It’s going to be good to have nice plants out in your yard. You want to be able to look outside and admire the beauty of your property to the fullest.
Sometimes you’ll have trouble keeping certain plants safe, though. Ferns are generally quite hardy, but they might wind up encountering certain issues if birds bother them.
If you have birds in your ferns, you might be wondering what can be done to keep them out. Is there a safe method that will help protect your plants?
Read on to get information on what you can do to keep birds at bay. This should make it easier for you to protect your ferns as well as other plants in your yard.
1 – Ultrasonic Bird Repellent Devices
One of the easiest ways to solve this issue is to try to make the spot near your ferns unappealing to the birds. Birds will choose to nest in your ferns if you don’t take steps to protect them, and it’s good that there is a device that can do just that.
Ultrasonic repellent devices are capable of emitting sounds that will scare birds away. There are actually many different types of these devices that are designed to produce sounds that scare away many animals.
Some people use them to keep raccoons out of their trash. Others use them to try to prevent rabbits from munching on their vegetables.
You can find ultrasonic repellent devices that are designed to scare birds away. These work really well to keep them from wanting to come near.
They simply won’t like the sounds that are being emitted by the devices. It’s also great that most of these devices use solar energy, and you can stake them right into the ground near your ferns.
2 – Predator Decoys
Placing predator decoys near the ferns will also be a good choice. You can place different decoys that look like predators that birds need to look out for.
For example, you could buy an owl decoy that will scare off many different types of birds. It should be simple to position the owl on a tree branch somewhere near the location of the ferns.
There are other types of decoys that you could choose to go with, too. You could decide to buy realistic snake decoys or you could go with a fox or a coyote.
If some type of predator is near the ferns, the birds will be too scared to go near it. It’ll make it so that they will want to go find another spot instead of bothering with your ferns.
It should be noted that birds will grow wise to decoys if you don’t move things around sometimes. Try shifting the location of the predator decoys to keep the birds from realizing that the decoys are fake.
3 – Reflective Tape
Reflective tape can scare birds and keep them away from your plants. If you want to keep local birds from bothering plants in your yard, you should try hanging strips of reflective tape nearby.
Often, this reflective tape will be available at department stores as “bird scare tape.” Essentially, birds aren’t able to process reflections properly.
Reflections will confuse birds, and this will also negatively impact their flying abilities. If a bird notices reflections, then it’s going to try to steer clear.
You could hang strips of the tape near your ferns if you want to. If you don’t want to go out to buy tape, you could try hanging wind chimes that are reflective.
Even hanging something as simple as old CDs or DVDs will get the job done. You just need to hang things that are reflective.
4 – Predator Urine
Predator urine might be helpful to try to keep birds away from certain spots in your yard. Some people will simply have their dogs pee in certain locations as a way to try to scare birds and other pests.
Of course, you don’t want your dog peeing on your ferns. It’s just supposed to urinate somewhere nearby so that the birds know that a dog is near.
Even placing dog fur near the ferns might help. This is a trick that people use to protect their gardens from many different pests.
Birds can use their sense of smell to detect predators. Use this information to your advantage.
5 – Bird Netting
Placing bird netting around the ferns could keep birds from having access to them. If you want to prevent birds from nesting in the ferns, this could be a solid idea.
You’ll basically be draping bird netting over the ferns. It’ll make it so that the birds won’t be able to fly in and out.
Of course, you’ll want to part the fronds to ensure that there aren’t any birds occupying the ferns already. If there aren’t any there, you could use the netting to try to deny the birds access to your plants.
The downside is that some people find bird netting to be an eyesore. It might not be practical if you have many different ferns to protect either.
Removing Bird Nests Might Be Illegal
Have you considered just removing bird nests so that you won’t have birds in your ferns any longer? Many people think about doing this, but you might want to pump the brakes on that idea.
It’s actually illegal to remove bird nests or bother nesting birds in many places. You’ll want to look up specific information about bird laws in your area.
Otherwise, you could get into legal trouble for removing a bird nest. Many birds are protected by local wildlife laws.
This means that it’s possible that you might be forced to put up with the birds. This can be annoying in many ways, and it’s especially problematic if your ferns are near your bedroom window.
Most people don’t want to be bothered in the early morning hours by the sounds of chirping birds. However, it’s just something that you’ll have to put up with if there are laws preventing you from taking action.
Final Thoughts
There are many different ways that you can go about protecting your ferns from birds. You can use ultrasonic repellent devices to make the area near the ferns unappealing to the birds.
Hanging reflective tape is going to keep the birds from wanting to go near your ferns. If you don’t have reflective tape, you could also use wind chimes or even old CDs that you don’t need any longer.
Predator decoys are excellent when it comes to keeping birds from going near certain plants. Owl decoys are particularly good for this, and you’ll be able to easily position them to help keep your ferns safe.
Just remember that you might not be able to outright remove the bird’s nest if it’s already in your ferns. Unfortunately, there are laws that prevent you from taking action in certain places.
You’ll want to look up information to see what you can and cannot do about birds nesting in your yard. It might be the case that you’ll just have to put up with them until they leave.
Either way, you now have the information that you need to make an informed decision. Do your best to keep birds from wanting to nest in your ferns in the first place.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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