POLL: Do You Use Predator Guards?

[Kent Justus]

I would like to poll all forum readers. I’m curious how many readers of the forum have both owl and ground-climbing predator guards on their martin housing. If you have guards please let us know if they are factory-produced guards, or whether you have constructed your own guards. Please also let us know if you are placed both types of guards on your housing merely as a preventative measure, or whether you had to learn things the hard way via an attack and then took action and placed guards on your housing. If you don’t use guards at all please let us know why you feel they aren’t necessary. Finally, let us know if you are aware of other martin housing in your area and whether or not there are guards on that housing.

I use 36” cone ground-climbing predator guards on my poles and have constructed my own owl guards in front of my natural gourds by using long pieces of laminate countertop backsplash aluminum metal projecting out at least 15” in front of my gourds and then curving down to at least the bottom level of the gourd and then string 18-gauge galvanized steel wire horizontally around this structure to make it difficult for owls to make contact with my gourds. In the past before I used guards I lost martins to huge rat snakes and without owl guards I started losing martins to frequent Barred owl attacks. I started noticing scratch marks, chipped entrance holes, and even blood spatters on my gourds and took action to protect the martins. Please let us know your thoughts on this very important subject. – Kent / Mt. Vernon, Arkansas

[Dennis D]

I have predator guards but no Owl guards. I have had them from day 1.

[Louise Chambers]

Predator guards on all poles, including our mentees. No successful snake or raccoon attacks.

Owl guards, no - I would like to have them but we have to figure out how to make them for our gourd racks, which don't work with commercial guards. Adding guards to a line is a problem that may not have a solution and 1/2 the gourds are hung from a line between gourd arms.

No successful (or attempted) owl attacks that we know of, perhaps due to our urban location.

PMCA's PA sites have owl guards on gourd racks as well as pole guards. We have had owl problems in the past but the guards have worked well to stop them. No successful climbing predators.

Edit: Except for our mentees' sites, I would say 90% or more of the active sites in the area lack predator guards, along with lacking any management (controlling HOSP and starlings). Most people think or hope that it won't happen to them, or mistakenly believe metal poles stop snakes and raccoons.

Louise

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Kent:

I use PVC pipe with tree netting at the top of the PVC for predator guards and also use owl guard's on my houses and gourds. I have purchased some of the owl guards and made the rest. I have used both type guards from the beginning and have not yet had any direct attacks on the housing from the ground or air.

There are many martin houses on the lake that I have seen and only one has an owl guard. This one house does have an active colony of martins in it.

Tim

[Guest]

We have the cone-style predator guards on all poles. My husband made them. They have been on from the start of setting up our site. So far we have had no breaches. When I got my gourd rack from PMCA I got owl guards for it, which are in place, and I have factory-made owl guards for my Trio houses, but have not put them on in the 3 years we have been here.

We use the stove-pipe style of baffles on our bluebird house poles, OR an inverted 5-gallon plastic bucket. Sometimes our guests ask why there are those buckets on the poles.....

[Julio]

Stovepipe guards here on both poles, witnessed a possum try to climb pole. I guess the possum was curious he was in no way successful. I haven't seen a single owl here i live in an urban area so no owl guards.

[John Miller]

Pole guards on three of five poles I manage in Forest Park, St. Louis, and the other two are on my to-do list. No owl guards, but mostly use Trendsetter housing, in part because the compartment design is for martins to make right or left turns back into nesting area, hopefully providing pretty good owl protection. John Miller

[Carlton]

I have the inverted, aluminum, stovepipe guard on all three poles, the commercially available owl cage on my MSS-12 and homemade, bent aluminum rods, attached with radiator clamps over/in front of my natural gourds. I do not have any additional owl guards on my Troyer Horizontals. On my MSS-8 I wedged bamboo sticks under the door clips to make the doors impossible to open. The sticks are long enough that they also function as perches. All houses have Clinger, Excluder or Crescent entrances on them to exclude screech owls and starlings.

[Matt F.]

Great thread Kent!

I too am using a ground predator guard. It's the commercial made one from here.
I am not using owl guards. Being in the middle of a busy, urban setting, owls seem to be very scarce.

[Joe Levins]

I use 36" cone predator guards, hame made.
Owl guards are made of either 3/16 or 1/4 in rod extended out and down in front of gourds.

Had serious owl problems 4 years ago, lost lots of birds. I made the guards and added them to the racks in one week and haven't seen any evidence of problems since. Wouldn' be without them.

[Sparky]

I have a modified Lone Star "Can" on my 3 " square pole and bird netting snake guard just above it. Next season, I will make the predator guard and electric one. I have the owl guards on my Supergourds.

[Guest]

I do not have either installed, but I will be installing both once I have a martin pair. I just want to keep everything open until I attract the PMs, but around here there are plenty of predators from ground and sky and I think the PMs will need all the protection I can offer.
Marianne

[The Olsons]

We have the PMCA quick release predator guards on all of our systems. We do not have owl guards since we have not figured out how to mount them on the THZ gourds. We also have ONLY crescent entrance holes.
I also consider ants, especially fire ants, a predator or "killer", and so we spray under our systems and around the first 3 feet of the pole with a spray that is supposed to kill all kind of ants and spiders.

Astrid

[klcretired]

I use Preditor Guards on both my Lonestar Poles
No owl Guards, just me to Guard against them

[John Atteberry]

I use PVC plastic pipe that is 4 inches in diameter on two poles and one pole with the 6 inch PVC pipe! I will change the 4 inch pipe out next year to 6 inch PVC pipe to be safer from ground predators like coons and possums! The first year I had a rat snake go up one of my Trio poles and caught it in the nick of time! Then I use ground net traps from there on the rest of that year and then the second year! Then the second year I caught three rat snakes in the net traps on the ground! The I was told about the PVC pipe from Emil P. and tried the 4 inch PVC plastic pipe and never had the snake problems again! I used the pipes last year and will be going to all 6 inch pipe next year! No Owl Guards because of not hearing or seeing them! I have Crows and Red-Tail Hawks that nest by and I seen them chase other Hawks and Owls away! Thanks John!

[Matt F.]

We have the PMCA quick release predator guards on all of our systems. We do not have owl guards since we have not figured out how to mount them on the THZ gourds. We also have ONLY crescent entrance holes.
I also consider ants, especially fire ants, a predator or "killer", and so we spray under our systems and around the first 3 feet of the pole with a spray that is supposed to kill all kind of ants and spiders.

Astrid

Great call on the fire ants, Astrid.

I'd bet they could do some serious damage.

[Dale Hrncirik]

I use carpet tack strips on the bottoms of my poles to prevent climbing predators.

[Guest]

Could y'all post some pics of your setups?

I'd like to see them so I can make some for my two poles.

[Joe Levins]

Home made owl guards.

[db]

Two of my four poles are protected by the 36" aluminum stove pipe guard. I have one pole with 4' x 4" pvc pipe at the bottom and the forth pole has a home made cone type guard.

I'm in the process of installing a section of pvc pipe wrapped with copper wire and tied into my electric fence on each pole. That project should be complete within the next week.

I don't have owl guards but they are part of my "five year plan". I'll probably begin next year adding a wire cage around the entire gourd rack.(one pole per year until they are accepted) I have 24/7 radio and spot lights in place on photo cells now and it is common for me to walk outside a couple of times every night with a rechargeable spot light and shine the tree tops around the yard. (I have had owl problems).