A baffle on the post beneath the box is about all you can do. Black snakes can drop from overhanging limbs. I'll never forget the time a black snake fell off the rafters in our old barn (when I was a teenager) and onto a mouse. If the area around the post is suitable (sun and dry), you could plant lavender there. Cameron

Sunday update: My box still just has an empty nest. I wonder if it's a dummy nest????? Only saw the sparrow once today, but the wrens were around once too. Ugh. Wish the bluebirds would nest in my box, but at least both male and female are coming to my yard to eat mealworms. My neighbor's box had one egg in it today! Being that they are out of town, I am monitoring their box. We put up a baffle (metal stovepipe) and made and installed a sparrow spooker today. It is quite the spooker too! We actually bought fringed mylar and stapled it to the dowels after priming and painting them so they will hold up in the weather. We made three spookers, hoping I will need one and made one for another neighbor too. Question: Is there anything we can do to keep the wrens away?

Oh Kenn.they are so very very beautiful. My heart sang and my face smiled as I took them in with my eyes. My favorite birds. My current pair are on nest #3, and they are feeding hatchlings. Interestingly, they chose a different house for each nesting, even though I remove old nests as soon as babies fledge. I guess they wanted to try them all out and find out what they liked best. They have just now been at my window feeder taking sunflower chips as I look at your post. :o)

Thanks for this post, Ray. We have a baffle, yet this spring's first clutch of bluebird eggs disappeared. It was during a very rainy spell, and I had not checked on them for a couple of days. When I did, gone! No pieces of eggs around the house on the ground, etc. However, in 2 day's time, other animals could have eaten the eggs, so it COULD have been a starling that I later saw reaching into the box. (We now have a guard on the front to help keep the startling from reaching the babies - I hope! We now have 2-day-old nestlings.) -PLEASE ** See my post if anyone can give input for me: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5334123/m=23/remove-dead-nestling I'll check out that youtube about the wire mesh. I can't imagine the big snakes I've seen here not climbing right on/over anything stiff enough. We've been lightly spraying the pole AND baffle each evening with oil. The netting sounds good to me, except I would be afraid finches or other "clinging" birds might get caught in it. ?