Battling HOSP in BO9 Gourds - Recommendations Appreciated

[msalcido]

Thanks JR2.

John- I'll be damned if she hasn't started rebuilding another nest. When I captured the male, I completely emptied the nest along with the four eggs. Now there is a 1/2 nest built. They're persistent! Ill give it a few more days before I add another glue trap. I hate using the glue trap but it was the only thing I could see working as I don't have a spare-o-door/trap.

[MamaBruff]

I had an especially pesky HOSP this season also. He would trip both the ST/HS nestbox trap and the OFA trap, flying out just as the shutter closed! I tried in vain to shoot him with the pellet rifle, .22, and BB guns. So I made an excluder hole out of a sour cream lid and placed a glue trap in the nest chamber... They MOVED the trap without being caught! So I tried snap mouse trap, and they built OVER it without activating it! Grrr! So I removed the nest entirely and placed a glue trap in the naked nest box tray. Yep, they built OVER it also!! CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP! Having no martins, I decided to close all the compartments except for 3 THGs equipped with Troyer-Haskell tunnel traps... and a starling came and picked the pool noodle plugs out of 2 of the SREH holes on the house!! After fixing that problem, I waited... Eventually the HOSP moved to the gourds and the little brown menace and his bride were captured by the end of the day.

Use whatever means necessary to eliminate this female HOSP, or she will call in another Jack Sparrow and you start all over again. They are relentless. Order your Spare o Door trap if you haven't already. It will pay for itself many times over.

[KathyF]

Use whatever means necessary to eliminate this female HOSP, or she will call in another Jack Sparrow and you start all over again. They are relentless. Order your Spare o Door trap if you haven't already. It will pay for itself many times over.

They're like "Black Widows". They don't care when you take out their mate...they just go find another one. Their aim is very simple - to reproduce. I took out 4 males that a persistent and coy female brought in. She was settled on a particular cavity and wanted to lay her eggs in THAT cavity, regardless of who the father was going to be.

Using the hole reducers when deploying the glue traps is really a good idea. I won't use the 'snap traps' at all - if a curious native bird sticks their head in that compartment, there are no mulligans on that.

Mike, use her eggs as 'bait' on top of the glue trap. Stick the eggs all the way at the back of the trap so that she will have to either cross the trap to get to them to brood them, or sit on the trap to brood them. If you don't have any HOSP eggs you can use, you can either wait for her to lay a new batch, or you can try buying some of those fake small eggs at a craft store and sticking them in the nest, on top of the glue trap, to draw her in. She will want to throw out the "intruder's" eggs, so that may help entice her into the cavity.
http://www.joann.com/decorative-eggs-62 ... s&start=30

[MamaBruff]

Kathy,

Hippocrates, in his Aphorisms: "For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable." (Desperate times call for desperate measures)... I DO LIKE the egg idea! I probably need to be more patient also. BTW, you are the one who turned me on to the sour cream lid hole reducer.

Plz keep the good ideas coming in!

[KathyF]

Mary, I'm not really that patient, but I have found through trial & error, that restraining myself really pays off in the long run. A little investment of time helps save a LOT of time and frustration later.
"C'mon, lay the egg, lay the egg, LAY THE @#$@# EGG ALREADY!!!"