If you’re looking to keep birds away, consider taking advantage of the smells birds hate. With this knowledge, you can create homemade bird repellents or keep these products around your home in an attempt to scare birds off. To begin planning your bird deterrent process, consider what smells birds dislike most.
What Smells Do Birds Hate?
Certain natural products produce an aroma that repels birds for different reasons. If you already have these products at home, consider using them to keep birds away. If you don’t already own some of these, they are easy to find and implement as a bird deterrent method. Some smells birds hate include:
- Essential oils. These scents are overpowering to birds, especially peppermint oil. The strong smell of peppermint is enough to repel birds on its own.
- Peppers. With most peppers being spicy, their smell often creates a burning sensation. Specific types of pepper that can deter birds include chili peppers and cayenne pepper.
- Garlic. Birds avoid garlic because it contains allicin, along with its strong, natural odor.
- Cinnamon. The aromatic scent of cinnamon is irritating to most birds.
- Vinegar. Birds can be triggered by the harsh, unpleasant smell of vinegar and will avoid it.
- Citrus oil. Birds tend to avoid the smell of citrus because they don’t like it. However, if you plan to use citrus oil as a deterrent – it must make direct contact with the bird in order to be effective.
Related: How To Keep Birds Out Of Hanging Plants
How To Make Homemade Bird Repellent
Choose from the above scents as a base for your homemade bird repellent. Any of these scents can be the main ingredient to create a spray that will repel birds. Using these scents, you can mix water, apple cider vinegar, or liquid dish soap. Some recipes to try are:
Peppermint Oil Spray
- 14 drops of peppermint oil
- 14 drops of lemon oil
- ½ cup of white vinegar
- ½ cup of water
Cayenne Pepper Spray
- 6 drops of liquid dish soap
- 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
- 1 gallon of water
Garlic Spray
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 2 cups of olive oil
Cinnamon Spray
- 3 parts water
- 1 part cinnamon
Are Homemade Repellents Effective?
When creating bird repellent at home, it is crucial to not harm the birds. You must use products that are non-toxic and safe to use. Especially if you plan to spray areas that include plants, you don’t want to contaminate your own produce.
Dealing with bird repellent requires a plan. In order to repel birds from your property, you need to be aware of the legal actions in place to protect birds. Most species of birds are protected by law depending on location. Before taking action to disrupt birds in your area, research your local regulations.
Related: Do Homemade Bird Repellents Really Work?
What Is Liquid Bird Repellent?
To eliminate the stress of creating your own repellent, consider purchasing liquid bird repellent. These pre-made mixtures are non-toxic and safe to use around birds, plants, animals, and humans. Professionals have mastered the ingredients of this product to create lasting results so you don’t have to use trial and error with homemade repellents.
Related: Best Practices For Effective Bird Pest Control
How Avian Can Help
At Avian, we offer liquid bird repellent methods that are EPA registered and non-toxic. This allows our product to be safe to use around you, your family, your plants, animals, and more. It is important to us to help you deter birds without causing them harm.
Our liquid bird repellent has proven results that last up to two weeks. Eliminate the stress of guessing which at home products can repel birds and trust Avian Control to get the job done. Call 888.868.1982 to order or contact us for more information today!
What Smells Do Birds Hate? Top Tips To Humanely Get Rid Of Birds
FAQs
Homemade Bird Repellents
What smells do birds hate the most? ›
Some smells birds hate include:
- Essential oils. These scents are overpowering to birds, especially peppermint oil. ...
- Peppers. With most peppers being spicy, their smell often creates a burning sensation. ...
- Garlic. ...
- Cinnamon. ...
- Vinegar. ...
- Citrus oil.
How to get rid of birds naturally
- Baking soda: Sprinkle baking soda where you have noticed birds in your yard. ...
- Chili pepper mixture: Mix 24 chili peppers (green or red) with half a gallon of water and a quarter cup of vinegar. ...
- Bird netting: Place some bird netting over the area you want the birds to stay out of.
What makes an effective bird deterrent for gardens? Birds dislike strong smells, shiny objects, and threatening predators. Certain methods that you could implement here include recycling CDs or DVDs as shiny objects, using herbs such as garlic as a strong smell, or adding animal sound devices.
Will spraying vinegar keep birds away? ›
Do vinegar effective to keep birds away? The smell of vinegar is very unpleasant for birds. It's a common household item, so you can easily put it in a spray bottle and use it anywhere you want to avoid birds in your garden.
What color do birds hate the most? ›
One color that the majority of birds avoid is white. A dull or bright white signals alarm and danger to birds, causing them to avoid those areas.
How to deter birds from porch? ›
How to Keep Birds from Nesting on your Porch
- 3/4" Mesh Bird Netting.
- Swallow Shield – Swallow and Bat Deterrent.
- SpectrumV Bird Repellent Gel Dishes.
- Avian Block Bird Repellent Pouches.
- Reflect-A-Bird Deterrent.
Predator Decoys. If birds are a problem around your garden, pool, or deck, you can purchase one (or several) predator decoys at your local hardware store to scare them away. As the birds fly overhead, they will see the plastic owl, rubber snake, or whichever other decoy you choose and won't land near it.
How do you make bird repellent spray? ›
Repellent Sprays. There are several versions of bird repellent sprays you can make at home but the most popular is a concoction of chili peppers, water, and vinegar. To make this spray, crush dried red or green chili peppers into a mixture of water and vinegar.
What chemical will keep birds away? ›
Bird B Gone offers several bird repellent sprays that contain the active ingredient Methyl Anthranilate (MA). All-natural MA is extracted from grape seeds. This non-toxic substance acts like pepper spray for birds; it affects their trigeminal nerve and irritates their eyes, nose, and throat without harming them at all.
Grape Kool-Aid
A product right off the grocery shelf can be used to deter birds. Grape-flavored Kool-Aid contains a grape compound called methyl anthranilate. The compound has a flavor that is very distasteful to birds.
Does WD-40 keep birds away? ›
No bird, pigeons included, tolerates the smell of WD-40. I have used it on my mailbox for years to keep the birds aloft. My information comes from the National Park Service, which uses WD-40 to keep pigeons off the Statue Of Liberty. Many large-city apartments use WD-40 on banisters.
Does baking soda keep birds away? ›
Baking soda is an inexpensive and safe way to keep birds away from your property. Sprinkling it around areas where birds are known to frequent can help keep them at bay. The baking soda releases an unpleasant smell for birds, causing them to seek out other places to rest or feed.
What smells are bad for birds? ›
You can brew your coffee and cook whatever you like without fear. However, using teflon pans can be toxic, as the gases put off by the teflon at high heats can kill a bird. It's better to use pans with no teflon. In addition, avoid using any chemical sprays, scented plug-ins, or candles around birds.
What kills nuisance birds? ›
The three options we can control are poisoning, shooting, and trapping (and euthanizing).
Do wind chimes keep birds away? ›
The noise and movement of wind chimes will scare birds off your deck, patio, or porch. Reflective items. Birds are sensitive to bright, reflective colors and will typically avoid any place that has them. Take advantage of this by using reflective flash tape, small mirrors, or other reflective decorative items.
Is there a chemical to keep birds away? ›
Bird Repellent Products are proven in repelling many types of pest birds in a variety of situations. Nixalite offers safe chemical and visual bird repellents that are designed to help keep birds away. Nixalite has a solution you can count on.
