There’s an issue that keeps coming back to haunt Home Owners in Central Texas and if you’re going to be selling your home, you absolutely must keep tabs on the local bird population.  It was a new experience for me, coming from Chicago where the only “nature” are stray cats and dog-sized sewer rats.  But it was not long before we discovered the hazards of offering a bird friendly zone.

We are quite proud of our Confederate Star Jasmine that we received as a gift just after moving into our house in Round Rock.  And we anxiously awaited the 4ft tall vine to grow up and around the column on the front of our house.  As you can see from the picture, it was pretty plain-jane back in 2002.

Seven years later, the vine grows so crazy it has to be trimmed back twice a year.  Due to its size and thickness, it attracts a large amount of birds when the weather starts getting cool.  At first, we thought having birds around tweeting would be nice.  Then, at sunrise on Saturday mornings, we were awoke by their comings and goings.  Then after a few days, we realized they were leaving tons of droppings on our bench and right outside our front door.  And with young children and a nurse in the house, we were not going to be able to tolerate that!  And if you’re selling your home, you absolutely, positively can not have buyers traipsing up to the door through bird droppings!

We tried spraying them out with the hose. We tried ripping their nests out.  We tried throwing things.  All of these were only temporary fixes.
Then we saw some thing at a neighbor’s house – they had a railing on the deck over their front door.  And they were having bird dropping issues as well:

This plastic Owl is available at your local home center for about $15.  And when placed, with eyes pointing out, will scare off the little critters pooping around your house.  Other neighbors have had issues with mud nests from a local variety of swallow.  By hanging one of these from their front porch light, the birds never returned. Due to the rapid growth of our Jasmine vine, we have to make sure the statue does not get over grown.  And we move it around because some of the birds had gotten used to him and came back.  They have several mounting options, including a hole in the bottom for pole mounting, and a small hole on the top of it’s head for hanging by a string or wire.

Lastly, this plastic bird is a nice way to get rid of pests – with out resulting to BB guns and poisons.  Essentially, they leave and go to someone else’s house. Problem solved!

Contact The Stage Coach to learn more about Austin's Home Staging Handyman!

Home Staging Austin Home Stager