Lisa I'm very sorry for your loss, I feel your pain, it seems like every season a tres gets killed in one of my boxes. I have a particular hosp that has moved from my boxes to under my covered porch which I welcome as it will give me time to zero in the scope on my new pellet gun which is a pain in the a**. Every box I put a van ert in he would never go back in again,too wiley for his own good,he must be exterminated.... Sue

I am so sorry for your loss. What a sad thing to have happen to an innocent little Chickadee. Have you tried the DRST at all? Once the Juncos left, I put one out and have caught 7 within the past week. The TRES won't go near the DRST, and rarely have I had any bird get in there that wasn't a HOSP. I have the the occasional chipmunk though. The Van Erts are invaluable too. But as you said, you have to be there to watch and make sure no other bird gets in if the nest box isn't yet "owned". I do let HOSP claim a spare box and let them build a nest, and maybe even lay an egg to be sure they are bonded and nothing else will go in there and then set up the Van Ert. Obviously your box wasn't yet claimed, so there was nothing you could have done to prevent what happened. I wish you the best of luck getting those HOSP.

Sorry to hear of it Lisa.

As Kendra said, there wasn't anything you could have done. We all put up SUCH a battle with HOSP! Even then, they still find a way to cause problems.

They destroyed my first eggs this year and I only left ONE DAY! Before I could get the spooker up. Then my bluebirds were ready to lay and the HOSP took over their box! That Male HOSP is now K.I.A. The blues moved to my other box and quickly layed but things have been going down (see my posts)

All this, and their #s are still seriously down in my neighborhood! I've taken babies, eggs, adult HOSP, you name it. But it only takes one HOSP! Just stay at it, and the HOSP will pay in due time! It's an endless battle, but believe in me and sialis, you CAN get their population down! It's all a matter of time. They were once on the increase in my neighborhood (neighbor's Martin Complex WAS FILLED with them a couple years ago) Continue to make note of others' effective methods.

Kendra, how in the HECK do you catch THAT MANY HOSP in just ONE WEEK??? I've had the thing with 2 males and 2 females in it and it can take AT LEAST a WEEK to catch even one or two more! I've caught Chickadees, Song Sparrows, Chipping sparrows, etc. I've had 2 fatalities. 1 dee and 1 song sparrow. But lately it's been mainly all HOSP. I had to remove it from my other site because there were 8 in the trap, and it was knocked over and 4 HOSP (thankfully HOSP!) were found bloodied and decaying in my DRST. I believe it was cats. This was a day or two after my last check. In total, over a 2-4 week period I caught 4-6 HOSP. The other site has a much more explosive population, yet the trap doesn't seem to attract as much attention as everyone on sparrowtraps.net says. Remember though, this is my first season with the trap. In total, not many natives trapped.

Wishing you better luck with the HOSP Lisa! When all is said and done, you should have some success this season.

Tim, This time I placed the DRST inside the Guinea Fowl pen, since the Guineas are now let outside in the day. The HOSP had been sneaking in there to steal the Guinea's food. It has been really weird. They just keep jumping into the trap. I'm going to have to find a way to get them out. Any ideas? I used to just put a bag over the entrance hole and they'd fly into the bag. Now I have a DRST full of HOSP that won't go near the entry hole. I have tried numerous times. Soon there will be too many to keep in there. Seriously, they are just jumping in to join the others. And there are ONLY HOSP in there.

Kendra, the only SAFE way to remove the HOSP that I've used is actually grabbing individuals with your hands and dealing them one by one. Then again, so far I haven't had more than 7-8 in it at once.

The Draw string bag I use for my Van Ert is how I put them in. In fact, in order to even start trapping any in the DRST was to use male decoys from the Van Ert! 1 didn't bring any, then 2 did the trick within a few days.

My bag is too big though. The removal door is too small for it! I don't think Blaine should change the size though. Maybe innovate a better way to remove them.

Having the bag opened INSIDE the DRST and shooing them into the bag might work. I've tried it a couple times without success. The HOSP usually huddle and go crazy in the other side of the trap for me. Some just submerge the entire trap in a lake! I don't feel this is humane though so I would never do it.

Thanks for the advice. I too think Blaine should make a way to empty the trap easier. There should probably be a secondary door that can be unlatched. Reaching in there through that small hole when they've all jammed themselves into the furthest back corner can make it extremely hard to grab them.