Birds are a wonderful part of our ecosystem, but that doesn’t mean you always want them around your garden. Birds are known to create a significant mess and spread disease, which can be a cause of concern for those that keep rabbits, captive poultry, and other pets birds, as wild birds can spread myxomatosis and bird flu.
Finding ways to keep birds out of the garden is important. Therefore, you should have one of the best bird deterrent devices available. So, in this article, we look at why and how we should keep them from gardens.
Why Control Birds?
When we talk about bird control in Australia, we aren’t speaking about population control. Instead, we’re looking at preventing birds from accessing certain areas of the home and garden to ensure that areas are safe, clean, and disease-free.
Controlling birds can be very specific to certain species. For instance, ducks in swimming pools or cassowaries can cause significant damage to a garden and are considered to be very dangerous.
Why Keep Birds Out of the Garden
Birds are known to spread diseases. This can be bird flu or something else. And birds can also spread ticks and mites which are known to cause a lot more diseases.
Birds can also damage lots of areas. They’re known to scratch lawns, eat food, and destroy gardens, especially cassowaries.
Birds can be a significant nuisance in the garden. For one, they can poop all over furniture and other items that need to be cleaned. This is unsightly, not to mention it can be the instigator of disease spread.
In addition, birds can be very troublesome with plants. Some birds can destroy ornamental plants, eat fruit from fruit trees, and eat seeds and other items you’ve planted for yourself.
Birds can also be noisy, disturbing the peace you have tried to create in your garden.
Some birds are also pretty ruthless to other wildlife you might want to protect. Some birds are predators and will attack other smaller birds, lizards, snakes, small mammals, and even the eggs of animals.
For those who want to protect wildlife, keeping out some of the larger birds that might prey on other animals can be a good idea.
Finally, there are diseases that birds can spread. Some of these diseases can be spread to domesticated animals like cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Birds are known to spread myxomatosis, which can kill rabbits very easily. Likewise, birds can spread bird flu which often results in the culling of the animals. And there is some evidence that suggests that bird flu can be passed on to humans.
Options for Controlling Birds
There are numerous options for controlling birds in your garden or yards. Here are some of the options that you have.
Scarecrows
Scarecrows, or an effigy in the garden, is one of the oldest tricks to scare birds from an area. And they can be a fun afternoon craft for children. However, as bird deterrents, scarecrows are not always very effective. Normally, birds get used to their presence and sometimes sit on top of the scarecrow in defiance.
Remove Nesting Sites
One of the first things to consider is to remove nesting sites from a home. There are several areas where nesting can happen. Trees, outbuildings, rooftops, and underbush are popular areas for birds to nest.
Cassowaries will create mounds for their partners to lay eggs and then defend them. Other birds will proactively defend their nests too.
You can remove nesting sites by making your garden more open as birds want to feel secure. So reduce the foliage around your garden and seal up any holes in the home.
Bird Deterrent Products
Numerous bird deterrent products are available on the market. For instance, you can get a sonic bird deterrent system or a bird deterrent spray. An automatic bird deterrent means you don’t need to be around for it to activate.
There are different ways that these bird deterrent products can work. For example, you can have a sonic bird deterrent that emits a sound all the time to scare away the birds. But that might not be as effective as a sonic device activated via movement. There is a sudden change in noise, at a frequency that cannot be heard by you or other pets.
Then there is the option to add a bird deterrent spray. These can be activated by movement and spraying the bird. Spraying the bird with water will almost always work. And when combined with the other options, it is pretty much guaranteed that the birds will not stick around in the garden.
However, an audible bird deterrent is not always effective in the long term. Some birds can get used to the sonic noise and you need another deterrent to work. Therefore a combination of sonic noise and movement detector can be very effective.
The Envirobug sentinel devices are a great tool for keeping birds away from your key areas of the garden. The sentinel devices use motion detection to sense when a bird, or another pest, enters an area you want to defend. The device will then emit an ultrasonic sound that you can’t hear but can be heard by the pest. If this is not enough, you can also get the device to make a sudden movement that will startle the bird. You can also connect the device to your water supply and it will spray the bird, which will scare it away.
Removing Attractants
Another way to deter birds in Australia is to ensure that your garden is as inhospitable as possible to the birds. Remove potential food sources, shelter and even water from the garden can ensure that gardens do not look inviting to the birds.
There is going to be some balance here. You might want to keep a small pond because you enjoy keeping fish. However, you can always install tripwire or add netting over the pond to deter the birds from using it as a bathing spot.
Likewise, you can keep vegetable gardens by using the bird deterrent products on them. Many of these products, like the Envirobug version, can be solar-powered.
Don’t Have Bird Baths
Bird baths are one of the key attractants to birds. A small bird bath can attract lots of different birds, including those that can spread ticks and mice. And the water can also become stale, which can be unpleasant.
If you have a pond or small swimming pool that you don’t like to use, you should also consider emptying them. This is essential for those who are experiencing problems with ducks or other water birds.
Being Active in the Garden
Bird behaviour is really important. Birds don’t like to be around people. And if you are more active in the garden, then you are going to deter the birds naturally.
However, you can’t be in the garden all the time. And some birds, especially in Australia, can become very familiar with human contact. Currawongs, for instance, have been known to create familiar relationships with humans, with some returning to the same family or people for more than a decade.
Therefore, it is important to consider that being active is only so effective. Not only that, you need to add protection for when you’re not in the garden.
Contact a Professional
Another option is to call out a professional pest controller. These people can look at your home and garden and let you know what the problems might be. They might also suggest installing other pest control options that will keep birds outside of your garden and home.
A professional pest controller is one of the more expensive options and they’re likely to suggest the same sort of things that we’ve discussed above.
However, if you’re not getting any results, they might be able to offer more support.
Final Word: Bird Deterrent Options in Australia
There are numerous bird deterrent options in Australia. But birds are very clever creatures, not to mention critical to our ecosystem. While one deterrent is not always effective, several other deterrents working together can be very effective.
Bird control in Australia is very important, especially in homes and gardens where you want to protect your plants, fruit, and vegetables from damage. Those that are close to water or have a pond might want to prevent your home from becoming home to ducks.
Using the Envirobug Sentinel system is very effective. It uses a combination of movement, sound, and spray to deter birds from an area. These can be connected in sequence to cover wider areas and are powered by solar energy to make them more environmentally friendly. Therefore, the systems in use can protect your garden while not increasing the impact on the environment.
Finally, you might have to decide to call out a professional, but they are likely to advise you the same things. Therefore, you are better off taking the first actions and reducing the number of birds with the actions suggested at the top of the article and using the sentinel device.
