There are several types of swallows. One type nests under bridges, under the
eaves of the house, etc. in mud houses that they build. Another type digs
nest holes in mud banks. The barn swallow nest in barns and other farm
buildings.

Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among
several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and
will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every morning
and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie
population. We don't have many moths here.)

I didn't realize that purple martins are in the swallow family. Just found
them in the bird book, tucked right in among the swallows.

The reason why so many birds migrate to the far north to rear their young
is because of the tremendous protein base here -- mosquitos.

Jan

According to this website:
http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/PGC...es/chimney.htm

I don't see mosquito mentioned as food for swallows.

In article snowshoe-0104031046200001@148-
pm3.hom.alaska.net, says...
Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among
several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and
will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every morning
and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie
population. We don't have many moths here.)

The time frame of aeriel feeders and mosquitos usually
don't cross, but here is some info on the tree swallow
diet.
http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/b...os/speciesacco
unts/treswa.html#Diet

--
Good judgment comes from experience,
and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.


Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

Bats can potentially eat a LOT of skeeters. The State of Connecticut
Department of Environmental Protection puts the figure at up to 1200/hour.
Not too shabby

Cya! Wacko!

"Jan Flora" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(mypet) wrote:


So, if bats don't eat that many skeeters. What IS the best mosquito
anhililator? Let's see we've got purple martins, swifts, hummingirds,
dragonflies, bats...how does each one rate?

Swallows are tops. If you have them in your area, build lots of swallow
nest boxes. You can find the spec's online.

Jan in Alaska
zone 3

In article , Lar
wrote:

In article snowshoe-0104031046200001@148-
pm3.hom.alaska.net, says...
Up here we have the "Violet-green swallow" and the "tree swallow" (among
several other types) that nest in hollow trees, fenceposts, barn eaves and
will happily move into nest boxes. I watch them eat mosquitos every
morning
and evening. (My front yard is a 7 acre lake, so we have a healthy mossie
population. We don't have many moths here.)

The time frame of aeriel feeders and mosquitos usually
don't cross, but here is some info on the tree swallow
diet.
http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/b...os/speciesacco
unts/treswa.html#Diet

Maybe down there in the small states they don't cross, but they
sure as hell do in Alaska.

We'll have our first hatch of mosquitos here in about 2 weeks, while
there's still snow on the ground. Our first swallows are expected
around May 1. We have many species of mosquitos that hatch
as the summer progresses. The first killing frost in the fall kills
the mossies, then we get black flies, white sox, and no-see-ums,
which last until freezeup.

http://alaskaoutdoorjournal.com/Ecology/swallow.html

"Swallows are an enjoyable species of wildlife to have around the yard.
In addition to their entertaining acrobatics they are wonderful bug
eaters, especially for mosquitos here in Alaska."

* * *

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/...mosquito.shtml

This article has excellent instructions on building swallow nest boxes.

* * *

A google search for "swallows alaska" turned up many pages of information,
almost all of them mentioning the main diet of swallows in Alaska -- mosquitos.

Jan

It would seem from the content of the article the primary mosquito
eating swallow would be the violet green. Anybody know how to find
out if I build swallow houses if the violet green swallow will hang
out in AL? :-)

In article
,
says...
It would seem from the content of the article the primary mosquito
eating swallow would be the violet green. Anybody know how to find
out if I build swallow houses if the violet green swallow will hang
out in AL? :-)

Their range is generally West of the Rockies. Haven't
seen anything myself on there feeding habits including
mosquitos.
http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/s...accounts/VGSWA
LO.HTM#Distribution
--
Good judgment comes from experience,
and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.


Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

I've been doing some further research and have come to find that there
are no reported bats that have occupied bat houses in AL. None.
Bathouses hanging all over the place, but no takers. We have family
in MS that wanted to know if there is anyone claiming success or
failure there? Anybody know? Next, in finding out how to attract
purple martins we realize we have not got the correct habitat to do
that either! So, we have eliminated two of the best skeeter eaters.
Just wanted to post the bathouse thing as it had not been previously
posted here.

How do you know out of all the people who may have bathouses not one is
occupied? Did you ask every person in the entire state? I've had our bathouse
up for the second year now, and there are bats! WildBirds Unlimited told us to
hang a sock with bat guano on the pole with the bathouse and it will get them
there sooner. The Boy Scouts discovered this in their own research project.

On 17 Apr 2003 10:11:13 -0700, (mypet) wrote:

I've been doing some further research and have come to find that there
are no reported bats that have occupied bat houses in AL. None.
Bathouses hanging all over the place, but no takers. We have family
in MS that wanted to know if there is anyone claiming success or
failure there? Anybody know? Next, in finding out how to attract
purple martins we realize we have not got the correct habitat to do
that either! So, we have eliminated two of the best skeeter eaters.
Just wanted to post the bathouse thing as it had not been previously
posted here.

LOL, no. Just read a report by people who supposedly tried.
Evidently they didn't make it to your door...yet? Glad to know you
had success! Hope they eat all your mosquitoes!

On 18 Apr 2003 18:06:27 -0700, (mypet) wrote:

LOL, no. Just read a report by people who supposedly tried.
Evidently they didn't make it to your door...yet? Glad to know you
had success! Hope they eat all your mosquitoes!

Bats eat far more moths than mosquitoes.

Instead of guano to help entice our bats we used a bat attractant spray that smells like bat pee.
This article might help- Bat Attractant: The Secret Weapon For Bat House Success
We were also told to turn it upside down and fill our bat house up with dirt and leave it for a few weeks becasue apparently the bats don't like the smell of the newly cut wood used to make the box. We did this before adding the attractant. Not sure if it was one or both of these that worked but we did have bats move in shortly after hanging it.