Torn between keeping birds in your garden and keeping them out of your plants? Why pick one when you can do both? Find out why natural bird repellent is best for your garden and the naturals ways to keep birds off your plants here!
Keeping Birds Off Plants With Natural Bird Repellent
While I was sulking over a ruined freshly sown veggie patch, I was helping my kid build a bird feeder this spring. Admittedly, birds are totally a mainstay around our home with bird baths and bird feeders installed in the garden. I don't mind except for times when they ‘cultivate' my veggie patch after I have sown the seeds or when they get to my harvest first. Well, they can be pesky at times but I wouldn't have them absent from my place. Somehow, I found ways on how to deal with them safely–keeping them out of my crops but not out of the garden. You can help yourself to these ideas for natural bird repellent.
Why Is Natural Bird Repellent Best For Your Garden?
Don't you know birds are gardeners too? They help spread plants by picking on the seeds of fruits and dropping them in places where the seeds can grow to be new plants. Well, I know you don't want your garden planted this way, but birds can do a lot more for you in the garden.
Besides fruits and seeds, birds feed on slugs, snails, and worms which are by far peskier pests than birds. Thus, this helps you get rid of some of the common pests in your garden the natural way too. Some species of birds are pollinators too like hummingbirds, honeycreepers, and honeyeaters. That's why we plant flowers that attract hummingbirds and other pollinators in the garden.
While there are a lot of convenient ways to get rid of birds through the use of nerve-disrupting sonic device or chemical means, they can be harmful to you and the environment in the long run.
Naturals Ways To Keep Birds Off Your Plants
When choosing the best bird repellent for your garden, what you need to take into account is the safety of your plants, your pets, and both you and the people around you. You also have to consider the cost, time, and energy that you will be spending. You can check here for the best way for you to keep birds in your garden but keep them off your crops.
Physical Barrier Natural Bird Repellent
According to the Humane Society Of the United States, bird netting or chicken wires as a physical barrier are the most acceptable form of controlling birds from destroying your crops. Physical barriers like mesh netting is a practical way to keep the birds off your plants. Mesh netting might seem a huge undertaking but it really is an investment. With this bird repellent, no harm will be done to other animals and people around you. Remember to avoid keep your netting fine, though, or you'll end up trapping smaller birds and permanently harming them.
Scare Tactics
Some of the more accepted forms of bird repellent are scare tactics like a scarecrow, face balloon, fake cat, and fake owl which can be effective for a while. Call it nature's instinct, or birds just really are intelligent creatures. Sooner or later, they'll realize they aren't big threats after all, and that they can keep coming without getting harmed. See how birds are perched on scarecrows after some time? Although scarecrows do make charming decor in the garden.
Distracting Birds
Another suggestion is the use of distractions in the form of trinkets or noisy objects and reflections from mirrors or old CDs and shiny reflector tapes. They work the same way as the scare tactics. Other suggestions are the use of sonic devices that are not harmful to humans or birds but will render birds distracted by the sound that will cause them to stay away.
Learn how to install bird netting in this video to keep birds off your plants naturally:
Don't you just love birds in the garden? I guess they're also part of the reason why I garden, so I can see them nesting in the trees and listen to them sweetly chirping. I love them, except for times when I have to plant all over again after these cutie critters wreak havoc on my newly planted seeds. So if you want birds yet want your plants protected too, consider natural bird repellent as your only option!
What do you think about natural bird repellent for your garden? I'm interested to hear all about it in the comments section below.
Check out these homemade natural pest repellent recipes for a safe way to get rid of the pests in your garden.
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2016 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
Feature image source via Auntie Dogma's Garden Spot
