Colony Being Destroyed

[rrmartins]

I’ve still got some martins here, none were found dead today and I’ll be adding a better guard tonight. Let’s hope it stops. Question is, what’s doing it?

[rrmartins]

How about this?

[rrmartins]

How about this?

A rat can’t go through the bottom of the bucket, it fits very tight around pole and cable.

[jhcox]

Just a thought but a small cat or even smaller type trap baited with raw meat would catch any type of meat eating predators. Put it at the base of the pole and set it. And wait if it’s coming every day or so it will take the free meal before doing all the work to climb pole and kill the birds. Good luck.

[rrmartins]

Just a thought but a small cat or even smaller type trap baited with raw meat would catch any type of meat eating predators. Put it at the base of the pole and set it. And wait if it’s coming every day or so it will take the free meal before doing all the work to climb pole and kill the birds. Good luck.

I don’t have one. Why is the male not being killed and why would it just kill the martins on the nest and not eat them?

[rrmartins]

Just a thought but a small cat or even smaller type trap baited with raw meat would catch any type of meat eating predators. Put it at the base of the pole and set it. And wait if it’s coming every day or so it will take the free meal before doing all the work to climb pole and kill the birds. Good luck.

I don’t have one. Why is the male not being killed and why would it just kill the martins on the nest and not eat them?

Whatever it is or was would have to climb a lot of Vaseline and cayenne pepper.

[rrmartins]

Just a thought but a small cat or even smaller type trap baited with raw meat would catch any type of meat eating predators. Put it at the base of the pole and set it. And wait if it’s coming every day or so it will take the free meal before doing all the work to climb pole and kill the birds. Good luck.

I don’t have one. Why is the male not being killed and why would it just kill the martins on the nest and not eat them?

Whatever it is or was would have to climb a lot of Vaseline and cayenne pepper.

Hopefully the vent pipe stops it. It didn’t happen last night. I had bucket over netting and lots of cayenne and Vaseline.

[Black Jack]

I sure would borrow some ones trail camera just to see exactly what you are up against. If you could not afford one.

[deancamp]

That may not work based on what your predator is which is unknown. They could climb your bucket and then reach to the top of your pipe. The concept is to have your pipe 2' off the ground so they can't reach the top of the pipe and pull their self up. This means they have to start climbing the pole. They then have to transfer from climbing the pole over to your 6" pipe. This is very difficult because the pipe is mounted to wobble and they can't grip the 6" pipe. Here is an exame of what it should look like.

[rrmartins]

No pic

[deancamp]

Here it is.

[rrmartins]

Kinda what I thought it would be. I would have to use a ladder just to do next checks, T14 is tall. How about using self tapping screw into the pipe on two sides and move bucket?

[rrmartins]

How about this? It’s three feet off ground.

[rrmartins]

How about this? It’s three feet off ground.

[paule]

I now have four mother birds killed on their nest, totally eaten up stomachs, no idea what’s going on. This is just crazy, all my birds being killed and house is covered in martins. Can’t solve the problem if I don’t know what’s happening.

rrmartins
I feel your pain and the solutions can be complicated most times due to time. I believe you are on the right track and have done what you can for now. I have read many good suggestions so far. All I can add is what I have done to solve my problems. I installed these https://www.purplemartin.org/shop/produ ... uard-qrga/ and they solved my problem of not wanting to use a ladder to do nest checks. If you can not afford this guard perhaps reading about the design may give you ideas how to design your own. Sometimes I have found that cruising the isles of a hardware store I have found the exact item I didn't even know I was looking for.
I have spent quite a few all nighters trying to figure out what was attacking my decoys. Solved the problems with a spot light and air horn. Since then I invested in a game camera and now upgraded that to a motion camera. Finally I can now get a good night rest!
Hang in there and good luck
Paule

[rrmartins]

I now have four mother birds killed on their nest, totally eaten up stomachs, no idea what’s going on. This is just crazy, all my birds being killed and house is covered in martins. Can’t solve the problem if I don’t know what’s happening.

rrmartins
I feel your pain and the solutions can be complicated most times due to time. I believe you are on the right track and have done what you can for now. I have read many good suggestions so far. All I can add is what I have done to solve my problems. I installed these https://www.purplemartin.org/shop/produ ... uard-qrga/ and they solved my problem of not wanting to use a ladder to do nest checks. If you can not afford this guard perhaps reading about the design may give you ideas how to design your own. Sometimes I have found that cruising the isles of a hardware store I have found the exact item I didn't even know I was looking for.
I have spent quite a few all nighters trying to figure out what was attacking my decoys. Solved the problems with a spot light and air horn. Since then I invested in a game camera and now upgraded that to a motion camera. Finally I can now get a good night rest!
Hang in there and good luck
Paule

Yeah I already have a plan on making one, already started my list.
I moved up the loose ends of the netting to keep something from grabbing it. Guess we’ll see what happens. Hopefully I can go two nights in a row with no issues.

[jhcox]

The traps are pretty small and pretty cheap. At least you would know what it is and could dispatch it quickly. And if it ever happened again you wo know what it is and what to do. It would be better than loosing another single Martin.

[rrmartins]

Nobody dead on the ground this morning, raining pretty hard to lower the house.
Just lowered house, no birds found dead, still have three active nest. Maybe we put a stop to it, I hope!!

[Spiderman]

I hope you have gotten past it too. It is frustrating to loose one Martin, especially when you don't know what the predator is. Hopefully your season will get much better from here.

Good Luck

[rrmartins]

Ok, it’s been three days with no more killing of martins. I have three active nest left, hope for the best.