During winter, my plants suffered from a ferocious bird attack. Sparrows targeted the moisture-rich, soft leaves of the succulent plants. Some, like a potato trough I was growing for the beautiful velvety trailing green, was irrevocably ravaged; while others I was able to restore to out-of-control monstrous vividity (post on that soon). In this post I describe how I managed to harmlessly drive the birds away.
I must admit that my perception of the idyllic sparrows changed quite a bit after experiencing the havoc they wreaked in my garden. They would feast on the plants early at dawn and I would wake up to a completely grazed trough, trough after trough. On the thicker leaved plants I could actually see their beak markings, and of course bird droppings are tell-tale signs of their heavy presence in the balcony. Plant after plant went down, at a much faster rate than all my recovery efforts; and at some point I was so frustrated to have lost some cherished plants to the birds I almost gave up on the garden altogether.
I needed a quick remedy to counter the attack and the most obvious solution was to surround the plants with some wire netting. I even purchased the netting. However, I found that I didn't want to ruin my display (or what was left of it) with unsightly cages for my plants; and I worried how the netting might inhibit growth or compromise the light exposure my plants were used to. After some frantic online research I decided to instead try other alternative methods.
I consulted many sites and gardening blogs, and found that all bird fighting efforts come down to three facts:
I deployed a complete arsenal making use of each of these three facts. Most of the objects I already had on hand and were repurposed as bird replellants. Keeping the above facts in mind, you will be surprised by the number of possibilities, and you will start seeing useless dust collecting ornaments and toys in a completely different light.
Moving objects can be light paper lanterns or wind chimes, the latter also produce some "noise". Use bright reddish colors because that mimics fire. Any lightweight bright red or orange objects hung around your plants will move with the wind and their color will send a threatening message. Broken mirrors or recycled CDs hung from string will also reflect the sunlight; I tied some string around broken mirror pieces and thin golden strings, like the ones used in Christmas decorations, and hung them using hooks from the bottom of my windowboxes. Get playful too: I bought a large big-eyed spider toy and stuck it on the railing close to a plant targeted by birds. Again, by simply keeping the three basic bird repellants in mind (movement, threat, noise), you will be able to come up with many control methods. With a little creativity, those will not compromise the aesthetics of your display, but will possibly enhance it too.
Under the pretext of constructing a "scarecrow", I finally got around to making my very own first stuffed doll - Polly - and attached some of the golden strings to her arm. I can't say for sure which of all my deployments was the definitive bird repellant; I went at the sparrows with all I have, I applied all of the described methods almost at the same time. All I can say is that it definitely worked, perhaps because of the variety and number of the repellants I set up.
Last I want to add that I was hard-pressed to tag this post about birds as "pests". Angry as I was at the sparrows for ruining my plants, I had to work hard to see them again as idyllic creatures on the lookout for food during the harsh winter time. I made a simple bird feeder (perhaps I will post an entry about that), but so far only the ants seem to be feasting on it. I think I hung it too close to my now quite prohibiting plants.
I needed a quick remedy to counter the attack and the most obvious solution was to surround the plants with some wire netting. I even purchased the netting. However, I found that I didn't want to ruin my display (or what was left of it) with unsightly cages for my plants; and I worried how the netting might inhibit growth or compromise the light exposure my plants were used to. After some frantic online research I decided to instead try other alternative methods.
I consulted many sites and gardening blogs, and found that all bird fighting efforts come down to three facts:
- birds will be repelled by moving objects
- birds will be repelled by objects that mimic threats in their natural environment, e.g. fire and predators
- birds will be repelled by noise
I deployed a complete arsenal making use of each of these three facts. Most of the objects I already had on hand and were repurposed as bird replellants. Keeping the above facts in mind, you will be surprised by the number of possibilities, and you will start seeing useless dust collecting ornaments and toys in a completely different light.
Moving objects can be light paper lanterns or wind chimes, the latter also produce some "noise". Use bright reddish colors because that mimics fire. Any lightweight bright red or orange objects hung around your plants will move with the wind and their color will send a threatening message. Broken mirrors or recycled CDs hung from string will also reflect the sunlight; I tied some string around broken mirror pieces and thin golden strings, like the ones used in Christmas decorations, and hung them using hooks from the bottom of my windowboxes. Get playful too: I bought a large big-eyed spider toy and stuck it on the railing close to a plant targeted by birds. Again, by simply keeping the three basic bird repellants in mind (movement, threat, noise), you will be able to come up with many control methods. With a little creativity, those will not compromise the aesthetics of your display, but will possibly enhance it too.
Under the pretext of constructing a "scarecrow", I finally got around to making my very own first stuffed doll - Polly - and attached some of the golden strings to her arm. I can't say for sure which of all my deployments was the definitive bird repellant; I went at the sparrows with all I have, I applied all of the described methods almost at the same time. All I can say is that it definitely worked, perhaps because of the variety and number of the repellants I set up.
Last I want to add that I was hard-pressed to tag this post about birds as "pests". Angry as I was at the sparrows for ruining my plants, I had to work hard to see them again as idyllic creatures on the lookout for food during the harsh winter time. I made a simple bird feeder (perhaps I will post an entry about that), but so far only the ants seem to be feasting on it. I think I hung it too close to my now quite prohibiting plants.
