Snakes

[MartiStupka]

I was out for my nightly walk with my dogs which takes me by our Purple Martin house. I was due to check the nest boxes tomorrow. I generally see an ASY male outside compartments 5 and 6. He wasn't there tonight, but what looked like a snake was. I could not believe what I was seeing. We have a baffle and made owl guards for our Lonestar house. I didn't want to take the house down this late at night, but I didn't want further damage by this snake. We brought down the house, and opened the door to compartment 5 and 6. The snake killed the mother and had a nice meal of the 6 babies that hatched on or around April 8th from compartment 5. We managed to get the snake out of #6 where it had taken up residence and had already ate 3 more babies that hatched around the same time as the others next door. Three babies remain in #6. Will the parents return? As we lowered the house, many Martins flew out. We just hope that they return. We have not yet identified the snake, but it was about 3 feet long and a tan color. We removed the dead mother, and had a little funeral for her. What else can we do to prevent the snake from returning, in addition to having a baffle? We're not sure how he/she made it up the pole. We didn't hear anything prior to this happening. If I hadn't checked, that snake could have done more damage. At last count, we had 53 eggs and/or newborns. We are both sick about this. The mother obviously tried to save her babies to no avail, and lost her life as well. We would appreciate any suggestions that anyone might have. We were so optimistic this year when we didn't have any sparrows. All but 2 compartments were occupied, with many having 6 eggs. We just don't want this colony to be abandoned by the Martins because of this snake.

Marti Stupka and Bob Miller
Fort Myers, FL

[M.Stephens]

I hate to hear about the snake getting your martins.

Did you let it go close to your housing again? Hopefully it won't be back up there tonight since it got a good meal but it will be back if you let it go close by.

Here's a thread from Tim Mangan showing how to make a snake net trap on your pole. You don't have to have the pvc pipe in order to install the netting.
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... highlight=

[CNO~La]

Sorry for this experience and your loss. I've been there before.

I'm a big fan of the bunched up bird netting at the base of the poles. I've caught several snakes in this netting. There was a great post a few years ago that explained how to set it up.

Did you release the snake? If so, hope it was miles away.

[CNO~La]

Ooopps. Double post

[John A Green Jr]

My dad had a black snake last year that got a fledging. We were worried his PM's wouldn't return in the same numbers or worst not at all. To our surprise they have returned and have even checking out the same hole of the house where it occured, go figure.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

What determines whether martins return or not is their success this year. If any of them successfully raised babies this year, then they will return next year.

[flyin-lowe]

The ones that flew out of your house at dark will and have probably already returned. You don't want to lower the housing after dark unless it is an emergency and this case was. As long as you don't do it all the time they will stick around. Can you post some photos of your current pole guard and we can help you with suggestions to make improvements.

[Mike1624]

After having a snake defeat the bird netting and a large predator guard twice last year with similar results to what you've experienced, I put an electric fence charger up (with some gentle prodding by Emil) and I now have 8600 volts wrapped around each pole and I sure sleep better at night. Now if I could just get the Coopers hawks to leave..........

[Mike1624]

After having a snake defeat the bird netting and a large predator guard twice last year with similar results to what you've experienced, I put an electric fence charger up (with some gentle prodding by Emil) and I now have 8600 volts wrapped around each pole and I sure sleep better at night. Now if I could just get the Coopers hawks to leave..........

[Jeff Robinson]

Marti/Bob,

Same thing happened to me a few years ago. 5.5' rat snake probably used my Goliad winch handle to help it up/around/over EZ Off Baffle, and took out nest of 6 plus mother. Every pair of martins with eggs or nestlings returned immediately after I removed the snake from the offending compartment. The following year, all and more pairs returned to the Goliad. I had subbies take up residence in the snake invaded side. I have snake netting on my poles now. If set up correclty, it "should" catch any snakes attempting to get up the pole.

From this year on, I'm coverting thru attrition, my snake netting to new baffles with the electronic fence chargers. Snake netting bunched up for forcing a snake to try to get thru multiple layers is your next best bet to prevent another such attack. Good luck!

Jeff

[wyatt]

Get the netting installed today if possible. If he was successful he will be back.

[Laverne]

and that's the danger... he will be back. When we say the PMs will abandon a site that has been victimized by a snake, we are talking about complete predation. And that's what usually happens to unmanaged housing. Every baby will be consumed and many adults and that's when the housing will be abandoned.

Today, we watch things more closely. We do nestchecks. We observe for anything that looks strange, like Marti and Bob, who have prevented the loss of their colony by catching this snake before it could do any more damage. I commend you all for your diligence in caring for your Purple Martin colonies.

Now, Marti and Bob, I would also like to recommend some snake netting. Check out this post for some ideas.

http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... ke+netting

[MartiStupka]

Thank you all for your support and suggestions. I believe that it was a rat snake. This is the first time we have had any trouble with snakes. I'm usually trapping and killing house sparrows. Apparently the snakes are very restless and aggressive this year in our area. Our pole guard is the one that we bought with our Lonestar Goliad house. We had just cleaned out several wasp nests from it. Don't know if the wasps would have kept the snake away. Unfortunately, we were so freaked out by the snake, the dead mothers, and the 3 remaining babies in compartment number 6 that we wanted to just get the snake out and didn't think to capture and release it elsewhere. We used a plant stake to fling it out and it took off rather rapidly. I have no doubt it will be back. I'm just grateful that we were able to save 3 babies, and that those parents are apparently alive as they did not fall prey to the snake like the mother did in #5. I'll try to take a picture of the pole guard. It sounds like this snake is a good climber based on what I've read. I assumed it got under the pole guard somehow, but then coudln't figure out how it got out to climb the pole. It sounds like the handle of our winch helped it along. My original plan was to stuff the inside of the pole guard with something and then use that foam stuff that expands around the bottom of the pole guard, but that probably won't do anything other than keep out more wasps, and that's not a sure thing. We are heading to Home Depot before it gets dark for some netting and PVC pipes mentioned in the link that someone provided. Thank you all so much. We have been doing this for a number of years, and each year is yet another adventure. We, too, had a hawk hanging around on one of the Martin perches, but they dive bombed him and I haven't seen him lately, but there is always something around. The big nasty black crows are also around, but the mockingbirds and the Martins seem to have them under control.

[MartiStupka]

Quick update after finishing my nest check--> the Martin babies that were alive last night after we got the snake out of their compartment were dead today. It looks like the parents did not return, but perhaps there were injuries that I couldn't see due to the snake being coiled up inside their compartment. I know that this is nature's way, but it makes me very sad nonetheless. Heading out for netting.

[MartiStupka]

Another update--> the netting is up, and while it isn't pretty, I believe that it will do the trick. As we were "creating" our snake netting pole guard, I decided to walk the dogs again. My 14 year old cocker spaniel has been very interested in what is lurking under the hedges between our home and the neighbors. I pulled her out of there, and when I turned around to see if she was following, I see another yellow rat snake!! Prior to this year, I have never seen this kind of snake before, but this year I've seen 3 of these snakes in the last 2 weeks. We took care this time to assure that this one would never be able to hurt another defenseless Martin again. I don't know anything about snakes, nor do I want to know anything about snakes except what I should to prevent them from hurting my Martins. Is it possible that there is an entire family of these yellow rat snakes living in these hedges? If so, what options do we have to get rid of this family of Martin killers once and for all? '

[Siberman]

Snakes don't live in families but you probably have a decent breeding population in your area. Keep areas of high grass / brush mowed and remove any piles of lumber/firewood / litter as far as possible from your housing. You might also want to use rodent-bait stations around the property's perimeters to keep the rat and mouse populations in check.

I don't know Florida regulations so you should check with the local authorities to see if that particular snake is protected. If re-location is your only alternative be sure and take it several miles away. Do be careful, though. Rat snakes aren't poisonous but they will bite and there's always the chance of getting an infection .