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Texas Bird Family
Katy, TX, USA
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Today a male starling was looking at the nestbox, he inspected the whole thing and looked inside. He called over the female who didn’t look pleased with it. (She didn’t even look inside) There is a wasp inside. We tried blasting it out with the hose yesterday, it left, and now it’s back. I heard that vaseline can help. Is this true and how do I prevent the wasp from coming back?
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Starlings Checking Out The Nestbox
Vaseline can hurt the birds.
It’s possible that the starlings might nest in that nest box. Don’t let the house sparrows nest in it either. Their also a invasive species.
I’d love to have any bird nest in the box. We got it because we thought the sparrows would like it. I don’t care if a sparrow nests in it. I love all birds, especially House Sparrows. I think its cruel to destroy birds’ nests, even House Sparrows, Starlings, and Pigeon nests.
I’m not sure how it would be cruel to remove their nest. European Starlings can build a nest in as quickly as 1-3 days, and the same goes for House Sparrows, so it wouldn’t take them long to rebuild their nest somewhere else.
I do understand why you allow them to nest in your nest boxes though.
It’s hard for birds to find nesting materials and even harder to find a place to nest.
Some chemicals can hurt the birds. I am not a 100% sure that that Vaseline can harm the birds.
Vaseline can weigh down a birds’ feathers, limiting their ability to fly.
We put bar soap on the ceiling on the nestbox. NestWatch recommends doing that. The yellow jacket has not returned yet.
Great!
The yellow jacket keeps coming back. We blast it out with water and then apply bar soap, but when the soap dries it comes back. Any suggestions?