A Purple Martin Apartment

(Page 2 of 2)

March/April 1985
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Building one of these garden-helper houses should take no longer than half an hour and requires little more than a hacksaw, two pairs of pliers, a ruler, a 2-1/4" hole saw, and a drill with 1/8", 1/4", and 5/16" bits.

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First, temporarily slip the caps in place and position the four access holes — then drill the perch-bar holes and the single 1/8" screw hole. (Note that the lower and upper perches slide through the caps and the pipe, as does the No. 6 X 3/4" screw.) With that done, remove the caps, drill the drain holes in the center of the lower cap and the bolt hole through the upper one, and install the floor flange and eyebolt. (You'll probably have to enlarge the flange's mounting holes slightly to accept the 1/4" carriage bolts.)

Next, bend the perch bars — starting from the center and working outward — using the dimensions indicated . . . but allow a little extra length in the top bar's center loop, since it must be bent upward at a 90° angle to catch beneath the screwhead. Finally, cut out the floor disks (it's a good idea to coat them first with paint or water sealant), and piece the house together, working from the bottom up.

Since purple martins prefer to nest high above the ground, you should either thread a length of pipe into the floor flange and slip it over a 10- or 15-foot mounted pole, or — to facilitate cleaning and the removal of nests built by intruding sparrows — suspend the house from a rope attached at one end to the eyebolt and threaded through a post-mounted pulley. Place the house in an open area as near to a body of water as possible, and your small investment should yield a great return . . . in the form of reliable and "cheep" insect control!

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Comments

  • Stephen 2/10/2008 8:07:50 PM

    This article makes a misleading statement. It says that a Purple
    Martin can eat thousands of misquitoes a day. While they probably
    can, research shows that mosquitoes are not generally part of the
    diet. Actually, they eat less than 2% of their diet in mosquitoes,
    which are active at nght when the martins are asleep, and stay
    close to the ground to feed while martins feed from 100 to 500 feet
    in the air. You are much better off attracting bats for mosquitoe
    control.

  • Lee 2/8/2008 8:31:20 PM

    I'd suggest using gourds, martins love them, you can grow them
    yourself and they will offer more nesting space for each family.
    Research has shown that 6 inches is on the small side since martins
    are over 7 inches long and they might have 4 or more babies in the
    nest too. good info that has helped me is at www.purplemartin.org,
    a nonprofit group that works to help martins and martin landlords.
    we have been using gourds for several years with good results. we
    added a cap to the side of each gourd so we can clean the old nests
    out and take a weekly look at the nests to make sure everything is
    okay. Lee

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