Sparrows

[lucyth]

I have a 12 room duracraft house and every year have a fight with the sparrows. Last year they won, or at least had over half the house, and I was discouraged and almost didn't try again this year but at the last minute put my house up, the first week of March, and have daily gone out and cleaned out the sparrow nests. But I was ready to take it down tomorrow and give up when today three martins arrived!

So, I'm determined to do it right this year even if it means finding a way to kill the sparrows. At this point, is it too late to order traps and start trapping the sparrows? Will that interfere with my martins? If necessary I will lower the house daily and remove nests all summer but I'm afraid the martins will get hurt in the meantime by the sparrow's aggressiveness.

Also, I want to go ahead and kill the sparrows, which is really hard to deal with for me. There's no way I can asphyxiate them like I've read about-- I'm way too squeamish. No raptor centers near me to take them as snacks, which I'd at least feel less guilty about. Any other suggestions?

But my main question is really, am I too late to order a trap that might get here next week? It really seems to be maybe five or six sparrows, I think only two males, that I am really dealing with. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Guest]

You don't want to kill them. What are your plans if you trap them? They say if you take them 20 miles away and release them, they'll beat you home. I love birds but when you have birds that kill and destroy other birds like our beloved Martins... Just saying...

[lucyth]

No, I said I do want to kill them but my question is, is it too late to trap them. Perhaps I was too wordy.

[Guest]

lol I may be too brain dead this late at night. I plan on building a couple of traps as soon as I finish some honey do's. I like to winter feed the Cardinals but when you do that, the sparrows are there too. I stopped feeding about 10 days ago and I don't see the number of sparrows that I was seeing.

I would go ahead and put a trap out. You'll at least have it for next year.

[Matt F.]

Hi Lucyth.

You are definitely not too late to trap.
Since you have a DuraCraft house (either the rectangular DR-12N, or, the hexagonal DH-12N), you can take advantage of the Trio "Spare-O-Door".

These trap doors fit on any Trio/DuraCraft house, and work great!
It replaces one of the doors on your house. The coolest part, is the hole is too small for Martins to enter, so no accidental Martin trapping.
Here is the link to the Spare-O-Door at the PMCA store:
Click here for Spare-O-Door
**Note: The PMCA store page for the Spare-O-Door, states that it will not fit DuraCraft houses. This is not correct. I have used them on DuraCraft houses, with no problems at all**

One tactic that's quite effective, is to leave the normal doors on, and once a sparrow has picked a compartment, and started filling it up, lower the house, and switch out the door on that compartment with the Spare-O-Door.

[KathyF]

Hi lucyth,
No, you're not too late to trap them. In fact, you can trap them all year.

Next, once you get the sparrow in a bag, spray in a generous amount of starter fluid (Ether - you can buy it at your local auto parts store), to kill the sparrow. Tie the top of the bag and put it out with the trash or if you have a burn barrel, throw it in there.

I would order a couple of traps - the spar-o-door as Matt suggested, and the PMCA repeating bait trap. If you catch a female with your spar-o-door, then throw her in the repeating bait trap with some food & water. The males will march right into the trap to try to save her.

[Guest]

Be careful with the sparrow in the plastic bag full of starter fluid! Starter fluid (aka-ether,) is HIGHLY flammable! Throwing a bagful of starter fluid on a fire is surely going to give you a start. We recommend just throwing a little guy in the trash and let them take it away.

Have a great day! Good luck!

Ruby
PMCA

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

And If you still find it hard to kill them severly clip the flight feathers on their wings and take them to anopen field and release them. There they will not bother anyone and will quickley fall prey to natural predators.