I have been shivering a lot this morning. I am tired of cold weather. For some reason (Brrrr) I thought of purple martins. They are a sure harbinger of spring.

In front of my office/retail outlet we have a purple martin apartment house and also two sets of plastic gourds that are designed to attract and house purple martins. We can house up to 44 families. When martins arrive in the spring our front parking lot becomes a place to view the population interactions. I laugh a lot, because I think sometimes that the martin population is a microcosm of the human population.

Not only do the martins provide entertainment, but they also reduce flying insect populations around the building. I have never been bitten by a mosquito here at work.

If you want to have fun watching the martin families interact and also reduce insect populations in your backyard, think about installing a purple martin apartment complex. The common martin houses come in apartment numbers of 6 up to 28. As mentioned above you can also get plastic gourd complexes.

Install the complex in an area of your landscape that has a clear area around it of 25 to 30 feet. This allows space for the martins to swoop into their apartment, and also give them plenty of space to take off for their afternoon aerial jaunt.

Purple martin housing is seen out front of Sunny Hill Gardens & Florist Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.KASSI JACKSON

Martins like to live next to areas that are breeding areas for mosquitoes. Our houses are next to a creek that runs through the city. I think the water provides areas for mosquito populations to increase.

If you already have a martin house near your home or office, now is the time to clean it out. You wouldn't want to move into an apartment that someone else has lived in that has not been cleaned up. After cleaning, spread some dusting sulfur in the floor of each apartment. This helps reduce mite populations inside each apartment.

You may also want to install a sparrow trap below the martin house. Sparrows like to enter martin apartments and peck on the martin eggs. This results in the demise of the infant martin within the egg.

You do not have to provide feed for the martins. They are pretty good a finding food in their neighborhood. As mentioned above, they are pretty good at local pest control.

If you want to have some fun in the summer watching the interactions of the martin populations now is the time to get that apartment complex, put it together and decide where you are going to locate it in your landscape. Enjoy!