Common Challenges of Birds at Your Home

The difficulties homeowners usually face with birds are usually caused by birds nesting inside the home. Attics, spaces under roof eaves, gaps in siding, and the area under solar panels all provide sheltered places that are ideal for building nests.
When birds build nests inside a home, they can leave messy droppings that stain walls and ceilings and contaminate insulation. Birds may also congregate at a particular place without nesting, but still leaving droppings and being a nuisance.
Bird droppings are known to carry harmful pathogens that can cause bird flu, E. coli, salmonella, and more. Birds can also be loud, especially if there are baby birds.
Specific bird species can also cause additional problems around your home. Some challenging species include:

• Sparrows – Many birds are desirable because they control insects and spread seeds that allow plants to grow. Sparrows will often harass smaller, beneficial birds, keeping them away from your yard.
• Blue Jays – Like sparrows, blue jays are a noisy species that will bother helpful birds like the smaller bluebird.
• Woodpeckers – These birds can peck into the siding of your home, causing damage to the wood. This is especially common in cedar homes.
• Geese and Ducks – These waterfowl can damage your grass and leave droppings in the lawn. They are more common if you have water nearby.
• Starlings – This invasive species can destroy plants in your garden.
• Pigeons and Crows – Loud, messy, and often traveling in large groups, both pigeons and crows are frequently challenging to a property.

A few of these birds in your yard or around your neighborhood is not usually a problem. If the bird population gets out of hand, or birds start coming into your home, you’ll need to take steps to keep them away.

How to Control Birds

Call Animal Control Trappers for Bat Exclusion
Keeping birds away from your home or business requires a different approach than other pests, because birds are smart and often do not mind moving to new locations. This makes it difficult to lay a barrier that keeps them from coming onto your property. There are some steps you can take to prevent them from nesting in your home and deter them. These include:

• Wire Mesh or Bird Netting – By installing netting over the open spaces under roofs, beneath solar panels, and around other areas where birds enter, you can keep them from getting in and building nests inside your home.
  Seal Openings – Birds can also enter through smaller openings such as cracks or holes in your home. These should be repaired so that birds cannot get in.
• Bird Spikes – More usually seen in commercial properties, you can install strips of bird spikes in areas where birds frequently land. This prevents them from staying in one place and leaving droppings.
• Visual Deterrents – Many birds have natural predators that they will avoid. Placing deterrents around your home, such as figures of other animals, shiny tapes, and moving objects can make your yard less attractive to birds.
• Chemical Repellents – There are chemical treatments that can be applied to areas around your home that repel birds. These are especially useful against woodpeckers.

You can also call a professional animal control company to help remove birds and keep them out. New York and New Jersey Animal Control Trappers are experts in bird and other wildlife pest management. We can find the areas that are attracting birds and take the right steps to exclude them at your property.