A Purple Martin Apartment

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Construct a house for one of nature's most pleasant—and effective —garden-pest predators.

Spring is on the way, bringing with it dreams of a bountiful vegetable garden — and nightmares of a summer spent battling bugs just to win eating privileges. This year, in addition to using the customary lines of defense against insect damage (such as companion planting, crop rotation, soil amendment, and — when necessary — the application of organic pesticides), you might want to consider making your life easier by "hiring" some real professionals in the field: purple martins!

These huge swallows are ideal garden neighbors . . . not only because of their voracious appetites (one bird can consume 400 flies or several thousand mosquitoes in a single day, the equivalent of its own weight in flying insects!), but also for their beautiful song and their gregarious nature. Since martins seem to enjoy being near people and often favor man-made structures, it'd be worth the effort to try your hand at attracting the working warblers by installing one or more of these easy-to-build purple martin apartment houses in your yard.

Each complex is nothing more than a 27" length of 6" thin-wall PVC pipe (the plastic drain, waste, and vent tubing sold in plumbing stores) that's capped at both ends and pierced with four 2-1/4" access holes spaced vertically 4" apart — top edge to bottom edge — from each other. Lengths of 1/8" coppercoated steel welding rod, bent to a modified W shape, slide into sets of 1/8" holes (bored 3-3/4" apart and 1-3/4" below the lower edge of each access opening) to provide perches . . . and support for the four 1/4" X 5-3/4" plywood disks that serve as floors.