Indiana Songbird Deaths

[Raines]

Found a dead hummingbird 2 mornings ago in my yard. Called the DNR and reported it. I did not see anything noticeable about the bird. DNR told me to bury it. South central Indiana

 

[RalphVa]

Saw my neighbor yesterday using Seven to spray for some web worms. I'm sure he never consulted his county extension office, because we would never recommend Seven.

I wonder about birds eating insects that have ingested stuff like Seven that kills everything. Maybe even birds if they eat such insects?

The extension office would have first asked how much damage the web worms were causing. From what I saw, they weren't doing much. Certainly, the affected trees will live through it.

If they recommended anything, they'd recommend BT or spinosad, MUCH safer to good bugs but deadly to worms.

Myself, I burn them out for any I can reach with a torch and leave the worms on the ground for the birds. Any higher up, just stay.

 

[rekees4300]

​

Apparently the cause of songbird deaths hasn't yet been found but the death rate has decreased?

Hoosiers in 76 counties can resume feeding birds – WRBI Radio

 

[rekees4300]

Residents of all Indiana counties can resume feeding birds. DNR strongly encourages residents who do so to clean seed and suet feeders at least once every two weeks by scrubbing feeders with soap and water, followed by a short soak in a 10% bleach solution.​

Residents of all counties can resume feeding birds

 

[MoKelly]

Very strange. I guess we will never know what happened.

Thanks for the update.

MoKelly