I keep bat boxes in the trees off the perimeter of my place. The bats fly all night eating all the skeeters they can. During the day time the Purple Matrin's which live in the aluminum Martin Box fly around eating skeeters the bats don't find. The Martins are the largest of the Swallow family and most graceful in flight. Martin's need to be out in the open away from taller trees and near water if possible. The only other bird they will roost with are the English Sparrow and their arch enemy is the Starling.(a black bird) There are garden skeeter eliminators now that use a propane tank that heats a scent bait to attract the skeeters while a vacuum cleaner built into it sucks them into a container when they fly to the scent that attracts them. These get good reviews from those I've spoken with who have purchased them. You can make the bat boxes from saw bark for little or nothing with free plans on the net, and the Martin Box set up will likely cost $50+ dollars each if you don't build them. Either way I think it's a good deal as the Martins are a joy to watch and have around besides their eating all those skeeters.

Susan, The GFS forecasting model that successfully predicted last week's North Texas/Southern Oklahoma snowfall is predicting something similar about midweek next week. Because of that, I'm holding back and not planting my onions plants yet. Forecasting models are complicated and forecasters don't use just one model, they use several....and, in some cases, many. Often the models disagree, and the further out a forecasted event is, the more variation you see between models and the less confidence you have in ANY one of them. Meterologists know a lot about each model and, in particular, they know that certain models are outliers in certain circumstances. An outlier is a model that is drastically different from the others, and often the meteorologists tend to ignore an outlier. This is where it gets tricky because..... This winter the GFS has accurately predicted most of the major snowstorms, even well in advance. For the last storm, though, it was such an outlier even as far as 8 to 10 days out that most meteorologists discarded it and went with a forecast based on more conservative models. Then, the storm arrived and followed the path forecast by the GFS. Also, the ultimate snowfall totals were heavier in many areas than forecast by the GFS, which mostly forecast 8-10" totals....but the GFS was most accurate on the precip totals because other models forecast only 1-4" totals. So, since the GFS was correct last week (and for the Dec. and Jan. storms), I can't ignore it and that's why I'm feeling 'cautious' about next week's weather. I know our local TV met is watching the GFS model runs for next week because he hinted last night at possible snow by putting a 20% chance of rain on next Tues or Wed and made a statement like "it's too far out to be sure, but there's a chance that I'll have to change that rain to a word that begins with the letter 's'". He usually won't put snow into a forecast much more than about 3 or 4 days in advance, so I'll really be watching his forecast this weekend to see if he changes that rain to a word beginning with 's'. The purple martin houses are multi-compartment houses that sit on a pole. The martins love them. We have two...a plain white one and a red barn-style one. Each has 12 compartments. You have to situate them carefully so the martins have a clear 'flight path'. That don't like houses that are too close to trees that might interfere in their flight, and they like being close to human beings, but not too close. We don't have bluebird houses here but we leave dead trees standing in the woods for them. We generally have a great bluebird population. I am, by the way, hoping and praying the GFS is an outlier for next week because we don't need any more moisture here. Dawn

Yeah Angie it really depends on the aggressiveness of the birds. Last year the blues and TRES would fight here and there. The blues would land on the TRES's box and they would come after them but the blues refused to budge. Even after multiple dives the blues just wouldn't budge! They used it as a perch mainly. But when the swallows landed on the blues box....look out! I recall the Male and Female each pinning the swallows to the ground a time or two. The male would frequently chaise them if they got anywhere close. This year they perch on each other's boxes but usually split up when together. If the swarm of the swallows comes in the blues leave. But the swallow pair next to the blues perches on their box and if they see another swallow land on the blues box they chaise them down and flutter. Same with the blues! Another Male bluebird (His call sounded like a fledgling from last year, maybe it is? Can anyone answer this) showed up today and the primary male chaised the other male high in the sky and ran it off. These two species are so alike aren't they?! But why is there a swarm of swallows at my boxes and only 3 bluebirds? They face the exact same problems but yet the poor bluebirds are always out-numbered! Mr. Blue was perching on, entering, and singing on the box. He'd then perch nearby and when the female landed on the box he was wing waving like crazy! But she landed on the front and landed on the top frequently. I hope they start building soon! Just not laying! Worried about cooler temps. 47 tomorrow and then 50's and 60's the rest of the week.

I put up a Martin house a few years ago, and it is indeed a HOSP magnet. You can trap in the Martin box. I do it all the time. I don't know what kind of house you have, but there are multiple traps available for different units. I built a T-14, so could not use a trap that would just close off the entry, or the sparrows would escape when I opened the door. You can buy little wire traps which you insert into the compartment. When triggered, you can just remove the whole trap with the sparrow inside. I built one that fits my unit. I just used hardware cloth to make a box that would fit into the compartments. Then I put a plywood front on it (make the opening big enough for a sparrow, but too small for a Purple Martin)Then I used wire which holds up a small piece of metal that will fall over the hole when the sparrow step on the trigger. I got the idea from the Huber trap you can make for Bluebird boxes Huber trap directions I've never had a Martin (yet) but it works extremely well as a HOSP trap. If you wait until they start to nest, which doesn't take long at all, you can add some of their nesting material into the trap and they can't resist going in. Hope this helps.