Seek Help in Discouraging Swallows from Rebuilding Nest in Porch!

Try hanging a foil pie pan next to the area or a tack strip to the ledge where they build their nest. You may also try getting a fake owl at Home Depot and perch it in an area close to the site.???

PP has it right. Paint the ceiling blue - a pale sky or "tiffany" blue works great. It doesn't have to be dark at all. It will work, I swear!

My parents used those silver helium balloons. They tacked them up where the birds were building their nests. It seemed to keep the birds at bay.

our pest control guy said to place 'foil' covered med sized rocks on ledges and to cover the porch light lid also, well, the porch light tip worked...but the 'foil' covered rocks...not so well...those pesky birds keep 'picking' at the foil 'til 'mission' is accomplished...lol...

Too funny reading all these responses. I have a nest in my porch area too and I think they are cool to watch. I guess I'm the only one! We enjoy seeing the birds on the roof and watching us go about day to day business. They keep a lot of the bugs at bay so I just let them be :) I have never seen one fly in and out while we are around the door area.

I think my parents used to tack up some fishing line in a criss-crossy fashion in the corners to deter the birdies. Not sure about the flat surfaces though.

We bought a giant OWL at Home Depot ($12), and our pesky porch birds have not been back since. The Owl is kind of ugly, but it works great!

K.,

We had this issue eight or so years ago. We didn't want the birds nesting or dive-boming our kids every time they went out to play. We put large, wadded up balls of aluminum foil in the nest or ledge that they were trying to build. They may try to knock it out, but be persistent. It does work!

You want to be sure and do this before they lay eggs. I like birds, I just don't want them on my front porch, keeping us from enjoying our swing!

HTH,

K.

I think you can get one of those plastic owls with the bobble head too! Cute huh?! But I have heard that the rubber snakes work also. Good luck!

Regarding the blue paint. It may work in some cases. However, our front door is blue and we had a nest in our wreath right on the blue door last year. No wreath this year and no nest. The color probably depends upon the type of bird.

This isn't going to help a lot since I can't remember the name, but seems like I heard of a spray you could put on where they were building the nest and they didn't like it & would move on.

I have a friend who lives in Arizona and she told me that there they paint the ceilings of their porches pale blue. This keeps away pest from building homes on the porch because they confuse the color with the sky.

It's an old wives tale but it works...paint your porch ceiling blue. Birds don't build nest in the sky.
They also come back year after year to the same nest...so take care of it now before the babies arrive!!
Good luck!
D.

Hang up a rubber snake, birds hate it!!!

Had the same problem...and they still come back year after year. I finally hung some soda cans up by some string and thumb tacks. Wa-lla! The keep the birds from resting there...or even coming near anymore.

L

Dollar Tree (121 & Custer in McKinney) has fake snakes w/ forked tongues. They are on an end-cap at the back of the store. For $1, it may be worth a try to stick one up there.

Tha is funny I just went throught the same thing.i have a 10 month old son and I took one of his shirts that i dont like and hung it from the eves of the house right about the same place where they built their nest.It worked like a charm they havent come back either.It worked like a scarcrow I guess.

I hear that the blue paint works very well!

I haven't seen any swallows around here, but I have a dove that builds in my palm tree every year. Doves will go back to the same tree every year. Not a big problem except palm fronds are rather flat and the nest blows out.

The friends I have who have problems with the birds building on their patios have put up ceiling fans out there and keep them running on low all spring. This will discourage birds, wasps and mosquitos from that area.

Have you tried an Owl decoy with a bobble head? You can probably get them at home and garden stores.

We had these darling birds as well. Notice I said "had". We were probably on the mean side though to get rid of them. We had to use a waterhose everyday to destroy what they would rebuild every single day. They get used to nesting in one place and they come back every year! We finally washed them down enough that they left and haven't come back. We did not harm the birds, just their nest with NO eggs in it. You might even try putting a rubber snake up there if you have a little ledge. I'm sure they won't like that! Good Luck!
B.

we hung netting in the corners at an angle. They are barn swallows, unfortunately they have lost their homes with all the farms being torn down. They come back to where they were born. So this year we had a big crowd coming back. last year it was built while we were out of town. It was neat watching the babies grow up, and my daughter loved checking on them everyday. But the bird mess everywhere was not to be desired.

A friend of mine had them under her cedar arbor, nesting behind her outdoor speakers, and right above their nice patio couch. They took some of their son's Playmobil guys and perched them up on the speaker and overnight the birds were gone!

We had birds trying to nest on the ledge right above our door. My husband bought some kind of caulk at the hardware store, knocked the nest down (They were still in the building process, so there were no eggs) and put the caulk along the edge. We haven't had a single problem since then!

Aside from the mess, you have to be careful about where you let birds nest because they can be so protective after the eggs hatch. Then you can get dive-bombed whenever you try to go in or out of your own door!! That's a little frightening! :)

Too funny! We have had the exact same problem. As funny as it may sound my husband put one of my flip flops above the door where they were nesting. It looked stupid but it worked, and they havent been back. Good luck!

K.,
I had to smile when I read your dilemma. I had this same problem when I moved into my house 8 years ago and I thought I was the only person who had to deal with this. But from the number of responses you've received this is obviously a prevalent problem. Anyway, I would just watch for them and scare them away, especially at night. There was a whole family of them and they were determined, but not as determined as I was. They slacked off for a while but would still return, year after year. I then got a Dachshund who loved barking at them and pestering them, so they left and have not returned to stay. But one tried to come for a visit just a few weeks ago and was greeted by my protective baby. Keep knocking down their nest and scare them away at night when they've come to sleep and they should leave...they don't like having their rest disturbed. : )

Get a kid's plastic snake toy (one that looks a little real) and stick it on the ledge where they built the nest... Usually works!

Absolutely! Hang some rubber snakes under the porch and your problem will be cured. Your neighbors may think you are a witch docto or something, but it works like magic! :)Let them hang straight down for a while, and then you can put them horizontally so that visitors can't see them. Hope this helps! H.

The sky or pale blue paint works. We live out in the country and have birds all over the place. Just paint the ceiling of your porches and they will nest elsewhere. Plus you don't have to harm them or have any snakes or owls to greet your guest.

I am a Realtor and we see all kinds of things. I had a buyer almost have a heart attack as she looked up and saw a plastic snake perched on a ledge. The plastic snake seems to work, the more realistic the better. A good long term fix is to take the same metal covering for gutters and put in over the edge, so they can no longer build. We are seeing with houses being vacant longer, all kinds of critters are moving in. Once you "take over" they go about thier way and find another place. Good Luck!

I knocked the nest down everytime it was built. Also, I would go out early evening and "catch" them in the act. So I would wave my arms and make alot of noise. I had to do that 4-5 nights before they stopped. I haven't seen them since. Hope that helps, good luck.

You might also buy a nesting box and put it up somewhere nearby so they have an alternative without having to leave what they probably now consider to be "home".

The plastic snakes don't work forever. They ignore the snake after a while once they realize its not a threat. You can try putting fish net over that area to block them out.

If you don't mind having them nest their, which by the way I think is kind of a neat thing!, then you could try hanging a small wicker basket where you would like them. Be sure and put there "nest stuff" from the old spot in the new basket. My friends had this same problem and did this and now the birds just build their nest in the basket. Good luck!

Place a plastic toy snake near the nest. Also try putting attachable odor killers in various places. I cannot think of what they are called!!! Hope this helps.

We have this problem too. We just go out every day during the spring when they start building and knock down whatever they've built. They don't usually get too much built in one day and after a while, they get tired of having to start over every day and find another place. It is a pain though. My dh didn't want anything hanging around our front door like owls, snakes, etc. (the birds try to build their nest right over our front door!), so this is what we've had to do. I hadn't heard of the blue paint though, so maybe we'll try that next year. We've already run our birds off this season, lol.

We have swallows too and they are in a bad location for us. My son repeatedly scares them off. After a few years they don't come back but once in awhile we get an ancestor or something that comes back to haunt that spot and again, I get the kids out there to scare them off, knock down the nests (before eggs) and it deters them :) In the last 7-8 years the issues have dwindled, but expect to have them attempt to come back for a few years at least.