It doesn’t matter what you call it—porch, patio, stoop, terrace, balcony, or whatever, having your personal outdoor space can allow you to have some fresh air and have a better day.
However, something is annoying that has disturbed you for a couple of weeks, months, or even years—and that’s how you can stop birds from pooping on your balcony.
Birds are lovely creatures, but pooping in your preserved balcony is something not everyone will welcome. That is why you must find a solution to this problem.
This post will walk you through various ways you can stop birds from pooping on your balcony. Hopefully, you’ll find a remedy that works perfectly for you.
Let’s get started.
What are the Health Hazards of Birds Pooping on Your Patio, Porch, or Balcony?
Most people think that birds pooping on their porches isn’t much of a big deal, but the truth is that their poops can carry up to 60 diseases.
And by the way, the sparrows and pigeons you’ve probably seen don’t carry avian flu, but they do carry other severe diseases, including:
- E.coli, which is a hazardous bacteria that cause food poisoning and digestive tract complications
- Salmonellosis that equally causes food poisoning and digestive tract complications
- Cryptococcosis is an infection that endangers the lungs with symptoms such as meningitis and pneumonia
- Candidiasis is a fungal infection that causes mouth thrush when you inhale it
- Histoplasmosis, which is a fungal infection bringing several complications to the lungs and exposes you to respiratory distress
As you can see, bird poop carries several diseases that can be dangerous to you and your family. These diseases can weaken your immune systems, making you vulnerable to several other conditions.
Besides, birds can also carry pests and other parasites. For example, birds can carry chicken mites and bed bugs, which can invade your home and cause massive destruction.
Because of the health hazards that bird poop exposes you to, you should take precautionary measures never to allow them to poop on your balcony, or even better, never let them around your home.
11 Increible Ways to Stop Birds From Pooping on the Patio, Porch, and Balcony
1. Use an Ultrasonic Sound System
Today, you can find various sound systems that can help you prevent birds from invading your compound. Usually, most sound systems emit high-pitched noise that won’t cause discomfort to humans but are enough to scare birds away. And because these sound systems are motion-activated, they’ll begin producing the sounds when they detect birds.
You can also find sound systems that can produce sound from birds in distress or predator birds. These sounds will signify to the birds that the area isn’t safe, keeping them away from your compound. But what of the pricing of these sound systems? These sound systems usually range between $30 to $200, depending on the features each has.
2. Try Hanging Mirrors
This is one of the most popular DIY options that you can use to keep birds away from invading your compound. This remedy involves hanging a few mirrors from your fence or tree branches and works in two ways.
First, birds never like shiny objects, or moving objects, so they’ll never get close to any of these. Secondly, mirrors can trick the birds into believing that there are other birds, which makes them disturbed on whether to visit the area or not.
You don’t have to spend much on these—you can purchase cheaper mirrors at any of the craft stores in your locality. Use a rope to hang them around the areas you’d not want to see any birds. It’s an inexpensive method of scaring birds away but very effective.
3. Keep that Area Clean
Birds love areas with shrubs, overgrown trees, or sites that look disorganized—to enable them to build their nests. This is why you need to ensure that your home or balcony is super clean to give these creatures minimal chances of coming close to your home.
That said, you want to ensure that any trees or shrubs in your compound are cut or cleared, or maintained to look decent. By doing this, you will be limiting the chances of the birds coming close to your home and your balcony.
You can also check your home or house to see any trash or items that birds can use to build their nests. Pest control regimens can help reduce bugs and, in the long run, to keep the birds away.
4. Install Faux Predators
The reality is that small birds are always scared of bigger birds, which is advantageous to you. Having a hawk or owl decoy can help keep birds away from your compound.
While you can choose to purchase the small bird decoys, they’ll be able to realize that the small decoy isn’t real. To avoid this, keep moving the decoy in several positions and not just letting it stay in the same spot every time.
Additionally, you need to keep moving the decoy’s head to scare the birds away as they wouldn’t want to be eaten. If you find solar-powered or battery-powered decoys, the better.
Finally, you can keep birds off your balcony using predator eyes, which can resemble the eyes of any bird predator. You can hand these inflatable eyeballs in any of the areas you’d want to keep birds away.
5. Spinning Pinwheels
You must have probably come across these popular children’s toys—the spinning pinwheels. These toys can be the best thing to use when you need to keep birds away from your compound.
When wind hits these pinwheels, they spin, and the noise coming from them scares birds away. Besides, the material the pinwheels are made of also scare the birds away.
That said, you’ll need to install the pinwheels on your fence or deck or anywhere that you don’t want birds around. You’ll always find these pinwheels at any children’s toy store at affordable prices.
Sure, the plain pinwheels can equally serve their purpose, but it would be better if you opted for the ones made from a shiny material.
6. Spray them With Water
If you have a yard or even a garden next to your balcony or house, use motion-activated sprinklers to spray water as their movements and dowsing water scares birds away.
They come in solar-powered or battery-powered options, so you can choose any that matches your preferences. You can hook some to a gallon of water, while some will require a hose garden connection. And the motion range and sprinkler trajectory will differ from one model to another.
If you are using this remedy, make sure that you’re sprinkling your garden or yard at the exact times every day. Additionally, make sure that you’re directing the sprinklers to the areas where the birds most frequently visit.
Unlike other methods we have discussed, birds may get used to this remedy and resume operations after realizing the idea behind the water sprinklers.
7. Floating Pool Predators
This is another excellent option if you want to keep birds away from your compound and stop them from pooping on your balcony.
Check around your local stores or hardware store to see if you can find some inflatable or plastic alligator or snake that you can buy to help you scare birds away from your balcony.
Birds flying around will see these ‘deadly’ predators and never wish to land anywhere near your compound. You can also use rubber snakes around your balcony to scare birds away as they never see eye to eye with snakes.
However, ensure that you keep your guests aware that the snakes they’ll come across on your balcony are indeed fake and not real snakes—otherwise, you might scare them away too.
8. Eliminate Food Sources
Birds are always on the lookout to find food sources, and that means they’ll be attracted to any bird feeders around. That said, if you have a bird feeder around your balcony, take it away or do away with it completely to keep birds away.
When birds can’t find any other food source in your compound, they’ll quickly move to other areas to look for food. However, before you cut down trees with bird feeders, try hanging mirrors on those trees and see if that will scare them away.
If you hang a mirror on those bird feeder trees and birds continuously poop on your balcony, then you can relocate and transplant the trees elsewhere.
9. Reflect the Sun
Did you know that birds hate bright flashes of light? Yes, they do not like very bright areas, meaning they’ll never be in areas with reflective items. However, it’s essential to note that this method isn’t effective on specific bird types, such as the sparrows. Additionally, you need to keep in mind that this method won’t be effective on a cloudy day.
When choosing reflective items, make sure that you select reflective items that can move around as these will flash out lights in different patterns. If you like, you can use reflective scare tape on your patio decor, moving in the direction of the wind, or you can find some bird repellents, such as spiral reflectives or mirror owls.
10. Use Inflatable Beach Balls
If you’re not a fan of inflated animals, you can opt for the inflated beach balls to scare away birds from your compound. These inflated beach balls are usually colored and will move around with the wind, scaring the birds away from your compound.
The advantage of beach balls is that they can usually fit in almost everyone’s decor. Besides, they are one of the most affordable options you can get. As much as this remedy might not be as effective as the floating animals, you can give it a try, and most probably, it could work just fine for you.
11. Try the Fishing Line Trick
This is one of the remedies for people who have above-ground pools in their compounds. Get some evenly spaced plastic clips around your pool.
The next step is to place some fishing lines around each of the clips. Leave some space inches between your pool’s top edge and where the fishing lines are located.
The fishing line will hinder the place where birds normally land, so it will be difficult for them to find a landing spot; hence you’ll never find incidences of bird poops on your patio.
Finally, this is also a cheap remedy. The plastic clips will cost you not more than $20, and you can find them in any of your local stores.
Bottom Line
The truth is that finding a perfect blend of remedies that will help you get rid of birds in your compound and ultimately stopping them from pooping on your patio will take time. You’ll have to go through some trial and error before finding the perfect combination of remedies.
Whatever remedies you’ll settle with, you may be required to switch them regularly so that the birds don’t get used to them and resume their operations usually. And because you don’t want bird poop to accumulate on your balcony, taking this seriously is a significant stepping stone.
Dried bird poop will always get into your house through the doors and windows as dust particles. Since most of these bird poop carry diseases, you don’t want to contact them. Inhaling them could also be dangerous, as previously mentioned.