5 Organic ways to deter birds and insects when they present a nuisance in the garden

Isn’t nature wonderful? Yes, it is. But sometimes, we have to deal with the pests destroying our efforts in the garden.

If, like me, you do not use insecticides or other toxic chemicals and devices to deter birds and other pests, you may be interested in ways in which I have tried to protect my food plants from destruction (they are all most welcome to the flowers I plant!) The best way I find is prevention rather than treatment.

Birds

I live in an area that is friendly to birds. Many of the gardens in the surrounding areas have bird baths, ponds, bird feeders, trees etc.

During nesting season, (and always), birds primarily seek food, shelter and water. In recent years I have noticed that birds- especially black birds, seek shelter in the nesting boxes that we have on our house (good), this year, they have also sought refuge to nest in the rafters on one side of the house (not so great).

However, very recently, I have noticed that some of the birds have taken to digging up my vegetable and flower beds and pot plants- namely using the bark that I use as mulch to form part of their nest. Initially, I did not mind this, as long as they took what they needed and did not harm the plants.

But now I believe black birds have started to wreak havoc and have begun eating and digging up the vegetables and plants.

I needed to take action.I am trialling a range of harmless and organic methods using things from around the house.

Here are my methods and findings:

1. Bird deterrent: streamers made with old rags, shoe laces and aluminium foil

I have taken a multi-pronged approach to deterring the birds who have been digging up my vegetable beds, while not excluding any of them from the garden as a while- since I have my deterrents in place, there are still plenty of pigeons, house sparrows and their fledglings and black/brown birds around, just not in the vegetable patch.

I simply attached old rags (strips from an old t-shirt and socks, and some unused colourful shoelaces) to some bamboo sticks. On the top of the sticks I stuck on some strips of aluminium foil. Apparently blackbirds don’t like the reflective surfaces. The swishing and crinkling sound of the foil blowing in the wind is also said to be a deterrent.

I only added these to the vegetable patch.

I have not seen a blackbird in the vegetable patch since. The same can not be said for sparrows who still regularly perch atop my peas and beans to feast on insects- but I am absolutely thrilled at this result.

I just hope there are no thunderstorms with lightning any time soon!

2. Knitted Owl Decoy

To mitigate the sparrows eating away at the beans and flowers on my patch, I knitted an owl. Not the most ferocious looking thing I must say, but he is holding the fort!

I used scrap yarns and stuffed using an old t-shirt (we relegate old clothes to a box in the garage to be used as rags and craft). I used this free knitting pattern.

3. Metal fencing on pot plants

Since some of my beloved orange plants on the front steps were also beginning to get dug up, I used some of the left over rodent proofing I used on the tortoise enclosure to protect the top of the pots.

4. Horticultural netting

This is the first year that my blueberry plants have fruited so I have used some old horticultural netting I had to protect the flowers that will soon turn into delicious blueberries.

I have some strawberries and blackberries in hanging baskets, which I am undecided whether to net these yet because it of the location of the baskets, they may look unsightly but if I want fruit, I may have to.

Horticultural netting around my blueberries.

5. Neem oil solution for aphids

This year, some of my plants have suffered with an aphid attack. Since we are still relatively early in the season, my flowers and the sacrificial plants I have placed between my veggies have yet to bloom and have failed to attract aphid predators like hover flies and ladybirds, (though the sparrows have been doing what they can), I have had to resort to using a mild solution of organic neem oil, dish soap and water which does help with aphids but needs to be done consistently. On aphid-affected plants, I spray every day for about 5-7 days.

So here are my cheap, cheerful and relatively harmless ways to protect my plants and veggies. Since I am using a variety of methods, I can not say for sure which way is the most efficient but since I have implemented these methods, my beds and pots are no longer being dug up and produce eaten yet birds are still very much a friendly part of the garden. So far, so good!