Have caught more than two dozen HOSP since I put this up, baiting with the cheap kind of bird seed (the kind with lots of millet and corn). Thanks, Uncle!

I bought your trap in 2018 and have lost count of how many house sparrows I’ve caught. When I’m catching them and keeping the local population down, the native birds are visibly happier and more comfortable. It’s amazing what a difference it makes! I had to take a break the last couple years and their population has exploded, terrorizing the other birds and hogging my feeders. I set it up a week ago and have been catching 10-15 a day! It still works like new even though it looks a little worse for wear. The front platform almost fell off thanks to a fat squirrel trying to get to the bait a couple years ago (used a couple more screws to hold it on and a couple big nails in it to block them from getting into the elevator), and the cage got dented up a bit by debris from a storm, but the elevator trap mechanism works perfectly and hasn’t needed adjusted at all.

My only small gripe is I wish the cage portion wasn’t so long. If you have shorter arms, you’ll have to put almost your entire arm in the trap to reach the birds if they try to hide against the far side. I don’t need room to hold 50 at a time, I want to be able to reach them to get rid of them without putting my face that close to where they’re flapping around.

I use cracked corn as bait and that seems to reduce the number of native birds that are interested in the trap. The last few times I’ve set it up, I’ve caught sparrows straight away. Once there’s a sparrow or two in it, no other native bird will go near it. CHECK IT OFTEN until you start catching sparrows! One of the first years I set it up, a poor chickadee must have gone in first, followed by a sparrow, and the sparrow had killed it within an hour (that’s how often I was checking). They’ll occasionally kill or injure each other, but they’re *vicious* if a native bird is in there with them.

I set my trap up on a patio table, put some extra treated lumber planks underneath it as a “floor”, a couple planks on top to shield the bait area and part of the cage from rain (don’t cover the elevator area or they won’t go in, though), and put a cage-mounted bowl with a little corn or cheap birdseed in the cage for the bait bird I leave in it overnight. Don’t bother trying to put water in there for them, they’ll just crap in it and get it disgusting overnight. If I want a break from trapping for a while, I just take a twist-tie and hook the elevator mesh to the top of the cage.

I purchased the trap and began catching sparrows in under a week. It took some time on my end to find the right location and set up, but once I caught my 1st sparrow…it never stopped. I catch anywhere from 1 to 6 sparrows per day. I mostly catch females. White bread and a pile of wild bird mix has worked fine for me. I built an auxiliary holding box onto the side. If I catch a native bird with a trap full of sparrows, the sparrows hide inside the box, and the natives do not. They naturally separate, making it easy to free the native. I use cervical dislocation to euthanize. It took some getting used to but it must be done. This trap works great, I absolutely would recommend.

I want to thank you so much for the absolute brilliance behind this trap.. I just started trapping with the elevator trap, and my gosh, within hours, I have got more than I’ve got in 2 years with the pellet gun.. Im so glad I came across your design after I picked up a different one, not knowing how they worked and watching everyone I caught get out within 3 minutes of getting trapped. I’m successfully trapping now. Thanks again.

It was about 4 hours before I had my first sparrow. Set it up last night after dark, placed it on a picnic table near my bird feeders and baited it (cracked corn and millet). Tada! Will be watching the rest of today for more. 🙂 Very happy with my purchase.

It only took 26 hours to trap my first bird. I’m hopeful that I will be able to eliminate to 50 or so that have shown up in the last few weeks before my blues start their next nest.

Thank you for making a quality product! we received the trap in perfect condition, and we pre-baited the trapping area with white millet for a few days. we then put the trap out, and nothing for two days but the sparrows were hopping allover getting used to it. We then trapped 11 in one day and 5 the next. We then trapped a 13 lined ground squirrel who was a little miffed at being in there. We let him go, and we also trapped a Harris’ sparrow ad a white crowned sparrow and both of them were released as well.

Here’s the Squirrel in the picture, and he’s not happy!

I would never have decided to eliminate the numerous house sparrows if they hadn’t ganged up on and killed a nesting robin. There was no shortage of food or nest space, so it was just aggressive for no reason at all.

The trap sat for about a week with no sparrows and then they came pouring in at the rate of 4 or 5 a day, every day for the last three days. I don’t like killing things, at all. I am starting to wish it were less effective. I caught only one other bird (a song sparrow), and let it go. The rest-well, it’s depressing but I think it has to be done.

So happy I found this! I have been battling house sparrows since they found our bluebird house about 4 years ago. We have lost countless eggs, baby bluebirds and chickadees while I tried all of the other methods. This year we even had a chickadee killed in the house.

It took a few weeks as mentioned in the instructions. But so far we have caught 10 house sparrows in the first month. Thank you!

Arrived VERY quickly and was incredibly well made and easy to assemble. I cannot thank you enough for the speed in which this was received, I am so grateful for having this since house sparrows just arrived this year. I know this will last for many years and I will share your website with all my bird nerd friends.