Mosquitoes and other flying insects can easily ruin time spent in your garden or backyard on hot, summer nights. In lieu of dousing yourself or your yard with chemicals, here’s an all-natural and stylish way to keep those bugs from ruining any of your evenings outside. More information after the jump!
Purple Martin gourd nests not only look beautiful, they invite these desirable birds to spend time in your yard, eating up to 2000 insects per bird every day, especially mosquitoes and wasps. This chemical-free insect control option also comes with great bird songs.
In Austin, Purple Martin Propagators sells several versions of Purple Martin nests, from 12 gourd systems priced at $650 to huge Purple Martin compounds featuring 24 gourds for $1150. The Native Americans were the first to introduce the gourd nests to Purple Martins by carving out holes in dried-out gourds. For a more DIY approach to Purple Martin nests, check out this great online tutorial on how to create your own Purple Martin nests.
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that seems to be a great idea for pest control, but what would the solution be to deal w/ all the bird droppings?
view lunatig's profile
unless there is something about the color white that makes them a more attractive home, I think these would look cool if kept in the original color of the gourd.
view amt230's profile
There's a Charley Harper print entitled Condominium [found here] that features these gourd nests, but they're not white. I actually like how Miami-esque the white looks, though.
view visualingual's profile
Fortunately insects aren't a huge problem where I live. Occaisional mosquitos, but there are also bats that come out at dusk and feed on the insects so I guess our pest control is similar. The bats all live in a park about 1.5 blocks away and I've considered putting up a bat house to encourage them to live closer. Most people don't even realize there are bats so its not as creepy as it sounds. They are very small and harmless.
view dmstudio's profile
bird poop = very valuable fertilizer!
view hdw's profile
AMT - I don't think those are gourds but plastic imitations. and I agree, the real thing would be better.
If you put it over a garden, heck, it would be self-fertilizing. Maybe that much guano would burn plants, though... maybe it should be over a compost heap which could occasionally (and very carefully) be harvested.
view whytephoenix's profile
p.s. Hooray for everyone who's providing housing for birds, bats, and also fish, frogs, and other insect-eating critters.
view whytephoenix's profile
Too late ya'll! The Ortho Home Defense spray has already coated my yard.
view miniminx's profile
Purple martins are great birds to attract, but they don't really consume that many mosquitos. The Purple Martin Conservation Association has some great information about attracting the birds and where to place bird houses. The good news is that the cool-looking gourds are more popular than the "apartment houses". http://purplemartin.org/
view quercus's profile
It looks like tract housing for birds. Ugly.
view That70sHeidi's profile
It looks like Whoville
view jeffro's profile