Please Read-A Serious Warning about your Predator Guards

[Peggy Riley]

I've thought a long time about whether to make this post but I've decided I should. I considered myself a good landlord. Had 71 pair this year until Thursday night. Now I have 21 pair barely holding on. My colony was raided by RACCOONS.

They took 49 nestlings out of 11 nests. Killed numerous fledges and adults that I have no way of counting. My 12" deep house cavities did not stop them, obviously my snake netting did not. I've always worried about snakes, hawks and owls even though I knew we had raccoons all around us. I have no idea why after 12 years they decided to climb the poles. They did damage to all 5 poles, both square and round. One was 17' tall, the others 14' tall.

If you have raccoons coming to your yard to eat your bird seed or drink out of your hummingbird feeders please take measures to stop them. Take down your feeders at night. Add predator guards to your poles high enough so that they can't climb over them.

Next year I will electrify my poles and add niteguard lights high and low.
I know my birds may not even come back but if they do I will do a better job protecting them.

Peggy

[Keith]

Hello Peggy,

Sorry to hear of your predation. This can make a person have a sick feeling down deep inside. In 06 I lost an 18 pr. colony to raccoons in a three night period before I realized what was happening. No predator guards were in place then. I do of course have them in place now and have three pair nesting for the first time since then. I have the 8 inch dia., 24 inch long guards five foot off the ground with netting underneath. If this is where yours were placed then it is time for me to change something.
If you are able to fledge any young from your colony, you should still get martins back next year as well.

Keith Pellham

[Peggy Riley]

Hi Keith. I see you are from Ava, MO. My husband is named Keith and he also grew up there! His mother still lives there.

I'm sorry you experienced this too but I'm glad you've gotten a new start this year. I'm sure your guards are doing a good job. I didn't even have coon guards. I've always been fighting snakes and hawks and didn't give the coons much thought. Not that I didn't know, I just didn't think.

The remaining pairs seem to getting on OK so I hope some return next year. What gets me is that I did not hear a thing outside while this was happening.

Peggy

[Bruce]

Sorry about your loss. I did a nest check today and found one nest that had 6 eggs last week was empty. I had activity in four other nests, and one had one egg and one had three. I have a pair of house sparrows nesting in one of the gourds (I set a trap today) and though that they might have eaten the eggs, though I did not see any broken eggs. We do have racoons and fishers in the area, but I have a PVC pole, and didn't think they could climb it. It has two 4x4's for a base, and I didn't see any claw marks in the posts but I don't know if a raccoon would leave claw marks when climbing. I also did not see any feathers around. Any ideas of what would have taken the eggs?
Thanks.
Bruce

[Peggy Riley]

Bruce, most likely it would be the sparrows. If it was raccoons you might see your gourds out of wack. Mine were twisted around. I think they do have a good set of claws so you might would see marks. I think PVC may be too slick for them to get a good grip on but I really don't know.

They have not bothered by BB houses since I put PVC around the poles and raised they higher.

Do you have SREH's or round. It could also be starlings or young SY males.

Raccoons will leave feathers along with other parts like the wings. I would think if it was raccoons that the adults would have left. Are they still returning to your gourds?

[Louise Chambers]

Just sharing some info, a Tn landlord reported that raccoons scaled the 6 inch PVC she had on her bird feeder system. Some landlords use PVC and are doing fine, but it does not work for everyone. I guess every type of guard has had some failures, but having a guard on to begin with is a step that shouldn't be skipped, as Peggy shared above.

When I had raccoons raiding feeders in PA, I used a wobbly metal guard and it stopped all the trouble. My bluebird box had a rigid PVC guard that also stopped raccoons - we saw their claw marks in the camo paint on the guard, and evidently stopped snakes, as we had 6 ft rat snakes in the attics and basement, but never lost a bluebird to them.

There is an article on various types of pole guards in the sticky post, basics for the start of a new season.

Louise

[Bruce]

Thanks for the reply. I only had one pair that fledged 6 young last year, and had high hopes this year, with about 5 pair actively building nests. These nests were all in SREH gourds. I had trapped and destroyed 15 house sparrows and 1 starling but had let up on the trapping because of all of the nesting activity. I just ordered a repeating bait trap for any other house sparrows in the neighborhood. Also, we have been having a couple of very windy days, and the martins appear to have disappeared to less windy environs for the time being.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

An electric fence charger will stop both snakes and racoons (also pets, children, adults, etc) when placed around the base of the pole. A good way is to put several pieces of small pvc pipe around the pole for insulation, then wrap the hot wire around and around the pole for about 6 wraps. Start about 1 ft above the ground, and go about 2.5ft high.

It really is quite simple, and then you will not need baffles, cylinders, bird netting, 4ft of pvc, etc. It may be cheaper to start with the electric fence rather than purchasing all the rest.

On an electric fence method, you can run an insulated underground wire to all the poles, so you need only 1 charger. You then will be able to mow over the wire and not have any loose wires.

You also can purchase a solar charger if you don't want to run long wires.

[Guest]

Hi Folks,

So sorry to here your loss Peggy, I have a heads up for you folks that you just may want to try.

I have installed carpet tack strips 36 inches up from the bottom of the pole and all the way around. carpet tack strips are very very sharp and most definitely will tare anything to shreds trying to get up the pole.

After 5 years of trying I finally have got my first pair, I have thought long and hard about what would keep anything from going up a pole and would not cost much.

Best of luck to yea all and thanks for the good advice folks.

[Peggy Riley]

Congratuations on your first pair Greg!

[jonkertb]

another way is to thin the herd......with a live trap baited with cat food....that way you can sleep at night and feed them their lead vitamin pellet in the morning.......although an occasional skunk may have you wondering about the wisdom of this....don't ask LOL

[Guest]

I suggest spraying a portion of your pole with an oil, perhaps a silicon spray, which most of us keep on hand. This would need to be done fairly regularly, depending on local conditions. I have not done it myself (yet) but would certainly consider this approach if I was having the same trouble. I do not see why it would not be an effective, inexpensive, and easy remedy, at least for the short term.

This is my very first post! I'm happy to be here among fellow martin lovers!

[Guest]

(Quote) another way is to thin the herd......with a live trap baited with cat food....that way you can sleep at night and feed them their lead vitamin pellet in the morning.......although an occasional skunk may have you wondering about the wisdom of this....don't ask LOL

Yes sir mine is baited ready to go, nothing is going to take my first pair!!

I am infested with raccoons in this part of the country, never thought one would climb a pole until I have read this thread now I just have another thing to worry about.

[Linda Reynolds]

Peggy, I was horrified to read your report and please accept my sympathy for having to endure this attack. I am so sorry for you and know how you must feel.

I am the landlord from TN that reported a raccoon invasion of 6" five foot high pvc on our bird feeding station, but it was only a feeding station.......NOT HOUSING!

Because we have a healthy racoon population, we also keep a live trap baited with cat food.

We have solar powered electric fence wire around the base of each of our two poles. I am still not confident it is high enough, but the winch and rope cleat dictate how high we can go. We then have netting above, and are never sure a raccoon will not bypass the system as they did yours.

I sincerely hope you find a solution. Again, please accept my sympathy for having to endure this horrible event. I applaud you for posting.

[zoefluf]

My heart aches for you. I know that I would be inconsolable were that to happen to my colony. I have been having problems with Raccoons on my bird feeders for the past few months. They seem to be thriving in our area and wreaking havoc on my neighbors chickens. He got a picture of 7 of them around his chicken pen taking baby chicks through the netting.

The challenges of being a landlord are numerous and stressful but we learn from our mistakes and our colonies eventually will benefit from our experiences.
God bless,
Jeanne

[Show-Me-Mike]

Peggy,

Sorry and horrified about your loss, it would sicken me too. We have a large coon population here as well. I use the predator guard that Louise referred to from the PMCA. It's slick because of its highly polished surface but most importantly to me is that it wobbles slightly when something tries to negotiate it. I have personally witnessed coons try to climb the guard without success. So far, not a single coon has been able to scale it although I have to give them credit for trying. Now I'm not sure they even try. Best wishes to you for the balance of the martin season and I too believe you'll have martins return next year.

[Peggy Riley]

Thanks to each of you for your kind words.

I just wanted to make sure that everyone sees these cute little pranksters for what they really are.

Linda I feel confident your electric wiring will prevent anything going up the pole. I believe Emil has been using it for many years with good success. I'm counting on it!

Peggy

[Guest]

I too learned a hard lesson around May 21st had close to 80 pairs of martins and one day i came home from work and noticed on my wooden house porches were broken off and lots of wings from martins were all over the ground below it.I then noticed some under my gourd racks it just made me sick to my stomach knowing what happened.I knew it was raccoons,i thought it would never happen but it did i live in the country, moved to my place in 1998 and have had martins since 2001.Called some buddies of mine that had live traps and in the next 3 nights i caught four raccoons and two opossums. i still have 48 nest with eggs and babies at this time i am going to do some major changes on my poles and setup on installing guards.

Rod

[Peggy Riley]

I so sorry Rod that it happened to you too. Thanks for posting your experience because it's kind of like snakes. Folks don't think they have snakes or think a snake can climb a pole. They are everywhere and they can and do climb poles.

Peggy

[Joe Zorn]

Wow, Peggy,
That is a terrible blow!

I don't think I have racoon problems, as I live in a subdivision-like area, but it is very rural. Within a quarter mile, there is deep woods and marsh and racoons are abundant, as are every other kind of crawling, swimming, or flying predator.

I am dealing with a resident owl that Id like to reduce to feathers, I am so mad!

I was thinking about using the NiteGuard product, as those here seem to be grading it pretty highly here on the forum. But I already have 4-1/2 ft long hinged 6" PVC sewer pipe that I use for snake protection. It seems to be working. It's bottom is about 3" off the ground.

Those of you using PVC protection that failed against racoons or snakes, how were them mounted? Size of PVC. Height above the ground? Wobbly or rigid? etc.

Electrical and carpet tack protection seem viable ideas as well.

Joe