Quote:
Originally Posted by waterninja
It sounds to me that you might have barn swallows and not cliff swallows. Either way, they do a great job on cleaning up the mosquitoes. You might want to look into getting some Purple Martin houses for your yard someday. They also really do a number on mosquitoes and a large house can have a dozen families in it.
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Although Purple Martins are a swallow, it is a commonly purpotrated myth that they eat massive quantities of mosquitos. I can't recall the name of the fellow who started it but he was one of the first to offer ready made martin housing and one of his marketing tactics was saying that martins ate mosquitos in quantity. Many studies have been conducted and the only Mosquitos that martins consume are a larger species of mosquito that live in the south eastern US. Tree and barn swallows will do more than any Martin colony. I hosted 58 pair of Martins at my place last year and trust me, they do nothing for mosquito control. If you really want to do mosquito population damage get a bat house or two up and going. They will impact mosquitos like a swarm of giant dragonflies.