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My DH encouraged me to put out the DRST several times this summer, but each time I’d have it out for 7-10 days with no action. This week, I tried again, and happily have caught 6 in the last 2 days! Plus another one in a box with Van Ert! Gotta love this kind of success. I noticed lots of young ones in the neighbor’s bushes, so thought I’d give it a try. Success!!!
I also wanted to say that the sparrow spooker I ordered from sparrowtraps.net (Blaine Johnson who makes the DRST) is very nice. I had it on the tree swallow house this year. My homemade spooker fell apart so I thought I’d try this one. It seems like it will have years of use. He made this because of you all–the bluebird nutters who encouraged him. So thank you for doing that whenever that happened, long before I arrived here!!!
Congratulations on your trapping success and the elimination of the pests. These results are good to see at this time of the year – especially when you are catching recent hatches. Eliminate a generation now so you don’t have to deal with it later.
David
Stafford, VAGreat job, Julie! I’m having trouble with one pesky female HOSP who comes to my worm bowl when I put out the worms. Don’t have a whole lot of others right now – just this one and also a pesky house wren. I have been watching closely in the morning – when worms are in the bowl mama, papa and Lone Ranger come – here comes the HOSP or wren and the bluebirds actually have been chasing it off – just hilarious to watch. Even Lone Ranger is learning how to chase them away. “Hi, Ho, Silver!”
Carol, you are so funny with your lone ranger!!! So glad he’s learning how to chase off the bad guys!! These are key life skills. I checked my trap 2 hours ago and there were 3 new females in it! So far it’s mostly females (1 young male), but if there are no gals to lay eggs, that’s a good thing. As you say, David, eliminate a generation–or several!! I did this last year at this time and caught a bunch in a short time. I don’t think the young ones have enough “street” smarts, and often when they’re caught, the mother follows them in. Hopefully this will reduce latest flock flitting around here and cheeping incessantly.
Julie, I really like your thoughts about getting the juvenile HOSP while they are not street smart yet. This morning I had 3 HOSP eating at my BB worm bowl – only have had one for several days, but this 3 did the trick for me. I have set a repeating trap right underneath my deck, which would be about 10′, where these HOSP bring their worm to my flagstone path to kill their it or whatever they do after they pick it up from the bowl above setting on my deck railing. Today is Sunday and I will have all day to keep a close eye on it. Even have a few worms in a small container to lure them in, along with some bread pieces. We’ll see – I usually don’t have very good luck, but maybe this is a good time of the season to try it.
Carol, I hope that works for you!!! I put the repeating trap out this past Monday, and one week later, I have caught 15. Today a male was sitting beside the trap (which had 7 females in it) chirping at them. Eventually, fingers crossed, he’ll fall for all those girls!!
I put out the repeating trap around 10:30 this a.m. I even put a very small amount of worms in a container to lure them in, but this was a mistake, as it was hot and they were dead in less than an hour. I don’t have anything else to put out except BOSSeed – always heard they prefer the cheaper millet seed. What do you use, Julie?
Carol, I’ve found if they are used to eating something like BOSS, if they nibble at your feeders, then they’ll be lured in with that. I buy a super cheap finch mix (mostly millet) at Walmart that I sprinkle around in front of the trap lightly. That just lures them in near the feeder. But the key is white bread. I put old white bread from the discount shelf in the bait area beyond the drop arm.
I buy packs of day-old buns of some type so I can freeze them and just pull one out when I need it. Freezer burn doesn’t seem to bother the HOSP! Do you have any hot dog or burger buns around from picnics?
Julie, yes, I put some of the white bread out yesterday with a few worms. I really didn’t have the trap in a good location – just put it underneath my deck where they had been eating the worms from the blues dish on top of the deck railing. The worms died in less than 15 minutes and the bread dried out quickly. Tomorrow I will probably put it in a different area where I believe they hang out and see what happens.
Carol, the bread in my bait area is rock hard now, altho’ it’s been that way a few days when I was catching more. I only caught 1 today, but saw another dozen still flitting about. I’m going to add some fresh bread tomorrow. Mine was out 3 days with no action before any hopped in. Fingers crossed for both of us!!!
My van ert has been great..but I started too late. Lesson learned. I have a cage hooked up to the inside of my shed. This guy on youtube claims 500 a year for a couple years and now he is only getting a handful.
Thank you for including that link, Phillyblues! You mentioned that before and I couldn’t find the link. I really wanted to see this! Today part of the bluebird clutch fledged. There’s still at least one in the box. Well, when the one I saw took off for the wild blue yonder, it flew past the little magnolia near the box and headed toward the towering oaks across the street (where they usually go). As it headed over, two HOSP intercepted it and drove it to the ground! They didn’t make contact, but it ended up under a neighbor’s car, under the oaks!! What a crazy mess. Never knew that could happen!! Papa was feeding him and then he disappeared, so guessing he’s in the oaks or the holly hedge over there. Those dang HOSP. Can’t say one good thing about them, except how great they look in a trap!
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