What Smells Do Birds Hate?

Birds can be a problem when they are eating crops and agriculture, or even just eating plants in your backyard garden. They can eat all your food or take bites out of it, making it uneatable.

There are bird deterrence methods to stop birds from even thinking about eating your food. This article will go through multiple ways to get birds to not even consider eating your plants and vegetables: the smells that birds hate.

Methyl anthranilate is our top option for smells that birds hate. This is a chemical used in grape flavoring for candies or sodas. It does not harm your plants, and the chemical is not harmful for humans, but birds hate the scent and taste of methyl anthranilate and will go out of their way to avoid it.

Methyl anthranilate is available online at bird control stores like Bird-X or Bird B Gone, or you can hire a bird control company to use it as part of a deterrence plan.

If you are looking for a homemade solution for smells that birds hate, chili pepper combined with vinegar is an option. The taste and smell of this solution make plants and gardens sprayed with it unattractive to birds.

To make chili pepper garden spray, cut up two dozen chili peppers and combine them with half a gallon of water. Leave this mixture to ferment in the sun for five days. Then take in back inside and add 1/4 cup of white or red vinegar to the mixture. It is now ready to use.

You can put this mixture in a spray bottle and spray it on your plants and garden. Birds will avoid the plants it is sprayed on as they don't like the hot taste or smell of the chili peppers or the vinegar.

Peppermint oil is another smell that birds avoid. This can be turned into a mixture that can be put on plants by combining 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of vinegar, seven drops of lemon oil and seven drops of peppermint oil. The mixture can be placed on cotton balls spread around areas you want to keep birds out.

Garlic is another natural scent that birds hate. Garlic oil or cloves can be placed on or near plants to keep birds away. Birds dislike the scent and will avoid the area.

Of these solutions, methyl anthranilate is usually the most effective, though it is not a simple homemade solution. Chili pepper garden spray, peppermint oil, and garlic need to be reapplied often for their effectiveness to continue.

If birds are in your garden and you need to keep them out, bird netting is often a more effective solution than any repellent spray or scent. Bird netting excludes birds with 100% effectiveness, and if applied over the plants or garden, keeps birds from being able to eat the plants.

Bird netting also does not block out the sun or the rain, allowing plants to continue to grow while still keeping birds from eating them.

Summary: Methyl anthranilate is the chemical of choice for smells that birds hate for larger enterprises like farms and crop fields. Birds will avoid the scent and stop eating plants and fruits applied with it. Homemade options for smaller gardens include chili pepper spray, peppermint oil, and garlic.

Bird netting is usually the best option for excluding birds from gardens, however, and almost always has the highest effectiveness rate.

Benefits of Deterring Birds with Smells:

• Keep Birds Out of Your Garden

• Stop Birds From Eating Plants

• Less Bird Droppings

• Cleaner Looking Property

If you have a bird problem, we can help. AviAway professionally installs bird control solutions for all bird species. We have 30+ years of experience in bird control and have performed work for companies like Amazon, Rite Aid, and the U.S. Postal Service. Click here or call 844-247-3373 to request a free bird control quote.

We also offer free bird control consultations. Click here to set up a free consultation and talk with one of our bird control experts about solving your bird problem.