Thanks Nicknack! Now that I have read up on it, we did check an "empy bluebird house and find a wren nest. It does have the white cocoons in it. We destroyed the nest. That box is located in the front acre of our property near an old barn and shed which is on our neighbors property. Our Blubirds are in the back acre with the tree sparrow nest which has babies. Should we take down the empty boxes in the front or leave them? Like sagrinin, I am worried they will mess with my two other nests.

Tim! You can fashion a spooker out of the skinny wooden dowels at the hardware store, you'll need cable ties or duct tape to put them into the "T" position and then duct tape the mylar streamers. If your boxes are wooden you can screw in two little eye hooks or something to the back of the box then cable tie the dowel to the box. If you make them like that you'll have spookers for every box and you only have to keep buying the mylar banners from the dollar store. Like Nicknack said they need to come down right after fledging so these b******s don't become tolerant. Cable tie or duct tape something to the tres box temporarily till you get situated. Right know my spookers are all gunked together due to the rain which makes me real paranoid. Yesterday I ran down my driveway in the rain like a wild beast 'cause I swore there was hosp intrusion at a box but it was just tres relatives going in the box causing a ruckus. I'll relax when the wind dries out the streamers and they unfurl. Good luck Tim, Sue

Donna I just had new wrens start singing and putting sticks in a box today. There are 2 boxes up the road in the neighbors yards with wrens and 1 across the street that already have nests and I thought I was in the clear and then more showed up today. What time did you put it on? Usually I put it on in the morning so they have all day to get used to it and figure it out. (which they do) If it is just a piece of wood or cardboard in the front only I would leave it. That is easier to figure out that with the sides on like I use. I myself would have put the guard on first b/c the hosp have never gotten around the guard yet. Sometimes I don't even use a spooker until fledging is near if I have a guard up. Gees that is a tough call. I don't think you can ever say you are safe from the wrens. Wish I had better advice. Cathy

It seems really unusual that there would be House Wrens in southern Georgia during the summer. They are supposed to be winter residents there. The punctured eggs however lead me to think that it would have to be a HOWR. It is also weird that there were only two eggs punctured and they were all still in the box at first: from my own experience with HOWR attacks, they puncture ALL the eggs and drop them right outside the box. It may have been a HOWR that did everything, or it could have been a HOWR that punctured the eggs, and then something else may have eaten the eggs. According to a birding book that I own, House Wrens are "common in open woodlands, shrubs, farmlands, suburbs, gardens, and parks." It's really hard to pinpoint exactly what happened here. Make sure they get a predator baffle and a sparrow spooker on their box for the next time the Blues lay eggs. Wren guards are often ineffective after an attack has already occurred on a box. If you are going to put up a wren guard, I would suggest either relocating the house by atleast 100 feet, or rotating the box 90 degrees. There is a very simple design for a wren guard using the corner of a Cheese-It box which can be put up and taken off very quickly. Usually when one of our boxes gets attacked by HOWR, we never see or hear them... one minute the eggs are there, the next they are gone. They are very sneaky. Good luck. Ken