and they will move on. They are not an aggressive species.
Tom

Tom, it does not matter where you locate the spar-o-door. Sparrows will enter the compartment regardless of where you place it. Just put a small amount of dried grass in one of the compartments. This helps to lure a sparrow in. And be very careful, Bluebirds can enter a spar-o-door trap. If you do n...

Hello to the Smiths. Just curious, did the martins use your renovated Trio house. You did an awesome job in fixing it up.
Also, if you or any other Martin landlords in Kentucky or northern Tennessee are interested, I will be offering a very nice TRIO CASTLE for sale around August 15th.

Tom D.

Thanks Steve for the great instructions. I have only had one snake in my many years of hosting martins, cause any harm, but that was one too many.

Tom

Steve:
What do you use to attach the netting to the poles. Do you purchase the netting at a local hardware store? Thanks.

Tom

I used to have the same problem. Here is a simple solution. Go to your nearest hardware store and buy some heavy duty plastic coated wire. Thread the wire through the two holes in your gourds and then slip the other two ends through the attachment holes on the gourd racks and twist the ends around e...

I am also very concerned. Each year I have between 12 and 20 pair. By this time, I usually have around 4 pair. Only 3 birds have visited so far on different dates, and each only stayed around 5 minutes. I have had no predator problems. I firmly believe that something serious, either weather, disease...