Last Updated on August 21, 2022 by Kravelv
The last thing you would associate garden birds with is ‘pests’; however these majestic creatures can lead to a number of problems that in the long run could leave you exposed to diseases (there are 60 diseases alone found in birds and their droppings); mess and damage to your home.
Now this is not to say you should deter birds from ever entering your garden, but an element of bird control can make all the difference to preventing unsightly droppings from staining your home and damaging to your flower beds.
Tips For Deterring Birds
- Sound – birds are highly sensitive to sound, so adopting alternating sounds of varying frequencies, lengths and sequences cannot only scare them off but will prevent them from adapting to the noise. Using predatory sounds is particularly effective at reducing bird numbers in your garden. Similarly, sounds of other birds in distress will discourage them.
- Alter the Taste of Their Food Source – biodegradable sprays such as methyl anthranilate solutions can alter the flavouring of your garden plants – without harming them – making them instantly unattractive to birds. Bitter and smelly, the spray targets both their taste buds and their sense of smell. Similarly, by reducing their food sources, putting seed in bird feeders and ensuring you never stick to the same routine can stop birds from viewing your home as a regular food source.
- Create Barriers – To protect your seeds from unwanted attention, constructing physical barriers (pest control from Pestbusters, inverted cups and mesh) can ensure your seeds still receive plenty of sun and water, but ultimately stop birds from feasting on them.
- Stop Roosting – adding sharp spikes, slippery slopes and netting to your window ledges, roofs and walls can halt roosting and encourage them to look elsewhere. If they cannot land or get a firm grip, they will move on.
- Use Scare Tactics – Scarecrows, balloons and reflectors are just a number of ways to deter birds from your garden. For instance, scarecrows can act as permanent presence in your garden deterring entry; whilst arranging balloons and moving their locations can create moving obstacles and act as a sound deterrent (when they are popped). Reflectors (e.g. strips of foil) are also extremely useful as they will not only ensure there is regular movement in your garden (making them hesitant to land), they also reflect the sun making it difficult to see what is in your garden.
These are just a handful of natural techniques that can limit the number of birds in your garden, so you don’t have to suffer damage to your home or exposure to disease. Simply implement more than one of them at a time, and you can stop birds from taking over your home.
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