Keeping birds out?

[LemonBonsai]

I came home from work today and was greeted with most of my plants being dug into by birds. A couple lemon seedlings were pulled right out of the ground,. My jade was knocked over, and one of my pots just had it dug into. What confuses me is my jade is in a lava rock mix. So i dont know why they dug in that one. My other bonsai soil pot that was dug into is 50 percent oil dri and 50 percent perlite, and my lemons, are in potting mix and peat moss, but the soil was not disturbed. They just took the plant. Does anybody have any tips for keeping them away? For now I put some toothpicks sticking out of the ground and some broken plastic knives. I also covered my bonsai surface with big rocks so they can get to the soil.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Critters that live by their sense of smell can be deterred by spraying with an insecticide that smells bad. Squirrels and birds love my moss and I spray it or dust it with Sevin. Usually, if you deter critters for a few days they will leave it off their daily agenda. Another similar trick is to hang a rag soaked in cheap vinegar or bar of Irish Spring soap in a potato bag in any confined area where the air does not circulate well, like the inside corner of a building's outside walls (like where the two sides of a patio meet). In still air they can't smell food or enemies when the air is contaminated by some other interfering odor. It's like a dark alley to a human, mysterious and dangerous.

 

[LemonBonsai]

Critters that live by their sense of smell can be deterred by spraying with an insecticide that smells bad. Squirrels and birds love my moss and I spray it or dust it with Sevin. Usually, if you deter critters for a few days they will leave it off their daily agenda. Another similar trick is to hang a rag soaked in cheap vinegar or bar of Irish Spring soap in a potato bag in any confined area where the air does not circulate well, like the inside corner of a building's outside walls (like where the two sides of a patio meet). In still air they can't smell food or enemies when the air is contaminated by some other interfering odor. It's like a dark alley to a human, mysterious and dangerous.

I will get some of that sevin and put it on my soil. Thankyou for your suggestions.. it was a really upsetting day haha but I guess those happen sometimes. I am hoping my jade survives.

 

[KillerButts]

Due to the fact European sparrows and starlings have taken over most of the densely populated areas, killed all the diverse songbirds within said areas my guess would be European sparrow. You should know your enemy, I don’t know if it’s them but you should find out. In wild forests you will never see this bird because literally everything hates them. It’s our trash that supports them and our roofs n gutters. You live in Canada and they should be treated as a plague if spotted.

I have shot hundreds of them in controlled conditions and have been witness to a reestablishment of bio diversity we have not seen since the 60s on my street at least. Where there was once the sparrow and starling there is now titmouse, wren, finch, cardinal, cowbird, hairy woodpecker, red bellied woodpecker, crow, raven, blackbird, herring, and 3 sharp shinned eagles. I say if they are sparrow, starling, chipmunk, or squirrels getting your plants shoot them. I use a Daystate Pulsar and a hawk frontier scope with tmx holdovers on a atlas bipod.

Pesticides are a last resort they don’t bring balance they kill the whole system. We can’t harvest turkey here because people use so much pesticides on their yards all the deer and turkey meat is contaminated. Then say a coyote eats one, it’s literally alternating the dna of it’s young and causing permanent neurological damage. The same goes for insects like the honey bee and every species of butterfly, ants even.

 

[PiñonJ]

I use a Daystate Pulsar and a hawk frontier scope with tmx holdovers on a atlas bipod.

Checked it out on Gunbroker. Man, that's some serious $$$ for an air rifle! Looks like some major technology, but I just want the pigeons off of my roof and out of my courtyard.

 

[PiñonJ]

I came home from work today and was greeted with most of my plants being dug into by birds. A couple lemon seedlings were pulled right out of the ground,. My jade was knocked over, and one of my pots just had it dug into. What confuses me is my jade is in a lava rock mix. So i dont know why they dug in that one. My other bonsai soil pot that was dug into is 50 percent oil dri and 50 percent perlite, and my lemons, are in potting mix and peat moss, but the soil was not disturbed. They just took the plant. Does anybody have any tips for keeping them away? For now I put some toothpicks sticking out of the ground and some broken plastic knives. I also covered my bonsai surface with big rocks so they can get to the soil.

I've resorted to making wire cages over the soil of my more finished bonsai. It's an improvement, but it still hasn't kept everything out. No big soil holes, but some sphagnum used for contouring still gets disturbed.

 

[Firstflush]

You can get a plastic bird of prey on a stick and move it around.
Also, one of those silver reflective birthday balloons shredded into long tassels on the top of a long stake woris. The reflectiveness and movement with the breeze helps. A shredded plastic grocery bag will work too.

 

[fredman]

I will get some of that sevin and put it on my soil.

Nah mate...Spraying a pesticide when you don't even have a pest, is ludicrous...to say the least. It kills indiscriminately and sterilizes your soil. Can even harm your pet that sniffs there. You'll have to keep nuking your tree/soil all year...don't make any sense.
Just cover your pots with something...course shade netting cut to fit. I use the same mesh I use to sift my soil. Stops the pumice from washing away when I water to.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Bird barely have olfactory nerves. So something smelly wouldn't deter them. To my knowledge they don't even have a lot of taste buds either.
I'm using cheap mesh from an old floor mat I used for camping. Or mosquito mesh that costs me a euro per square meter. Keep it in place with some toothpicks.
It seems to be the only thing that works, but still I find yanked out seedlings and knocked over pots on a weekly basis.

I used to shoot a couple black birds and hang them in a tree, hoping they would act as a deterrent. It rarely worked well and since something close to 97% of the black bird population died due to a virus I'm not really wanting to do it again. The finicky part is that the population of black bird that did survive, now produces three nests a year as opposed to one or two. And the youngsters are freaking rebellious.

Sparrows have never been an issue even though we have a gang of 40-50 hanging out in the back yard.
Western Jackdaws love to pick some inorganic soil, but they only eat a couple rocks and leave the rest alone. They also scare the other birds.

 

[Bnana]

Using Sevin against starlings is a rather odd strategy with very few benefits (if any as starlings hardly have a sense of smell) and it is a pretty nasty insecticide.

 

[KillerButts]

Bird barely have olfactory nerves. So something smelly wouldn't deter them. To my knowledge they don't even have a lot of taste buds either.
I'm using cheap mesh from an old floor mat I used for camping. Or mosquito mesh that costs me a euro per square meter. Keep it in place with some toothpicks.
It seems to be the only thing that works, but still I find yanked out seedlings and knocked over pots on a weekly basis.

I used to shoot a couple black birds and hang them in a tree, hoping they would act as a deterrent. It rarely worked well and since something close to 97% of the black bird population died due to a virus I'm not really wanting to do it again. The finicky part is that the population of black bird that did survive, now produces three nests a year as opposed to one or two. And the youngsters are freaking rebellious.

Sparrows have never been an issue even though we have a gang of 40-50 hanging out in the back yard.
Western Jackdaws love to pick some inorganic soil, but they only eat a couple rocks and leave the rest alone. They also scare the other birds.

Checked it out on Gunbroker. Man, that's some serious $$$ for an air rifle! Looks like some major technology, but I just want the pigeons off of my roof and out of my courtyard.

The sell point was no pellet drop from first to last shot. Second was the medium power setting is about 850fps which is prime time for the .22 pellet.
The firing pin depresses a little bit more each shot into the tank to compensate for the loss of pressure per shot. The 3 levels of power and a mouse click for a trigger. They never knew what hit them and I never miss heart or head shots.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Using Sevin against starlings is a rather odd strategy with very few benefits (if any as starlings hardly have a sense of smell) and it is a pretty nasty insecticide.

Bullshit. Cheap shot. It's been around forever and washes off food in normal kitchen preparation. The newspeak politically correct bunch are collectively attacking everything under the sun with false product complaints which are part of the google inquiry system of reporting lies as truth. But there isn't much to complain about with Sevin because it has very little effect on humans and weathers quickly. Complaints of packages half full are a good example of imbeciles taking cheap shots: Everything in the world is sold by some standard and the standard for powders is weight. Powders settle in the package, and very few people are stupid enough to believe that half-full envelopes mean they are being cheated. Other complaints consist of tomato plant death. Again, if you are stupid and believe that gardeners use it to cover the plants so thickly with the dust that it would kill the plant, you are probably be too stupid to have a garden.

I can't speak to bird olfactory sensitivities. I can speak to my experiences with keeping critters out of my trees. One dusting at a strategic time works for me. People are perfectly free to drape nets or wire cloth on their trees. I find that clumsy, at best. As to which species are pests? In my case Morning Doves and Blue Jays are big and are most problematic. Both are on the list of politically correct birds. I would remind birders that the imports they hate were brought here by a fellow birder. Birders: police thyself.

 

[Forsoothe!]

You can get a plastic bird of prey on a stick and move it around.
Also, one of those silver reflective birthday balloons shredded into long tassels on the top of a long stake woris. The reflectiveness and movement with the breeze helps. A shredded plastic grocery bag will work too.

CD's on a string works if you can hang them from something. They constantly move and the reflective side flashes as some of the surfaces pass through the right angle to the sunlight. The only problem is they need to hang freely and have some clearance so they don't slice something in a strong wind where they become downright dangerous. If two are within reach of each other, they will get tangled. (They teach them that at the factory)

 

[Bnana]

Bullshit. Cheap shot. It's been around forever and washes off food in normal kitchen preparation. The newspeak politically correct bunch are collectively attacking everything under the sun with false product complaints which are part of the google inquiry system of reporting lies as truth. But there isn't much to complain about with Sevin because it has very little effect on humans and weathers quickly. Complaints of packages half full are a good example of imbeciles taking cheap shots: Everything in the world is sold by some standard and the standard for powders is weight. Powders settle in the package, and very few people are stupid enough to believe that half-full envelopes mean they are being cheated. Other complaints consist of tomato plant death. Again, if you are stupid and believe that gardeners use it to cover the plants so thickly with the dust that it would kill the plant, you are probably be too stupid to have a garden.

I can't speak to bird olfactory sensitivities. I can speak to my experiences with keeping critters out of my trees. One dusting at a strategic time works for me. People are perfectly free to drape nets or wire cloth on their trees. I find that clumsy, at best. As to which species are pests? In my case Morning Doves and Blue Jays are big and are most problematic. Both are on the list of politically correct birds. I would remind birders that the imports they hate were brought here by a fellow birder. Birders: police thyself.

Some people care about more than human health (and it is toxic and a suspected carcinogenic). It is banned in many countries for a reason.
I don't have a clue what the rest of this rant is about.

 

[jaco94]

@KillerButts , All yours photos are making me nauseous




Mao zedong had the same wonderful idea ...

 

[PiñonJ]

You can get a plastic bird of prey on a stick and move it around.

CD's on a string works if you can hang them from something.

These kinds of measures are always temporary. The birds quickly learn that there is no danger and they ignore the deterrents. I’ve tried both strategies (I bought reflective discs specifically meant to deter birds).

 

[hinmo24t]

also in MA. i dont know if its the drought right now or what, but ill be damned at the amount of starlings or crackles crows in some people lawns and yards.
i have been seeing some finches, cardinal, catbird, etc. but something is definitely off. usually i see more.

cant wait to get to the stage of setting up some bluebird houses and other birdhouses for my garden. i have netting over my fig tree and rocks in
every pot to deter them, which seems to work.

 

[AZbonsai]

Had a buddy suggest a plastic mesh he got from ACE hardware. Cut to fit pot and wired in. Works great and is not so glaring astetically.




Unfortunately, mesh would not help with protecting the grapes on my bonsai.


This is the culprit.

 

[hinmo24t]

Had a buddy suggest a plastic mesh he got from ACE hardware. Cut to fit pot and wired in. Works great and is not so glaring astetically.


Unfortunately, mesh would not help with protecting the grapes on my bonsai.


This is the culprit.

what type of bird?

 

[KillerButts]

Had a buddy suggest a plastic mesh he got from ACE hardware. Cut to fit pot and wired in. Works great and is not so glaring astetically.
View attachment 316284
View attachment 316288
View attachment 316293

Unfortunately, mesh would not help with protecting the grapes on my bonsai.
View attachment 316295

This is the culprit.
View attachment 316296

Looks like a starling body but that’s a rough look.