Griggsville, IL and J.L. Wade in 1962…

The purple martins will return in the next week or so. Purple martins are the largest member of the swallow family. If you have a purple martin house you should remove the winter door stops by the first of April. Purple martins are a great natural, 'Green' way to control your mosquito problem. Purple martins can consume their weight in mosquitoes every day. The can digest them almost immediately. Some scientists estimate that a single purple martin can eat 2000 to 3000 mosquitoes each day. They like being around humans and provide endless entertainment from watching their flight patterns. In spring and summer they can be found in most of the United States and in southern Canada.

These birds winter primarily in Brazil and return to the same house and same compartment each year !

Native Americans would hang out empty gourds to attract these birds. When Europeans arrived in America bird houses were built to attract them. Purple martins are very clean birds that actually carry waste sacs from their nests before disposing of them. Wood bird houses can carry parasites so in the last forty five years purple martin houses have been constructed of aluminum. Aluminum brings us to Griggsville, IL. and Mr. Wade. Mr. Wade owned a factory that produced high quality television and FM antennas. (Yes, television has not always been in HD!) Girggsville was having quite the mosquito problem so the Griggsville Jaycees asked Mr. Wade to build some purple martin houses. The rest is, as they say history. They built towers of hundreds of purple martin houses. A helicopter was needed to lower the highest 'castles' on the top of a forty foot pole which was placed on the roof of a building in downtown Griggsville. Even back in the early 1960s Mr. Wade was concerned about pesticides and believed that attracting purple martins was the best way to control the mosquito problem downtown. The Griggsville experiment went unnoticed for a few years. By the mid 1960s other cities and towns embarked on a similar project. Towns and cities from Louisiana to New Brunswich began erecting purple martin houses.

If you want to get rid of mosquitoes go "Green" and put up a purple martin house. Below is some info if you are interested. It can be a family project.

naturesociety.org (http://www.naturesociety.org/)

1-800-255-2692