Purple Martin Forum

Seven and other commercial insecticides could be too strong and burn your birds (different people have different rates of success). I personally prefer using "poultry dust" as it offers a safer alternative, can be applied directly on animals and it is designed specifically for mites. Ther...

The active ingredient in the old Sevin dust, when Chuck wrote the page, was carbaryl, which has been banned by the EPA. Now, the active ingredient is .1% Bifenthrin, which experienced hosts on here have written it is not effective so I haven't used it. This year, I used the last of the carbaryl I h...

We feed whole & cracked corn (primarily for geese, ducks & deer but the crows eat it too) and black oil sunflower seeds for the crows & all sorts of songbirds. Red shouldered hawks don't come near our house or PM houses but are plentiful in the pastures. Never seen them chase PMs, they ...

ASAP, use & do what Bird Brain recently wrote, Permethrin Poultry Dust Works.... BB recommends 1/2 a teaspoon but with the heavy infestation & your babies being feathered, not pinkies, I personally would put a full teaspoonful just inside the entrance holes & let the birds scatter it ab...

I've seen many posts on mites in this forum, but would like to share an incident from yesterday. My husband built a purple martin house this year that has four openings. Unfortunately, it does not have a telescoping pole, a camera or easy access to get into the house (please no critiques, I know we ...

Thanks so much for all your suggestions! I know martins like community housing (high rise condos - lol). But last year, we had used a house with only two compartments and we had one family in one of those compartments. Martins attempted to nest in the other hole; however, it was slightly too difficu...

Sorry the picture did not attach.

Hello everyone! We just put up a new purple martin house this year. We were successful landlords last year with one pair producing three adorable fledglings. However, the house last year only had two compartments, so hubby built a new home for them this year with 4 compartments. Of course, the blueb...

We are beyond happy! Our first purple martin colony in our bird house and one of the pair had 3 babies and they fledged a few days ago :grin: On sunny mornings, they have returned to the house to visit and peek in the hole (however, they haven't gone back inside to our knowledge - we don't have a c...

Congratulations! I leave everything as is til I stop seeing purple martins. For that’s about mid to late July. At that point I do a big cleanup. I don't think it would hurt anything at all to clean out compartments now, but you may need to clean them again later on. I’m glad you had a successful se...

We are beyond happy! Our first purple martin colony in our bird house and one of the pair had 3 babies and they fledged a few days ago :grin: On sunny mornings, they have returned to the house to visit and peek in the hole (however, they haven't gone back inside to our knowledge - we don't have a ca...

Matt F. wrote: ↑

Fri May 09, 2025 12:35 am

Oceangirl wrote: ↑

Thu May 08, 2025 9:42 am

Hello everyone!
Thanks for your replies. Here's a picture of our home with the homemade guard (bonus: purple martins, included!)

Great photo and great looking guard!
Those look like happy Martins

Thanks, Matt!

Ok great! Thanks for the measurements.. I edited my previous post to tell you , they can jump 4 to 5 feet straight up, and 10 feet across, from point to point. With the measurements you stated, You can raise the guard about 2 to 3 feet and you should be good to go! That should keep them from making...

Hi Rob,
We measured the distances. The fences are 9 feet and 13 feet away from the pole and 8 feet away from the green utility box. We can still raise it if necessary. Not sure if squirrels can jump this far

Thanks - appreciate your comments!

Hello everyone!
Thanks for your replies. Here's a picture of our home with the homemade guard (bonus: purple martins, included!)

You can use a squirrel baffle on your pole .. they have removable ones , on Amazon, that you can easily take off the pole for nest checks.. or a regular pipe style guard.. place it at least , 5 feet above the ground, so a squirrel can’t jump over it and climb up your pole or rope.. Good luck Rob Th...

Matt F. wrote: ↑

Tue May 06, 2025 12:43 pm

You're most welcome
The down side to the grease is that it has been reported to not be very effective, and worse if a squirrel or raccoon gets enough grease on them, it can make them sick and potentially kill them.

Yes, I wouldn't want to harm them - just keep them away from our PM's!

Squirrels will indeed eat the eggs and/or babies if given the chance (which is both gross and maddening they would do that - but they would). The absolute best thing is to place one of the stovepipe-style guards on your pole like these: For round poles: https://www.purplemartin.org/shop/53/round-po...

We are finally purple martin landlords! We revised the home we had last year and now have two pair that are taking up residence. This morning my husband looked outside and saw a squirrel half way up the pole! He went out and chased it down and out of our yard. Are squirrels predators to purple marti...

Phil01 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:22 pm

Pretty looking house. If some Martins show up don’t forget to slap a predator guard and snake netting on that bad boy.
Good luck tho season.
Phil

Thank you, I'll tell hubby you like the house! And yes, predator guard - thanks for the reminder!
Hope you have a good PM year, as well!