How to Keep Birds Out of Your Garage: 9 Humane Methods
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Kristin Hitchcock
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Birds can liven up any yard, and there are few things more calming than birdsong on a pretty day. However, that doesn’t mean that you want birds everywhere. In our garages, birds can be an issue. Not only can they create a mess, but sometimes the poor birds aren’t able to get out.
To help yourself and the birds, you may want to take some preventative measures to keep them out of your garage. If you’ve found birds in your garage multiple times, then you absolutely need to make some adjustments.
However, even if you haven’t found a bird in your garage yet, it never hurts to take some precautions.
Here are some of our favorite ways to keep birds out of your garage as humanely as possible.
The 9 Humane Ways to Keep Birds Out of Your Garage
1. Keep the Door Closed
If your garage door is closed, then birds can’t get in. This concept is pretty simple, and you’ve likely already thought of it. However, we highly recommend ensuring that everyone else in your family has thought of it, as well. Make sure children know to close the garage door when they are done outside (or ask you to do it).
Whenever you’re doing chores outside, be sure that you close your garage door and keep it closed as much as possible. If you aren’t using anything in the garage, consider going outside via your front door instead.
2. Install a Screen
If you want to spend time in your garage, consider installing a screen. While many people install screens on their entry doors, they may not know that screens can be installed across their whole garage door, too. These screens are extremely helpful if you want to work in your garage without birds or bugs getting in.
While they can be expensive, these barriers are a 100% fix for bug and bird visitors.
3. Reflective Tape
An easy to way keep birds away is to use reflective tape. This method works anywhere, including garages. However, to use it effectively, it has to be moving in the wind. In some garage setups, that can be a challenge. Hanging tape from the top of the door every time you want to use the garage door isn’t usually helpful.
You can also use CDs on a piece of string. However, again, they have to be moving. It’s the change in light that keeps birds away.
4. Get an Owl Decoy
While these decoys don’t always work, they’re a traditional method for keeping birds away. Birds are scared of owls since they are a major predator. Therefore, you can use an owl decoy placed just inside your garage to keep birds out.
However, birds are pretty smart. Eventually, they may realize that your decoy is just that—a decoy. Therefore, you may have to vary the position of the decoy or purchase one that looks a bit different to keep the neighborhood birds on their toes.
You can also find decoys that move or create a sound. These tend to work a bit better.
5. Use a Sound Machine
Sound is a great way to keep birds away. You can often keep them away with a sound machine if it is making the right noise. Preferably, you’ll want a machine that is designed specifically to keep birds away, as these will play the correct sound.
Usually, these machines use tones that only animals can hear. Therefore, they keep away all animals, though they usually don’t work on insects.
6. Clean Out Your Garage
While birds can accidentally end up in our garages, they usually enter them for a reason. If you have nesting materials or food inside your garage, then birds may be more likely to enter it. Even if you take some of the steps we already outlined, you may find that they aren’t a match for a hungry bird.
Therefore, one of your steps should be to remove most of the items in your garage that birds might be drawn to. Place dog food in containers that close completely, remove anything birds might think is food, and sweep to remove possible nesting materials.
7. Blow Up Balloons
Similar to other methods on this list, balloons can scare birds away from your garage and prevent them from entering. Therefore, if you have some balloons laying around, you may want to place some in your garage. However, the key is that they have to be moving, so tying the balloons down likely won’t work.
We recommend hanging them from the ceiling or even just having a bouquet of balloons near the entrance. Balloons last a long time and are pretty inexpensive, so this option works well for those on a budget.
8. Cover Any Windows
If you have windows in your garage, the light might attract birds. It isn’t that these birds are trying to enter your garage. Instead, they may be trying to fly through the window. Therefore, by covering the window, you won’t end up with confused birds thinking it’s a way out.
Not only will this keep birds from entering, but it can also help birds find their way out. By keeping the garage door as the only source of light, you increase the chance of birds flying in the right direction to escape—instead of being caught at a window.
9. Removing Landing Spots
If birds tend to enter your garage and perch on something specific, we recommend removing that something or wrapping it with material birds can’t perch on. In this way, you will encourage birds to fly right back out if they end up in your garage.
By not encouraging birds to linger, you decrease the odds that they’ll come back.
Conclusion
There are many ways to prevent birds from getting into your garage. However, there are a few ways that work 100% of the time. Using a screen door or keeping your door closed are the only two ways that will absolutely keep birds from entering your garage (as it will prevent them from entering).
However, you may not always be able to use these methods. In their absence, you can use various other options to scare birds away and prevent them from spending much time in your garage if they do enter. For instance, using decoys and noise machines can make your garage uncomfortable and scary for birds while also not harming them.
Usually, it works best to try a few options. When layered, you can do a pretty good job of keeping birds out of your garage.
- See Also: Humane Ways to Keep Birds Out of a Barn
Featured Image Credit: Marut Sayannikroth, Shutterstock
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