I'm considering getting a Purple Martin house in hopes that they will eat the mosquitoes! I know TXMel has one and the birds love it, BUT she has a pond for them and I do not. I do have a birdbath, but not sure they will use that since I read that they swoop (?) down and drink. I read that they should be 100 ft from your home and away from a fence, but I can't do either of those. My yard isn't 100ft deep and unless I stick it in the center of the grass it has to be at the back by a fence. Should I attempt it anyways? Maybe I should try a bat house?
Purple Martin house
Hello Paige, Tammy from our forum has a martin house (well, actually it's her neighbors) on the back of her yard. She doesn't have a pond and until recently didn't have a bird bath but the house is full, completely occupied. When she's in her yard talking to me on her phone those birds are really talking. I have a martin house, or should I say a sparrow house. Try as I might the sparrows horn in on the apartments. This year I tried keeping the doors on the apartments until Mother's Day hoping the sparrows would nest somewhere else, so far so good. So, bottom line, go for it. Hope to meet you soon, I keep looking for you at Lowes, ha ha.
Carolyn
You might talk with Trois first. He has mentioned that the Martins actually end up eating dragonflies, which are the main predators of mosquitos. Can't say I have experience with this, but he does. Then again maybe if you don't ever see dragonflies either, they will eat the mosquitos. I don't know.
HI Carolyn! I didn't know you had come over here. I think I've been spending more time at Hobby Lobby these days than Lowe's! (bad girl) So Tammy has one too? I wonder if hers is a success because of the area that her and Mel live in?
I do want to get rid of the mosquitoes because they are highly attracted to ME and they will find any spot not covered with some sort of repellant. I don't like using DEET but sometimes it's the only thing that keeps them off of me. It just makes me miserable.
But even with all that, I don't want them eating my dragonflies or butterflies! I love listening to the birds outside, but I'm also wondering now if they would be too noisy. Thanks Sweezel, I'll ask Trois and do more investigating.
This may not not be a solution, but I have found that the repellant called Skinsations (by Cutter) to be the least bothersome to me and most effective against those pesky skeeters. They are really bad here early morning and after dusk especially, and I am a gourmet meal, so I was glad to find something almost odorless (slight fragrance - pleasant) and non-greasy.
KK.... we put our martin house up 8 years ago. We've only had the pond for 4 years. We had martins the first year. The martins eat more mosquitos than dragonflies. I have both. We do not have mosquito problems because of the martins.
The martins would drink from the pond, but there is not enough "flyby" room for them. some days they will actually walk to the stream and drink, when it is VERY hot, but they don't dive bomb the pond to drink.
I'd give it a shot! I wish we still had our old house, I'd give it to you. i'm not sure what he did with it, but we started out small, too!
We have a martin house, it's close to a fence and they don't seem to mind. I do live on the water, so can't help you with that question. We have dragonflies.
Yuska, I think that is one that I do carry in my car. I must be prepared at all times! I also use OFF's Botanicals and Avon's new product they came out with last year. I like it but it's oily at first. I also have to use the lanterns in the yard with the OFF products. I too am a feast for them.
I guess I should have asked you first Mel! lol I was thinking last night how hard it might be for them to do a "flyby" at your pond too. lol Are they loud? Surely they can't be any louder than the tons of sparrows yelling at each other, or the "town crier" Mockingbird. I wish you had that old house too! Does your pole raise up and down??
We have no mosquitos when the dragon flies are out. On our big pond I have watched several hundred Dragon Flies being eaten by Martens in just a few minutes. Then we had a big time mosquito problem for a week or so until the next hatching of Dragon Flies came along. We bought some devices that make a sound like Dragon Flies flying and they keep the mosquitoes away when we wear them. We also have a number of water containers for water plants in which we keep Mosquito fish. When they come to lay eggs, they are gonners. We seldom see skeeters here. Dragon flies get wet from dew and will not fly until dry. As soon as they dry and start flying, the skeeters go away for the rest of the day.
Oh my... I have one of those things that makes a noise to scare away mosquitoes, and it does work. I didn't know what the noise was tho! Maybe I should look more into attracting Dragonflies. I usually have a few, but not enough to eat the mosquitoes.
We have a lot of Barn Swallows that are swooping around all day, I assume eating flying insects. I've never seen them come into my backyard, just flying over it. Do they eat mosquitoes?
I don't know if they eat mosquitos, but they also eat Dragon Flies.
Chimney Swifts resemble Swallows but lack the forked tail. They do eat mosquitos.
Konkreteblond,
I found 3 websites for you. The first gives general information about maintaining a Purple Martin population. The second one addresses the mosquito "myth." Apparently, Purple Martins eat larger flying insects and only a few if any mosquitos. The last websiste, a Univ. of Maryland extension PFD file, address attracting Purple Martins and includes minimum space requirements for them. Hope this helps.
Veronica
http://www.purple-martin.org/
http://www.purplemartin.org/update/MosCont.html
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/MCE/Publications/PDFs/FS792.pdf
Thank you so much Veronica!! I will look thru these. I did wonder if it were true about the PM's eating mosquitoes. "Larger flying insects" would mean my butterflies!! Can't have that!