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HELP! ant nest in bluebird nest

15 years ago

First of all...I have blue birds for the first time that have been hanging around since the end of April. They built a nest and are in and out of the house and hanging around at different times of the day. I check the house once a day to see if there is an egg so I can put up the sparrow spooker. Why have they not laid and egg after all this time?? This evening....I checked the nest and saw that ants have built a nest in there. WHAT do I do?

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Comments (7)

craftylady6
15 years ago
I just did this too! They will abandon the nest if you don't take care of it, ASAP!! tonight if you can!. You need to do a nest change. There is good info on the sialis site about nest changes and how to do it. I got as much dried grass as I could and put it in an empty butter container. I tried to line it with pine needles, but I don't know where my female got hers?!! It took a few days, but then the second egg arrived along with a third! She was incubating a few days until a wren, I think, got two of them. Now they built another nest in my other box.. after all that work!!

then you have to take care of the ants. They say grease the pole.. I put the liquid ant killer at the base on a plastic lid covered with a larger lid.. I hoped it would distract them from the nest, but I can't tell for sure if it worked since they moved.. but I didn't see any more ants in there.

Good luck and keep us posted!
lisa11310
15 years ago
Hammon go to the www.sialis.org website. Read up. You will need to take that nest out. Do not use pesticides just gerase the pole and cap off the top. They like the box, they may return!
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hammom
Original Author
15 years ago
I'm confused because the sialis website said to put a qtip soaked in ant killer under the nest and also underneath the house. I did not put it anywhere in the nest box I only taped it underneath the house.
craftylady6
15 years ago
If the nest is infested, a qtip full of ant killer won't be enough, it will just attract ants to the box.. personal experience here... we've had a real bad ant/bug problem this year. I've had to POUR ant killer in different locations around the house and refill it twice a day. Each container is covered so no bird will get to it. Terro is only dangerous if eaten.

Sometimes you have to do what you think is best when you get conflicting advice.

There is also a product called tanglefoot ant barrier that you wrap around the pole, I couldn't find it locally at all. I was about to buy it online when we lost eggs and the birds moved. The sialis site says to use this carefully as well.

lots of luck!
hammom
Original Author
15 years ago
ants are gone!!! I don't see any sign of them.
HU-459754527
last year
12 . , 6 !!! ! 4 ! .
HU-459754527
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