Lisa, because the males get mates so quickly, I doubt your shooting will cause him to retaliate.

Here's an interesting note about the Van Ert: If you catch the FEMALE in an active HOSP nest, try leaving her body in the box afterwards. May sound cruel, but I did this at my 2nd box site, and I caught the Male within 30 seconds of setting and leaving the trap! I walked away and a few seconds later..."SNAP!" ..."Did that seriously just happen??"

The only way I caught HOSP in the ground trap (DRST) was by putting a couple live males in first that I caught with the Van Ert. It was sitting out for WEEKS not catching anything before this. I know how impatient it can make you!

Keep up with the Sparrow Spookers! I have used them 2-3 seasons now and not had even ONE HOSP attack occur when used. Just remember the time frame to have it up in.

With the 3 big control items: Van Ert, DRST, and Sparrow Spooker, I believe this is the best way to bring the population down. I wish they couldn't nest in evergreens! I tear out and destroy eggs and nestings from these year in and year out. It gets exhausting.

~Tim~

Lisa...I once put a vanert in an active HOSP nestbox. It was hard with all the nesting material but I fluffed it back up. Caught the female, took her out, reset the trap and within a minute caught the male. There were two eggs in the nest at the time. Good luck..hope you can get lots of those nasty little ratbirds.

Donna

Lisa, I have a Martin house but no Martins. It is a T-14 so the whole side opens up. The HOSP love the house, and I use an inbox trap. It's a rectangular trap that you can just pull out once they trip the mechanism. The entry hole is smaller so no Martin could get in it. I just let them start building, then switch some of their nesting material to the trap and insert it. Once I caught the male and female at the same time. I like it because I can just pull out the whole thing and see who's in there with no chance of them escaping.

Make sure that when using a sparrow spooker from year to year that you change the mylar streamers. They get dull and lose their effectiveness. A friend lost blues with the sparrow spooker on - the streamers had lost their luster.

Linda C

I feel your pain. Get rid of the female if you can take a shot. Remove the nest and eggs (if any) whenever you see them building. The males are so much more aggressive about the nests then the females. If this happens too many times, they will try to go for the BB or TRES houses instead even when they are occupied. You don't want that to happen. Do not give up until you kill the male, but if you are able to get the female - do it. I say one less HOSP in the world, the better. I set the Huber trap in my BB/TRES boxes whenever they start coming around in the spring. The males are relentless and I cannot get rid of them unless I kill them. I have a lovely neighbor that allows them to use all of her BB houses so we have many around our area also. Good luck!

TRES have an egg and spooker accepted! So are we all in agreement shoot the fm Hosp, pull the nest and hope the male sits there and sings to bring another so I can get him?

Lisa, I would make sure your spookers are nice and extravagant and spookie ( I buy those 12' long happy birthday mylar banners from the dollar store so I can cut the strips as long and wacked-out as i want, I just make sure they don't block the opening ever) and take out the female. Maybe leave the eggs and the male hosp will be in the box trying to figure out where she went. I caught a male that refused to go in a box that he had built a nest in that I armed with my van ert. He abandoned his nest with my van ert in but came back weeks later when the tres were in it and I just covered the whole trap with their nest feathers and he finally was caught. It was a great day. Good luck you can get 'im.