Keeping Pests Away From Your Bird Feeder

Keeping squirrels away from your bird feeder

Having a bird feeder can be a lot of fun, especially if you’re a bird lover. After installing a feeder, you’ll probably start seeing birds you never could have glimpsed otherwise. With any luck, you could transform your yard into a miniature bird sanctuary and ecosystem.

Unfortunately, however, bird feeders often help create other kinds of ecosystems, too. Pest ecosystems. Pests aren’t picky; just because it’s called “birdseed” doesn’t mean they won’t help themselves to it. Part of owning a bird feeder is figuring out how to keep pests away from it. Here are a couple of good ways to do that.

Clean up after the feeder

Most ground-feeding pests like rodents and insects don’t actually climb up onto the feeder to eat. Instead, they wait for birdseed to fall from the feeder onto the ground, and simply snack on that! It’s an easy, constant food source for pests, and they’ll take advantage constantly.

One of the best ways to keep pests away from your feeder is simply to pick up after it. Clean up any fallen birdseed from beneath the feeder as often as possible. The less birdseed falls to the ground, the fewer pests will be able to use it for food.

Isolate the feeder

Pests feel more comfortable approaching food sources when they have cover to hide behind and sneak around in. Rodents and insects approach bird feeders when the terrain around the feeder is overgrown and shady. Long grass, weeds, bushes and shrubs, fallen leaves, and other assorted clutter all help pests move around.

Make sure the space around your bird feeder is as clear and open as possible. Place it out in the open, trim the grass around it, and keep it far away from your home. If pests feel uncomfortable around your feeder, they’re less likely to rely on it.

secure the feeder

Secure the feeder

Bird feeders often spill seed when birds, weather, or even pests knock them around. After bird seed spills onto the ground, it’s easy pickings for opportunistic pests. Most bird feeders tend to dangle from trees pretty freely or stand on their own.

However, you set up your bird feeder, it may be surprisingly easy to wiggle around or even knock over. Try taking extra steps to secure your feeder. Test it by trying to jostle or smack it around yourself. Ultimately, you’re trying to make sure no animal could shake loose birdseed, no matter what they try.

Fix the feeder

You might be surprised how often bird feeders break without their owners knowing. You leave your bird feeder outside for long periods of time. Wind, weather, birds, and pests take their toll over time.

Unfortunately, when bird feeders break, they usually break in ways that are convenient for pests. Either they’re easier to access or they start spilling bird seed onto the ground! Check on your feeder every couple of weeks to make sure it’s not broken. If you notice any damage, bring it inside until you can repair it. Don’t feel guilty; broken feeders are bad for birds, too.  

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Use bafflers

“Bafflers” are bowl-like devices installed on the bottom of feeders to keep pests away. They won’t work on flying animals (by design), but they make climbing the feeder far more difficult. A bafflers is basically an upside-down bowl that prevents pests like squirrels from climbing up to access the feeder itself.

You can buy bafflers at most hardware stores or make them yourself. Sometimes they’re very effective, sometimes… they’re not. Bafflers can’t be the single solution to all your feeder problems, but they can be part of your solution.

Bring in the feeder

Bring in the feeder

This is the obvious sort-of solution we all tend to forget. Most pests–especially the BIG pests, like skunks and opossums–come out at night. When they come out, they’re hungry. Nocturnal foraging pests think they hit the jackpot when they find your bird feeder. If they can knock out some seeds they can feast all night.

Luckily, you can prevent this in the simplest way possible: just bring in the feeder at night! It’s not like birds are flocking in to feed overnight, anyway. If the feeder isn’t outside at night, then nocturnal pests won’t be able to use it. It’s just that simple.

 

Unfortunately, you can’t simply put out your birdfeeder and fill it up every now and then. At least, you can’t if you want to avoid pests. By following these pest-proofing steps, however, you’ll ensure that birds are the only wildlife eating from your feeder.

If your pest problems seem a little too significant to solve by pest-proofing your feeder, give Griffin a call. We’ll figure out why pests won’t leave you alone and make sure they do. Enjoy the birds!

Protecting Your Lawn From Pests

Protect your lawn from destructive pests

Summer may be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean we get to stop worrying about our lawns just yet. In fact, fall is the most active season for many lawn-destroying pests, like box elder bugs and other beetles. The last thing you want is to have spent all summer meticulously grooming your lawn, only to see it destroyed at the finish line.

Luckily, it doesn’t have to end that way. There are a number of ways you can fight back against lawn-munching insects right up until the ground freezes. Protecting your lawn now will help ensure it comes back stronger than ever the next spring. Just follow these steps:

Mow, Trim, and Manage

mowing your lawn will help prevent fall lawn pests

You should keep mowing your lawn in the fall right up until it turns brown and dies. Long, unkempt grass attracts pests and weeds. Bugs can eat grass and feed their larvae with its root systems. Larvae can permanently damage your lawn and potentially create ugly brown spots. If the damage is extensive enough, large sections of your lawn may not regenerate in spring.

You should mow your lawn about as often as you did in summer, until you notice the grass is no longer growing. Make sure you bag the clippings, and rake up dead grass as needed. Along with mowing, it’s important to trim bushes, ornamental shrubs, and tree branches, too. Pick up any debris that falls onto your lawn, too. Depriving pests of easy food and shelter will make your lawn far less appealing to grass-gnawing opportunists, and much healthier, too.

Pull Out Grubs

look for and pull out grubs beneath sod on your lawn

When larvae feeds on root systems for long enough, the grasses’ ability to absorb nutrients from the soil is diminished. The grass won’t get the sustenance it needs to grow, and it will wither and die. Dead grass looks crunchy and brown. Larvae can eat certain parts of your lawn and leave others untouched, creating brown spots of dead grass in an otherwise healthy yard.

If you have a brown spot, you should cut about 1 foot down into the turf at one of its edges. Roll away the area with the damaged grass and look at the dirt below. Chances are, you’ll find several beetle grubs. If you find more than 5, you’ll need to treat your grub infestation immediately. There are store products available for this task at most hardware stores and nurseries, or we could help you with it. Don’t leave the grubs in your lawn until spring.

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Don’t Overwater

Be sure not to overwater your lawn, especially in fall

Pests of all varieties are attracted to moisture, especially if it’s easily accessible. When you water your lawn too much, the dirt and root systems can’t soak up and absorb all the moisture you’re introducing. Instead, excess water sits on the surface.

Remember: even though your lawn will keep growing in fall, it probably won’t need as much water as it did during the summer. As temperatures cool and nights grow longer, dew lasts longer and less moisture evaporates in the sun. Be careful not to overwater your plants, and ensure your lawn has proper drainage in case of heavy rains. If you notice persistent puddling or wet spots in low areas of the lawn, you should consider leveling out that part of the yard.

Weed

pull weeds out of your lawn to help prevent lawn pests this fall

Undesirable plants like weeds, dandelions, moss, ivy, brambles, and crabgrass don’t just choke out your grass and other plants; they attract pests too. Wild, growing weeds attract all kinds of different bugs, from gnats to flies. Wild flowers may attract wasps or bees. Weeds can provide a much-needed food source for pests during the fall. Some weeds may even attract wild animals like deer or raccoons to your yard.

You probably got used to weeding this summer, so don’t stop now! When you’re pulling weeds out of your yard, make sure you pull out the whole root system. This will ensure the weed plant doesn’t regenerate. You could also administer localized herbicide from a spray tool–but be careful not to kill any plants you want alive! Dispose of weeds in your garbage or composting. Never pull out weeds and then leave them in your yard, or you just basically made a garden salad for pests! “Garden salad”, see what we did there?

 

You worked hard this summer making sure your lawn stayed healthy and beautiful. Don’t let all that hard work go to waste thanks to some dumb bug. Follow these yard maintenance tips until the ground freezes, and you’ll get to enjoy a healthy and happy yard next spring.

Even if you do end up with yard pest problems–or any other kind of pest problem for that matter–don’t despair! Just call Griffin and we’ll help make sure the grass is greener on the other side.