Try painting Tanglefoot around your pole, just under the guard. Then the ants will stick to it when they try to go up and down the pole, but the birds won't accidentally get it on them.

More info...I'm an idiot. The box is on a wooden pole that was used for gardening. So the ants could be coming out of the wood itself! We've had a lot of swarming ants this year. And more fire ant nests than we know what to do about. We've had them treated but it doesn't do much good.

My husband is willing to transfer the nestbox to a metal or plastic pipe, but I don't know if that's a good idea at this point. Will it scare the parents away? I'm also willing to do ant patrol two or three times a day if necessacary.

tara

Yes! Get it off that wooden pole very carefully and get it on a slick metal pole with a baffle. It shouldn't upset the parents too much as long as it is close to where it was. Be very careful moving it with those precious eggs in there though but you should be able to do it. Good luck!

Donna

You need to grease the pole with axle grease or vaseline will do until you get better or like was mentioned use the tanglefoot (only under the baffle)

Thank you for the suggestions. I know I can always count on you.

I smeared vaseline on the baffle, but I smeared it...very thick, above the baffle and even above the nestbox. This morning I went out and scraped it off as best as I could and reapplied it below the nestbox. When I checked on inside the nestbox, no sign of any ants. So that's a good sign.

As for moving it to a pole....my husband said he'd buy a pole this weekend and if I want him to he'll attempt to move the nestbox. I'm not so sure that I want him to do it as this point. Remember this is the same setup that brought us 3 successful clutches last year. I don't want to risk doing something that might upset that box with the 5 little eggs. I'll monitor it as close as I can. These blues are used to me and don't seem to care when I check. I've even opened the box when Mom was in there and she only looked at me. (Both times I knocked on the box first, but she didn't leave).

We plant to buy the items we need to get rid of the ants. If something changes we'll make the switch. But I'd really prefer to let this clutch continue undisturbed and then change everything out.

I'll keep you posted of course and get pictures when I can.

Thanks.
tara/fairychick

Tara,
You can safely move the nestbox to a pole. I have actually had to erect a new nestbox and transfer a nest with eggs into the new box from a box that had been raided by a snake. The birds came back and nested quickly after I cleaned out the old nest in the snake-raided box. So we erected a new box on a pole with a baffle right next to the old box. Then we transferred the whole nest to the new box and took down the old box. The birds never missed a beat. They continued with the new set-up and the birds fledged successfully. Your birds are committed to their box with those eggs.

Linda C

Tara:
Be sure to cap the two ends of any metal pole that you might use. If you use a electrical conduit pipe you can buy end caps for them, but I'm not excited about them, but a plastic end cap from the plumbing side of a hardware store I believe is a little bit better and tighter squeeze with no room for ants to get through. The sizes are a little different but you can figure out which one will work by eyeballing them, to install just hammer them in place. Of course a tight wad could use some sort of tape like electrical tape or duck tape.
Keith

I want to thank all of you for your advice and support.

So far so good on the ant situation. We just used the vaseline trick. After what happened to the first clutch of eggs I've just been to scared to move the nestbox from the wood board that it's mounted on to a new pole. Having said that, we are constructing plans and buying parts to change it all out when this group fledges. I've checked the box and 5 eggs daily and all seems well - no ants. I know that I'm taking a chance but it's not one I'm taking lightly.

I'm going to catch up on reading everything. Mother's Day Weekend was a busy one around here. Again, thank all of you for your support, and advice. We're taking it, but just not yet.

tara/fairychick