A good friend of mine who, in spite of being an avid fisherman, doesn't tell tall tales about any subject including fishing, had a good story to tell about barn swallows nesting under his front porch.
He said that there was a large paper wasp nest under the same porch and he watched a barn swallow catch them one at a time and took them to the nest to feed her babies. Once the she polished off all of the adult wasps, she went back and pulled out all of the larvae until they were all gone!
That made my buddy very happy because he swells up like an over-stuffed couch when he gets stung.
I thought that I knew something about birds. I clearly had no idea about swallows eating wasps like popcorn.

Very cool story. I like the little guys even though they make a mess in my barn.

Cool

Got a barn full of them. Maybe 10 nests.......plus a pair under eave of our front porch. Those had a nest on a shelf. Spousal unit wanted it gone due to droppings on porch. Removed it early this spring. Within a week or so of them coming back, they had built a new nest in same spot.

I think of them as poor man's purple martins. Same benefit and you don't have to do anything to keep them. When I'm cutting the grass and kicking up bugs, there is a constellation of them following me around the yard. Good to know about the wasps. That is impressive.

Love to see them nesting under the porch overhang on my Deer cabin. They're always welcome!

I'm not a fan of swallows. I have an open side 100 plus year old shop, and they have built nest inside. I have taken them down and the last two years they actually have not even tried to build. As soon as I seen one, I got rid of it and has really seemed to work. I just don't want them making the mess they do inside.

Old timers say your barn will never burn down if the swallows nest in it. Mine is closing in on 100 years. Mike

They sure can make a mess. We have them at the lake. They would build nests under our boat lift canopy and poop all over the boat. We finally got rid of them by smearing liquid soap in the corners where they were building their nests.

What? No mothballs! LOL

I go to a church that was built at end of the civil war. About 30 yrs ago a swallow built a nest under the porch roof. One older lady thought they was just wonderful another went in a brought out a chair and got upon it a got the birds and pinched their heads off and thru them in the yard. She said she wasn't having the mess. Well that one old woman and husband left and took another old guy and wife with them and their money and went to a church at town. The church at the time had no kids, I guess they was too nasty too. After that generation died off things have picked up now and now my generation is dying off but we do have some young ones with kids so maybe the doors will stay open another generation or two if things last that long.

The first few years we lived here, we had around 14 barn swallow nests in our front barn. They did help control mosquitos and other flying insects. When the population of insects would get low, they would hunt further out and hunt close again when the insect population inevitably grew back. Once I put chickens in the barn, the swallows all moved out.

Now I only see swallows when the flying insect population gets really high. They were messy, but not as messy as the robins and starlings that nest in the barn now. I would like to have the swallows back.

Keith

Like em

Very interesting. Thanks

I have huge overhangs on two of my five barns, that I don't keep any animals in and nothing important to get damaged by bird poop or the occasional deceased nestling. Is there anything I could build and put up to attract swallows? The biggest overhang is probably 36' wide by 128' long. I have 2 more overhangs that are probably both 78' long. One is probably 28' wide and the other probably 56' wide.

Keith

I also enjoy when they follow me as I’m mowing my front fields
They are amazing flying acrobatics!