Mountain Of Old Bird Netting!

[Steve Kroenke]

Mountain Of Old Bird Netting!

Over the last week I have been reworking/replacing all 17 of my net traps constructed from bird netting. These net traps are attached to all the purple martin gourd rack and house poles in my colony. I also worked on my neighbor Bob’s 13 net traps. All our net traps are now in good shape.

Our net traps are constructed from plastic bird netting that is UV protected, but the netting will still experience some deterioration after years of exposure to the hot northwest Louisiana sun. The netting may become brittle, stiff and even mold/lichen may grow on it. So I decided to rework/replace all our net traps. However, I believe that even the old net traps would still catch rat snakes, but I didn’t want take any chances. We leave our net traps out all year and many are over five years old. We probably should store the netting after the season out of the weather.

All those old net traps saved the lives of probably hundreds of purple martins in our two colonies from the primary terrestrial predator of martins in our area, the rat snake. I started my martin colony in northwest Louisiana in 2005 and Bob has had his since 2001 in this location. We have caught numerous black, Texas and western rat snakes over the years, some of which were approaching six feet in length. If they had managed to climb the poles, these snakes would have decimated the martins. But the net traps stopped EVERY ONE of them.

After years of catching and removing rat snakes from our yards, we now only catch maybe one snake a year in the net traps. We don’t kill the snakes and remove them unharmed from the traps and release the snakes several miles away from our yards way out in the country.

Here are two photos showing my “mountain of bird netting” that I removed from our martin housing poles. Maybe south Florida could use that “mountain” to catch some of the Burmese pythons! I also included a photo of a huge black rat snake we caught in a net trap over at my neighbor’s martin colony one year. This snake was nearly six feet long and would have inflicted heavy losses to the martins in the gourds. The snake was showing his most impressive glottis! The glottis is a tube like organ that allows the snake to breathe while eating prey. Functions like a snorkel.

[Steven Spencer]

Steve, I definitely agree on periodically changing out the netting because it will become brittle and less effective. I had a rat snake last year get through my netting below one of my bluebird houses and ate all 4 babies. The netting was around 3 years old and when stretched it would tear fairly easily, enabling snake to get through. He did get caught on the way down but it was too late for the little ones.
I've had this happen several times so now I have pvc pipes covering the poles.
I have the pvc pipe setup on all four of my martin poles and in 15 years have not had a snake breach them.

Steven

[detioh11]

Do you have to take them off when you lower the racks for next checks? My parents just got their first pair in Florida. We have a stovepipe guard on the pole but no netting yet.

Dennis.

[Steve Kroenke]

Steven,

Sometimes small rat snakes can weave through bird netting. I have used combination net traps composed on 1/2 or 5/8 inch and 3/4 inch netting to try to catch both smaller and larger rat snakes. This has worked in the past. But we mainly just use 3/4 inch netting and that has caught all the rat snakes that try to climb our poles. This season I have reworked all my net traps to include both 5/8 and 3/4 inch netting.

The PVC cylinder guards, particularly the 6 inch diameter type, seem to work well in keeping rat snakes at bay. Rat snakes can climb any rough surface. So as long as the PVC remains slick then that should be a good deterrent to snakes. Metal cylinder guards may weatherize over time and develop a rough surface if not protected.

I am glad your snake guards are working!

Steve

Dennis,

I lower my gourd racks/houses to the point just before they reach the net traps. I don't remove the net traps. On some gourd racks I use a step ladder to reach higher up gourds on a particular system. On other systems the gourds are still low enough for me to check the nests without a step ladder. Most of my net traps are between two and four feet above the ground.

Steve

[jtdurb]

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

Tom

[Steve Kroenke]

Tom,

I purchase my bird netting through Amazon. You usually can buy it through home improvement stores, garden centers or Walmart. The 3/4 inch netting probably works well in most cases. Here are my instructions; I included a photo of one of net traps.

I usually attach my bird netting to the poles using a wire and zip tie combination. Some folks just use zip ties or even bungee cords. I create a wire foundation by taking two pieces of flexible wire, each about two feet long or a little longer depending on the diameter of the pole. Then I twist each piece around the pole tightly until there are four wire prongs jutting out in different directions. Kinda looks like spokes sticking out on a wagon wheel. Each may stick out about 10 to 12 inches. Next I take a long piece of the bird netting, say about two feet wide and maybe 10 feet long. I then wrap the netting around the wire prongs by inserting the netting inside the mesh. I keep doing this and create a fluffy netting wreath around the wire prongs. I may use more netting to create a more robust net trap with many open mesh squares. I tend to create rather large net traps! After wrapping all the netting around, I bend over the ends of the four wire prongs to help hold the netting in place and fluffed out. You don't want any gaps between the netting and pole so I use zip ties to close up the top of the net trap against the pole. The zip ties also keep the netting/wire foundation from slipping down on the pole. It is hard to twist the wire real tight on the pole. This method has worked for me and it will take some time working with the netting to get the "hang of it"!

I have primarily used 3/4 inch netting to construct my traps and this size has caught all the big rat snakes that have tried to climb our martin housing poles. This year I am using a combination of 5/8 and 3/4 inch netting to cover the range in rat snakes sizes. But just using 3/4 inch netting will probably work in most situations.

Other folks may just take a piece of bunched up netting, weave a zip tie through it and then zip tie the netting to the pole. That can work, too.

My net traps vary in height between two and four feet off the ground, depending on where my winch is attached to the pole. I have even placed net traps around the bottom of poles and on the ground and caught rat snakes.

I prefer my netting to be fluffed out and no gaps between the pole and the net trap. You want the snake to weave through the netting and not over or under it. The snake gets caught by pushing through the net squares until he can go no farther and he can’t back out because his scales catch the netting and the netting is tight around his body.

If you are using a cylinder type guard, then place the net trap ABOVE the cylinder. Unfortunately, cylinder guards may fail to thwart large rat snakes. I have seen photos of huge rat snakes that defeated a metal cylinder guard and then got caught in a net ABOVE the cylinder.

I remove any trapped snake by cutting the netting from his body. Now if you have a snake phobia then this will be a PROBLEM! I am not afraid of rat snakes so I just grab the snake’s head, take a pair of scissors, and gently cut the netting that is holding the snake’s body. Sometimes the snakes are really entangled in the netting and it can take some time to cut them out.

I have attached photo of one of my net traps showing zip ties and the wire foundation with the wire prongs. You can see how the netting is fluffed out with many mesh squares. The trap is constructed from 3/4 inch bird netting.

[jtdurb]

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