Predator Guards: A Story of Love & Betrayal

KathyF · Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:18 am

Every year, I watch the inevitable arguments on the purple martin forums, regarding whether predator guards should or should not be used (they SHOULD) on purple martin housing.
So this year, I decided to write a blog post to show landlords why it is so important to have predator guards on their poles.
My hope is that it will help not only convince newcomers to the hobby that they need to protect their poles, but also show explicitly WHY it is needed.
I've included several links also to DIY predator guards that some may find helpful.

https://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2020/0 ... e-and.html

Brad Biddle · Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:04 pm

Great write up.

JQ17B · Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:19 pm

Thanks for posting Kathy. I've been reading and soaking up what knowledge I can. In an ordinary setting, is the baffle mounted ~4' up the pole sufficient in order to take care of snakes/raccoons or is netting a "must"?

Kegger · Fri Apr 24, 2020 5:23 am

Thanks for posting Kathy, this is a good read and helpful to me as a newbie.

flyin-lowe · Fri Apr 24, 2020 7:12 am

JQ, that can depend on how big your baffle is. When it comes to snakes though the netting is always a good idea.

JQ17B · Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:41 am

flyin-lowe wrote: ↑
Fri Apr 24, 2020 7:12 am
JQ, that can depend on how big your baffle is. When it comes to snakes though the netting is always a good idea.

Thanks - I have the 8” diameter baffle sold through the PMCA website for 2” pole. Now wishing maybe I’d gone for the quick release...

Spiderman · Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:09 am

Everything Kathy is saying in her blog is the truth. Raccoons, snakes, Owls, there are a lot of predators after these little birds that weigh 2 ounces.

It's Crazy sometimes.

Louise Chambers · Mon May 04, 2020 9:20 am

Time to move this up, because many folks are getting their first martins about now. Every pole needs a guard to stop raccoons, and some need netting as well, for snakes.

rrmartins · Tue May 05, 2020 10:51 am

Hello everybody, everyone needs to read up and take action on this topic. My ten year old colony was nearly destroyed by a large rat climbing the cable and up and over the bird netting, getting into the T14 at night. For ten years I just had the bird netting and I thought I was good to go, boy was I wrong. You have to have a round guard at the bottom, four feet up from the ground, you can make one in five minutes from vent/duct piping sold at any big box store. Luckily I’m back to five nest and three more newbies trying to build nest, I’ll help these guys out for sure!!!
Stay safe and good luck!!!

Brad Biddle · Tue May 05, 2020 2:45 pm

rrmartins wrote: ↑
Tue May 05, 2020 10:51 am
Hello everybody, everyone needs to read up and take action on this topic. My ten year old colony was nearly destroyed by a large rat climbing the cable and up and over the bird netting, getting into the T14 at night. For ten years I just had the bird netting and I thought I was good to go, boy was I wrong. You have to have a round guard at the bottom, four feet up from the ground, you can make one in five minutes from vent/duct piping sold at any big box store. Luckily I’m back to five nest and three more newbies trying to build nest, I’ll help these guys out for sure!!!
Stay safe and good luck!!!

That's why I like the electric guards so well. No ground predator is going over this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rG-38MSVZc

KathyF · Wed May 13, 2020 9:00 am

rrmartins wrote: ↑
Tue May 05, 2020 10:51 am
Hello everybody, everyone needs to read up and take action on this topic. My ten year old colony was nearly destroyed by a large rat climbing the cable and up and over the bird netting, getting into the T14 at night. For ten years I just had the bird netting and I thought I was good to go, boy was I wrong. You have to have a round guard at the bottom, four feet up from the ground, you can make one in five minutes from vent/duct piping sold at any big box store. Luckily I’m back to five nest and three more newbies trying to build nest, I’ll help these guys out for sure!!!
Stay safe and good luck!!!

RRMartins - I remember your story! It required quite the detective work to figure this one out! So happy you figured it out and was able to re-establish your colony.
Thanks for sharing!

Sharon - Central TX · Fri May 15, 2020 5:48 pm

Kathy,
I too want to thank you for your excellent blog concerning predator guards. We’ve been hosting martins for sixteen years now but didn’t get off to a good start. We are one of those who lost our first nest of six 12 day old martins and the mama to a rat snake. We thought we were safe as we had a baffle but the snake got around it. I was ready to throw in the towel I was so upset. But when I posted about it on here, I received so much compassion and encouragement to not give up.
After that we added netting in addition to the baffle and caught several snakes. My husband got tired of cutting them out of the netting so he added hot wiring at the bottom of our two poles. We still have baffles, netting and hot wiring to deter snakes or other climbing critters. I realized how effective the wiring is when I saw a squirrel start to climb up one pole and he immediately did a backflip and took off in a big hurry

I never want to go through what we did that first year again.