Methods for control of House Sparrows

When most people think of the common house sparrow they think of a small bird, usually no bigger than your fast, that lives in the trees of your home or in some other area where it could perch. Many even set up bird feeders on their property to give these little creatures the opportunity to get some food. There are a large number of people who view these animals as just as much of a resident of their property as they are themselves. They truly love the House sparrows.

For the most part, these animals can be a nice addition around your home. But there is a reason why they are classified as nuisance animals. Large numbers of sparrows can create real problems in and around your home, and can make it so that living there peacefully can be completely destroyed by a large population of these birds.

Some find that the sparrows will completely dominate their home. They can set out a birdfeeder filled with food, and within just a few hours sparrows will have completely exhausted every last kernel inside that feeder. They soon take over trees, leave waste everywhere, and create what can be a serious health hazard for your home. This is why you might want to take action to get these birds under control.

Trying to control the house sparrow can be quite a bit of a challenge. Because these birds are so small, it is not very easy to deter them from landing in locations. You also have the added challenge that the sparrows usually travel in colonies of hundreds of birds. This means you really can have your work cut out for you.

It is not an impossible task however. You can have some success in getting rid of these birds.

The first option is to remove as much of the perch areas that these birds can use as possible. If you have eaves that go around your home, then what you may want to do is to place special spiked boards around those eaves so that it is not possible for the sparrow to land safely. This will take away one of its primary locations and can cause it to go to other locations.

Bird feeders may need to be removed completely, at least for a time. Consider that if these birds have a location to go to get food then they are going to continue to return. You may need to take down your bird feeder so that the sparrows will look for another source of food to eat.

If you have a garden, then you may need to place a very special kind of wire mesh over the top of it to keep the birds from getting in. The mesh needs to have a very small gap in it so that there is really no room for the sparrow to work its way into the garden still. Some wire mesh can have a rather large gap that the bird can squirm its way through. The diameter should be no more than a couple of centimeters at most.

It may sound kind of cliché, but a great way to get rid of birds is by having a cat. Cats not only have a strong desire to chase after birds, but they have the ability to get to many of the same locations that the sparrows would be attempting to perch on. Your average cat can climb a tree, get on your roof, or walk along your balcony. It has no problem chasing after a bird. If you get a cat or two and allow them to be outside you can really make it an inhospitable location for a sparrow to land on your property.

There are a few things that you simply should not attempt to use. One suggestion that many may give you is to put a special kind of poison inside the bird feeders to kill off the sparrows. They eat the seeds that are in the feeder, and soon will be dead. This may sound like a great permanent solution, but consider the aftermath of what you were doing. If you have hundreds of these birds that are eating from that feeder, think about all of the different sparrow carcasses that you were going to have around your property. Does that sound like a great idea for you? The answer is probably no.

This actually can create more problems than it's worth. Not only might you have to spend a large amount of time gathering up all of these dead creatures, but a bunch of dead sparrows are going to attract other animals who see them as a good snack. This can mean you will have animals such as coyotes, wolves, and other predators that might be very dangerous to you. Poison simply should not be employed.

There were also companies out there offering ultrasonic devices that they swear will keep these birds away. While there is some merit to the idea of what they are proposing, the truth is that these devices have very limited effect in controlling the sparrows. Most often it is just a very expensive addition that you purchase with no real results to it.

What you are simply looking to do is to make your property a lot less hospitable to the sparrows themselves. If you do this you will find that you will be able to control your problem.



Also read our other bird tip: What To Do With Pigeons On Business Roof