inexpensive ways to keep birds off wood fence?

[POOHDRMR]

I recently spent 2000 dollars to put fence up to stop annoying neighbor that likes to feed birds and squirels on my side of the yard. Now he has put all the feeders up high so the feed stills comes over to my side and they are all sitting on my fence. They are pooping all over the fence and my daughters play set.Any advice to try to keep birds and squirrels off fence and yard?

 

[Hannathy]

Sorry I'm with the birds! You are in their territory and unless you enclose the swing set NATURE is going to happen for heavens sake. I guess you wouldn't like to have myself or my other neighbors for neighbors because we all feed and water the birds. A fence outside is going to get dirty.

 

[GJM]

Someone I know had this problem and what they did was get a piece of string and string it along the top of the fence. It is suppose to stop them from sitting there because the string is in the way.

 

[Jennifer823]

Hang a sparkly windchime from a tree branch near the fence, or on one of those "shepard's hooks" that you can hang things from. Birds don't like this. I had to keep birds from eating my seedlings, and I just cut a foil pie plate in half, stuck a hole in the top and hung it with some string from a stick in the ground in my garden. Worked like a charm! BTW - we feed and water the birds too, but sometimes you don't want them in certain areas!

 

[ticktock]

I recently spent 2000 dollars to put fence up to stop annoying neighbor that likes to feed birds and squirels on my side of the yard. Now he has put all the feeders up high so the feed stills comes over to my side and they are all sitting on my fence. They are pooping all over the fence and my daughters play set.Any advice to try to keep birds and squirrels off fence and yard?

Are you saying that the feeders are so close to your fence that the seeds are falling on your fence and your yard? If so you should legally be able to make him move them. Why is your neihbor such a jerk? Tell him you'll be getting an outdoor cat if he doesn't.(I have three outdoor cats and they don't usually mess with birds but it might make him pay attention)

I totally do not agree with you Hannathy. There is room in the world for nature and people. The feeders do not need to be SO close to her fence that the birds make an enormous mess on the fence and a CHILDS play set. There is a HUGE differance between the occasional poop and the kind of disgusting mess I know that birds can make. That is just stupid and selfish on the neihbors part.

I feed birds in my yard but the feeders are all away from areas that I don't want the birds congregating in. Yes, occasionally they will sit and poop in other areas, but they usually stay in the trees or on the feeders. Good luck.

 

[disneyfreakk]

I would tell the neighbor that if he does not move the feeders away from the fence you will have to put out poison. I LOVE animals, and hopefully you wont really put poison out, but maybe the neighbor will move the feeders because he doesnt want dead animals in his side of the yard.

Have you told the neighbor that the feed is landing in your yard?

 

[Hannathy]

Wow what nature lovers! Another case of nature is great as long as it doesn't smell, make a mess or inconvenience me.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

What our zoo does here is put pokey things that stick up so the birds don't land on them in spots where they don't want birds roosting or landing. Since the zoo uses it, I'm guessing it's considered humane.

You could take a bunch of wire hangers, cut them with tin snips to about 4 inches long, and staple gun them to the fence on your side so they stick up. The ends will be blunt enough not to hurt the birds while at the same time discouraging them from landing.

Bird poop can contain parasites and cause severe lung reactions in sensitive individuals, and I can understand the OP not wanting to have her kids be in contact with it.

 

[ticktock]

Wow what nature lovers! Another case of nature is great as long as it doesn't smell, make a mess or inconvenience me.

You think it is OK for someone elses intrests to intrude on YOUR life? If your neihbor's kid was practicing drums at 2 in the morning right outside your bedroom window that would be OK? I think your being ridiculus. Do you think of anyone besides yourself?

The feeders do not have to be right were the children play. I feed birds in my front yard. The feeders only make a mess on MY property and the kids can still have a relatively clean back yard. Everybody wins, including the birds. NOT, everybody has to bend to my will because I'm morally superior .

 

[hildarumpole]

We had a problem with birds at our front door and in our garage. Rubber snakes took care of them. I picked some up at Wal-Mart for $1 each and put them on the porch light and hung them in the garage. It must have scared the living daylights out of the birds, because we haven't had a problem for 2 yrs. now. The only bird that was not deterred was a hawk. It thought the snake was a meal and swooped on to my front porch, grabbing the snake in it's talons. It caught on quickly, and dropped it in the driveway. I don't know if rubber snakes would work on your fence, but it may be worth a try.

 

[POOHDRMR]

I don't know why my neighbor is such a jerk but he always has been. We have put up with him attaching things to our 4 ft chain link fence,throwing any stick or leaf that he thinks came off our tree over the fence to our side,his turtles coming over to my yard because he has a giant pond in his back(it takes up almost the whole back yard)and when my husband accidently weed wacked the shell of one of the turtles he got mad at us when I gave it back to him.He feeds the squirrels dried corn and had a feeder attached to my chain link fence that attracted rats and things. The feed fell through the chain link on my side all the time.He also has a pigeon coupe that he built and likes to dump the bottom trays out through my side of the fence. So we decided to put up a 6 ft stockade and we left the 4 ft chain link up so we didn't bother any of his stuff so he wouldn't get mad and I thought that the extra space would do us good. For 2 weeks since we put it up everything was good-the feed wasn't on our side hardly any mess on play things,we even planted the grass back in the spot they always peck at.Then I come home on Thursday and see that he has screwed brackets into my fence and attached 3 feeders to it-so not only did he damage my new fence but he reached over the old fence to do it which is my property.We asked him to remove such feeders from my fence and that has ticked him off so he moved them to the chain fence at eye level of the top of the wood fence. We told him that we put the fence up to try to keep the animals away for my daughters things. Yesterday I come home and there are even more up so I really feel like he did it to annoy me-we have never complained to him in the 5 yrs we lived here because I always want to be nice. So now I am very upset-I mind my own business and I enjoy animals but I don't enjoy all the mess and worring about my daughter getting sick.I know fences get dirty and if you have no problem with all of there mess keep the feeders all on your property.Thank you to all of you who have advice on keeping them off.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Electricity hook up a bit of it and they will go away for ever.


No really the only way is like the PP stated to use the small spikes on the tops of the fence . I noticed they are using them at Disney . You can see them from the TTA around Tomorrowland and also at Hershey park in PA.

Do 3 at an angle ,one straight up and the other two outwards.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Wow what nature lovers! Another case of nature is great as long as it doesn't smell, make a mess or inconvenience me.

When it causes damage to your home things have to be changed. We had squirrels cause a total of 2,500 in damage....hello squirrel traps!!!!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

My neighbor's cat would climb my fence and sit on the post very quietly so I would forget it was there. It would then scare the ** out of me. I took very long nails and nailed 2 to the top of the post so the cat couldn't sit there anymore.

 

[Pumbaa_]

If your neighbor is damaging your fence, that is considered vandalism. It might benefit him to have a visit from the local law enforcement to let him know he can't do that.

Another option is to have a survey done to determine property lines. Anything on your property needs to be moved.

Sounds harsh, but who wants rats and bird poop on your child's playthings!

Good luck,

 

[rkwells]

I noticed at our local waterpark they hung plastic owls in an area they want to keep birds from building nests in...I too love to put out a couple of feeders but out of courtesy, and for my own enjoyment they are up near my house. Your neighbor sounds like a real gem!

 

[Tony P. IL.]

You can check into something like this. It is environmentally Safe and harmless to birds. http://www.bird-x.com/products/bproof.html. There is another product called Hot Foot http://www.hotfoot.com/home.html which is basically the same thing.

 

[tinkarooni]

I don't have an answer to your bird problem but I wanted to let you know you are not alone in the jerky neighbor dept. We used to have a middle aged male neighbor we would call "Nakey Guy" (to ourselves of course), lived next door with his wife and teenage kids. He walked around all day long in shorts that looked like boxers and nothing else, no shirt in western pa in october. (by the way he didn't have the physique to do this)
All the photos from my daughters first b-day in the back yard have him in them half naked, apparently 50 people in my backyard didn't even bother him. He used to dump all of his garbage, weeds, leaves etc into my backyard. We also put up a 6 foot high attractive wooden fence and one day I watched him walk through the gate through the yard and dump a can into my garden. He walked home and I went out and found a coffee can full of oily rags, I promptly returned it to him and told him if he set foot on my property again I would have him arrested. Our solution? We moved to ten fabulous acres with no neighbors. Neighbors are nuts. If he damaged your fence I would threaten to call the police. Neighbors must be respectful of each other, he is not. Good luck to you.

 

[POOHDRMR]

I think you may have lived next to my guy too!!! I didn't even mention the walking around almost naked all the time.He even wears a speedo to clean his pond out-at least I think its a speedo its hard to see under the belly!I think I am gonna look into the spikes for the fence but I have a feeling that I am just gonna tick him off more.I have always tried to be very respectful and now I just am so upset that others do not.You should have seen his reaction when we told him to take the feeders out of our fence and please not attach anything to it again- it was like we were the wrong ones here. We are hoping to be able to move in a few years but this has made me want to move now cause I am tired of not being in peace in my own home.Thanks to all for suggestions I will be trying many!

 

[Kate and Pete]

If your neighbor is damaging your fence, that is considered vandalism. It might benefit him to have a visit from the local law enforcement to let him know he can't do that.

Another option is to have a survey done to determine property lines. Anything on your property needs to be moved.



I absolutely agree! When I read that I nearly fell out of my seat! I would call the PD and have them chat with the neighbor - he CAN'T attach things to your fence...grrrr...