supposedly you can keep the monofilament on. I don’t use that because when I had it up the house sparrows went right in my boxes.
It could be that you aren’t trapping house sparrows because there just aren’t enough at your place. I trap at least 100-200 a year. The other issue is that you need a decoy. Have you trapped a house sparrow with your Van Ert? And if so did you put it in the repeating trap (holding area). A decoy is a must. It’s hard to trap more without a decoy…not impossible but hard. Sorry, if you explained about your traps before. I’m on a couple of forums and can’t keep people straight. It’s almost harder if you only have a couple of house sparrows then it is if there’s a ton of them.
Move your trap around. Raise it, sit it on the ground, move it under the feeder, near favorite bushes, sprinkle seed on any wood part of the trap, and around the trap on the ground to draw hosp in. If I’ve told you all of this before ….please forgive me. I hate it when people do that!!! But I can’t remember like I used to…and that isn’t saying much. (no comment, Gin).
Tammy