Your Business Is A Blessing!
February 5, 2013
Spice Up Your Spice Rack
February 11, 2013
Is Your Patio For The Birds?
I love birds! I really do. All year long we have an abundance of birds in our backyard. Blue Jays, Cardinals, Doves, Mocking birds, Robins, Humming birds, finches and………
……..SPARROWS.
A few years ago we added a patio cover on the back of the house by the pool. We chose the standard metal type with the corrugated roof. It is wonderful. We enjoy being out there year round but especially in the summer when all the grand kids come swimming.
Soon after the cover went up we noticed a tremendous increase of sparrows in the back yard. Hundreds of them! I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They were attracted to all of the little openings in the corrugated roof. These openings gave them full access to the insides of our gutters. The perfect breeding ground for these little buggers. The first year, we probably had at least 5 active nests at any given time, splattering poop all over the place. And y’all I’m kind of a germ-a-phobe so this was not cool.
You might ask, what’s the big deal? They were crapping all over my patio and my patio furniture!!!! The bird poop was a ridiculous inconvenience. I love God’s little birds but I have to tell you, I was tempted to sit out there with a BB gun. No I didn’t do it but I was losing my mind.
We tried everything we could think of. My husband had to take the gutters off several times a year just to remove the nests that were clogging the gutters. We tried spraying things in the gutters such as cleaning solutions, and other things hoping the smell would drive them away. Oh no!!
Hawks are a natural predator of sparrows and someone told me to get a fake hawk or make some scary hawk eyes around the patio. One day I was so fed up that I sat and made around 25 big angry hawk eyes out of aluminum foil and markers. I have to say they were creepy looking. After all of that work, it took the sparrows only an hour to figure out my haunted looking patio posed no threat. Ughhhh
So what do you do? By the second year of utter frustration, I had an idea. I asked my husband to go buy me a sheet of styrofoam. I wanted to cut out little triangles to stick in the holes. First he decided to call a patio cover company and ask if they made such a product.
BINGO! Yes they keep them in stock! Why were we not told about this inexpensive cure all when they installed this bad boy??????
They are officially called Bug Plugs. My husband went to pick them up and we had them installed in less than an hour. After 2 years of battling these sparrows, the problem was fixed in nothing flat!
Who knew a small piece of styrofoam could change our lives 🙂
This is what they look like. They come in a big sheet and you just pull them apart.
If you look close you can see the foam wedged into the openings. They slide right in and snug enough for a tight fit.
This company is NOT one of my sponsors so they are getting this plug for free! No pun intended. We just wanted to help others that have the same problem as we did.
Find their site here: Bug Plugs
8 Comments
Victoria, I have stopped feeding all birds except Hummingbirds. I never could find a good place to put the feeders and I would always end up with everything imaginable growing underneath it from the falling seeds. My husband is a freak about his grass so I quit putting it out. I really miss it because I love to bird watch from my patio. Now that I have rid my life of my Sparrow nightmare, I can enjoy sitting out there this Spring. I put out a million Hummingbird feeders and especially enjoy watching them. Good to see you back on here!
Our back yard is a haven for a zillion and one birds. Infact the area I live in is a popular place for people from all over the US and beyond to enjoy the many differenct species of birds. My husband especially enjoys them, has feeders all over and we spend a fortune on feeding the little suckers…lol My favorite thing is watching the Jay birds, which are a beautiful brilliant blue, hatch eggs every year and we watch the youngins grow up and fly away. That part is not so cool.
Hey Pattio, Yes we were excited. And to think we did a 18 x 30 patio cover for about $125. We were thrilled. Looking forward to a peaceful Spring! 🙂 What is weird is the fact that I wanted my husband to go get me some foam. So I had the idea but someone beat me to the invention lol
Alana you are right, we wish we had known from the get go. However, in defense of the company, the owner was dying of cancer at the time his crew put it up. Shortly afterwards, he passed and his business closed. So there are no ill feelings here. We had to call several companies before we found one that knew anything about this product existing. Thanks for your comment.
Susie,
Great find! I know how destructive nest building in small spaces can be! My daughter would FREAK if there were an increase in the bird population, especially if they were flying into the house.
That styrofoam piece not only saves you from birds, but bees, mice, and other pests that like to find dry shelter under eaves!
Such a great find…and then you think….WHY DIDN’T WE THINK OF THAT! LOL! 🙂
something so simple
It would have been nice for the people who sold you the patio cover to tell you that “if you have problems with nesting birds, we have these neat triangles”. Sometimes, a simple solution is the best.
Thank you Lynn. The solution did work so I am looking forward to a peaceful Spring!
Major giggles reading this 🙂 I live with goose poop all around as I live in a floating home, so I know exactly how you feel…we just have to keep cleaning our decks…wish your solution worked!
Lynn