What Does This Mean?

Yes, awful. Sparrows are too young to know better

Depends on if the sparrow started It!

I can not follow this. What is it about?

Dave

Well, this house came with a deck over the entrance to the garage. So, the little stinkers get in there and build nests.

Being the good little engineer that he is, he did his research. Found these spikey things that you put in the areas where they try to build nests and this is supposed to be a deterrent. Which is not working. So he's been working on the fly trying different things.

He may have found something that works because he saw one fly out from under the deck, after circling the area trying to find a way in.

And that, your honor, is when the trash talking started....

We look forward to the birds nesting in our Spanish tile roof openings.

We have lots of hummers that return each year, as well.

there are some birds that don't mind spike strips. i just made some for an annoying dove, that was building a nest on the AC. only thing is, they are terrible nest builders, relying on random twigs to make a circle. but i think the branches kept falling off, so they just kept doing it... they are not doing it now... home made spike strips worked nice.

you should have seen me going after the squirrels and the things i said to it... and it turned to me, with a big tomato in its mouth, gave me a stink eye, and the middle finger, and ran off.... this year the tree is gone, and i'm hoping the commute will be too far to travel with the thing.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Sparrows are an invasive species in the second place! They may be fine in GB but in the US they are gangland murderers! (I'm sure some of them are nice)

Are you sure you aren't talking about a swallow? We feed the birds, and I can sometimes have easily 100 Sparrows eating there. I have a house with all kinds of nesting areas available. I have nearly never had a sparrow nest in my house.

Swallows will build mud huts on protected ledges. And aside from the fact that they poop a lot. they aren't much of a problem (except that they'll buzz you if you come too close to the young'uns.) In return, however, they will eat the yard free of mosquitoes all Summer long! It's worth the trade. In Maine, where we have ticks like you've never seen, the swallows (and I think the grasshoppers) are what cull the hoards. Nothing can save you from the mosquitoes on a calm evening in Maine! Seriously, ten minutes outside and you start to feel lethargic from the lack of blood!

I'm sure there is a Twitter joke in here as well... I just can't quite put it together.

Chuck - I like Hummingbirds. We get a few around here. Not enough to make it interesting though.

Mike - So, you're trash talking with squirrels? LOL I'm guessing you keep a fresh garden every year? Anything else besides tomatoes?

Uther - These little guys right here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Sparrow/media-browser/63742431 Ah, another New Englander. One of the few reasons I hardly go out in the summer here is because of getting chewed on by insects. I know what you mean about the lethargic feeling.


On a side note, squirrels seem to be excavating my yard.

Are you seeing the squirrels? Because that could be skunks or possum digging up grubs.

I did. At first I wasn't sure. I thought maybe we had moles. But I saw the little stinker out there digging away. On an upside, he's turning our topsoil for us.

usually spaghetti squash. last year all i had was girl flowers, and very few boys. its usually the opposite.

the squirrels will grab and run, and i've often ran back there saying - oh no you don't. bad squirrel, get away from them and then there may be some other harsh words...

rats on the other hand, i have to sweet talk and calm them down before i drown them... because as of late when i catch it, its always tail first for some reason. and its always upsetting, but its not like i'm going to get down and free it once its caught. those things can clear all the plants in a day or two if no caught.

still working out a plan for mosquitoes. using citronella, some kind of jug and orbeez.

the digging squirrels are probably digging up stuff they left in the ground last year. or looking for yummy bugs.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

if they are very round holes about 3/4" wide, its a mole. if it looks like a small dog was digging, its a squirrel. if you see a critter with a shovel, miners hat, and work boots, its a rat.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike, get a bat house for your mosquits!

Bats are mondo beneficial and the "Guano" is supposed to be excellent fertilizer.

i've thought about making a bat house for that....

i've thought of making an owl house for the rats

figuring out a way to get falcons in my yard (didn't work long on that one though). i'm just not sure i want bats out there. i built a tomato cage to keep the squirrels out, and the plants inside, tomatoes, attract those things. and they only hang out inside, by the plants. i actually bought a cheap mosquito hat, but it doesn't cover my whole body.

i heard the quano is very toxic to be near. and if its in the attic, you have to get a pro to remove it, or you could get sick.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike -

How do you work with spaghetti squash? I've never had it.

LOL I'm actually picturing you yelling at them. Thanks for the chuckles on that one.

If you're not allergic to cats or terriers, they're good at getting rats. I'd love it if a Peregrine took up residence here. Heck even a Kestrel at this point.

Miner's hates? All I can think of is the critters in The Deadmines.

Mike/Uther -

In regards to guano, this is what I found:

Ask nearly anyone, and you'll hear that bats (although beneficial in insect control) can be dangerous because they carry rabies. But a lesser known danger, and one that is not as easy to avoid, is histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis is a disease you can get from exposure to bat guano (bat droppings).

you grow it with large spacing, they sprawl, they seem to like light but need shade to fruit, they like to climb, the higher they grow, the more they produce. but you have to fertilize the flowers by hand because you can't depend on bees. usually i'm out there each morning with a small paint brush, pulling off the boys, evading the bees, and painting pollen on the girl. i have been able to collect some of the pollen for later use.

you get a football sized thing, its green, and turns yellowish amber when its done, the shell is hard. don't poke it or it will rot. i try to get them off the ground as they grow. they keep a while as long as there is a stem and no holes.

from there, you cut it, i think you remove the seeds and microwave it for a bit. then using a fork, you score the insides and the remains turn spaghetti like. we put olivio and salt on it. others do other things.

fertilize them well and they should grow pretty well. still not sure why i had all girls and few boys last year. i have to go over my notes. the plants can also get squash bugs, which bore into the stem killing it. the beetle is black and red, and too pretty to squish, that and its crunchy. eventually they win though.


we do seem to have a few random cats that i find in the garden. i'm hoping they will be back and help get rid of them.

rats are very smart. they will observe what you do, and go after the prize. like they dug up all my squash seeds because i placed them in rings, because i heard the beetles can't to it (but the fly so that makes little sense). this just outlined where they were. they never go for the free range tomatoes i have outside the cage, they only go for the trapped ones. and i'm still not sure where they are getting in. i thought i had it pretty tight. as long as i don't get bird in there. because with the traps, they got in, and entered the trap every time... i was able to fold many a sparrow after that.

i ended up adding mesh to the cage to keep them out. but i'm certain there are holes in it now. i do know a squirrel did get itself trapped in there. some how eating the traps i had in there, and i had to escort it out, holding the door open and pointing to the exit and its not like it knew what i was doing. i just left the door open and it figured it out.

fun fact, rats can be shushed. also, they float.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Decades ago I bought a brand new 4-bedroom, 2-story house using the GI-bill for $1 down.

I put in a huge pool, a fantastic patio, a drop-dead waterfall... and lost it all to gophers.

As in many cartoons, plants would disappear before my eyes as gophers pulled them down their holes.

After 6 years of fighting them, I finally gave up and moved.

Chuck wins that round!

Really? I don't remember that on the label on the bat house. That thing oughta come with a State of California says, label on it.

Yet I do remember my old man coming home from Job Lots down on(was it?) Canal street. (Any old timers remember those places? They were cool. You never knew what you wer going to find.) With a bag of Bat Gauno, purportedly from ancient caves out west.

Hey, I was wrong. Wasn't first or last.

Mike - huh. Okay. I like Zucchini, Butternut, Summer. This sounds like it could be interesting.

Chuck - Holy cow, Batman! That sounded so lovely. Like a little oasis right at home. Darn those gophers! Was this is CA?

Uther - True that. We've all been wrong in our lives. But - you should also know you were correct. It is also an excellent fertilizer.