Feathered friends aren’t always the best garden guests, and once your property is a hit for birds in your area, you can count on generations of insects nesting there year after year.
As lovely as birds can be, the balance of backyard birds can easily tip to being a nuisance or in fact infestation.
If you’re trying to find a way to keep rowdy nesting birds away from your property, this short article will detail how you can use essential oils to deter my feathered friends from nesting on your property.
Take Action Against Nesting Nuisance Birds
When birds become pests and repopulate your property it can become a problem.
House proud homeowners and green-fingered garden enthusiasts may soon find they have a pest control issue to deal with.
Wild birds, including pigeons and seagulls, can create a multitude of problems on your property, including:
- Noisy and messy behavior from the birds
- Pecked damaged plant and crops
- Fouling with droppings
- Feathers and nesting material littering your property
- Damage to vehicles and garden furniture
- Damage to property, including blocked gutters and loose roof tiles.
- Encouragement of vermin like mites, fleas and beetles
- Spread of unpleasant diseases, such as E. Coli, salmonella, and ornithosis
Extra importantly, birds will settle and repopulate your property year after year because your property is memorable for birds.
How to Discourage Nesting Birds from Your Garden
The most effective way to eliminate unwanted nesting is to prevent pest bird species from settling in your garden.
If you make your property a regular place that either scares the pest birds away or the birds think about nesting but ultimately find that they do not want to come back, they will figure it out.
Clearly, you can’t hurt them, but you can definitely make your property and garden a place they don’t want to land, build a nest, or hang around.
Did You Know Essential Oils Can Be Used as an Effective Bird Deterrent?
It could sound completely wacky, but using essential oils to repel nuisance birds is actually an effective method and is even practiced by pest control professionals.
When looking for a humane, non-toxic method of stopping birds from nesting, experts rely on the tactic of using a bird’s five senses against itself, and essential oils take advantage of the sensitivity that bird species have to certain smells to deter them.
Birds Have a Keen Sense of Smell Which Helps Them Assess Their Environment
Pest control experts understand that birds are not just ‘sight animals’.
Birds have great vision; however, they also have excellent hearing, a keen sense of smell, and thus olfactory processes that are highly developed.
Many species of birds use smell to locate food and assess their environment. Smells that they perceive as odd or foul will confuse and repulse many birds.
This sensory repellent can even cause birds to abandon habitats they have been using for years.
Good news: you can achieve this strong repelling effect with the right choice of essential oils.
Better Still Essential Oils That Smell Great to Us Will Reek to a Bird!
Humans don’t smell things the same way as birds. Some of the most pleasant smelling essential oils can be super offensive to a bird.
There’s some great benefits to using essential oils as a bird pest control treatment.
Essential oils are a great choice for you, too, because they’re affordable, non-toxic (yay if you have kids), and depending on the essential oils, it may not interfere with your organic garden.
With essential oils, you won’t need to use a lot of product, and you’ll be fine to re-apply a bunch without damaging your property.
Essential oils can also be used in tricky or inaccessible places where you can’t use physical deterrents.
Take a Look at Some Great Essential Oils to Keep Birds from Building Nests
When it comes to essential oil, you’ve got a lot of options for putting a big stink on unwanted local birds. Here are some of the best essential oils for repelling birds:
Peppermint oil – it’s definitely one of the most popular essential oils as a bird repellent.
- Citronella
- Cinnamon
- Clove
- Oregano
- Pine
- Tea Tree oil
- Basil
Also, these food smells will stop birds from coming back to your property to nest:
- Vinegar
- Chilli
- Cayenne Pepper
- Garlic
How to Apply Essential Oils as a Bird Deterrent
In a wide-open area like a garden, a targeted application will give you the most results.
Once you determine where unwanted bird activity is occurring, you can manually apply your essential oil of choice using one of the following methods:
- Cotton wool balls or rags soaked with a few drops of essential oil
- Spraying the area with essential oil diluted in white vinegar or vodka.
You’re welcome to experiment with what concentration of essential oil you use.
Don’t forget to treat multiple areas of your properties that the birds are settling into, so that the offending birds understand in no uncertain terms that your home is not going to be their home.
These are areas on your property where you can apply your essential oil based bird deterrent:
- Beams
- Trees
- Greenhouses and polytunnels
- Chimneys
- Ledges
- Roofs
- Small openings
- Window sill
Keep up the good work topping up your treated areas.
Be Persistent: Some birds, like gulls, can adapt and will attempt to tolerate the environment if you are not persistent with the repellent.
Commercial Brands Also Use Essential Oils for Bird Pest Control Products You Can Buy
There are some fantastic store-bought multi-sensory deterrents that use high-octane essential oils to clear your buildings of nesting birds.
These products are either gels or sprays that can be applied over your target area.
Some of these products have visual effects that repel birds in addition to an overpowering smell.
Alternative Strategies for Ridding Your Home and Garden of Nesting Birds
Besides essential oils, you could also try other methods for deterring birds from your house.
The most common physical deterrents are spikes, netting and decoys. There are also sound deterrents; however, these are usually not permitted in residential areas. They may work if placed in rural settings, such as farms.
Of course, it helps to keep food sources hidden and secured, and to keep your waste (bin) bags in a bin, as well as to make tat food source less attractive. These simple steps will make your yard less hospitable for the local bird life.