How to Get Rid of Bird Poop on Your Patio and Keep Birds Away

By
Nora Held
Nora Held
Research Writer
Apart from being our main writer, Nora also works for a number of gardening-related sites and magazines, sharing her experience as an owner of a small farm in North Carolina read more
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Reviewed By
Bruce Williams
Bruce Williams
Expert Consultant
Bruce owns a small farm and loves to grill since his early childhood. He’s a professional cook, but hiking and enjoying the great outdoors is his no less favorite part of read more
Last updated: August 17, 2023
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There are many indisputable facts of nature – whatever you throw up comes down, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, if you leave something outside for long enough, a bird will poop on it. This last fact seems to be doubly true for your patio Trusted Source Patio - Wikipedia patio is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is typically paved. In Australia the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun and rain. en.wikipedia.org . If you suffer from this problem, do not despair. In this article, we will show you how to get rid of bird poop on patio. And if you are tired of having birds visiting your patio often, then the tips we will discuss in this post will also help you.

Read on to find out more.

Design solutions that attract birds in the first place

Some of the designs that you have on the patio can conspire to attract the birds. Therefore, you should consider getting rid of these or modifying them. Let’s consider some of these.

Bird feeders

How to Get Rid of Bird Poop on Your Patio and Keep Birds Away

If you have a bird problem, then you should consider what is attracting them in the first place. If you have bird feeders, then you are to blame. But what if you don’t want to remove the feeders? Well, you could try to move them away from the patio. If you have moved the feeders and still suffer from bird poop, then you might have to completely remove the feeders.

Bird baths

How to Get Rid of Bird Poop on Your Patio and Keep Birds Away

If you have birdbaths, then you have to remove these. Also, standing water attracts birds. Therefore, eliminate any spots with standing water around the patio.

Watch your colors

Another design solution is to consider the colors in and around the patio. If you have red, yellow, orange, and pink colors, you might be leaving a calling card out to Hummingbirds, Orioles, warblers, and goldfinches.

So, what color should you use? Many recommend that you use bright white. It signals danger, and most birds will keep away from a bright, white patio.

The easiest ways to keep birds away

Below are a couple of easy ways to keep the birds away from your patio or decking.

Remove nest materials

One of the easiest things to do is to simply remove any materials that the birds can use as a nest. When they find building blocks of their nest around your patio, it should be no surprise that you have bird poop on your patio.

If you already have a nest on your patio, you should call in an expert to help with relocating the birds.

Install irritating light fixtures

Your light fixtures can repel or attract birds to your patio. It can provide warmth and a nesting spot for the birds. So, does this mean that you have to remove the fixture? No. You can just ensure that the top part is repelling. You can do that by installing bird spikes.

What else can you do?

There are several things that you can do to stop your local birds from coming to the patio and leaving a dreary mess. In this section, we will consider some of the tips that have proven effective for man people.

Fake predator birds

Most birds have a fear of some species of bird. The sparrows, starlings, robins, and other smaller birds are likely the biggest culprits when it comes to leaving a mess on the patio and other outdoor spaces. While these birds love to move around, making a mess, you can keep them off by making use of nature.

These species often keep their distance from bigger predator birds like hawks and owls. So you can use this to your advantage. No, you don’t have to get a live owl – a fake, plastic owl will do just fine. You can buy these from a local store. Just place them on your fence or a visible branch of a tree around the patio.

The birds will see these fake predators and know to keep off the property. For the best effect, you should move these fake birds around regularly so that these birds don’t notice that the big bad bird remains in a spot all the time.

Ultrasonic sound system

Sounds can also keep the birds away. There are different types of sounds that birds hate to hear and stay away from. One such sound is ultrasonic sounds.

The good thing about these sounds is that humans will not be affected by them. However, it creates an annoying noise to birds and will scare them away. Many of these types of systems are motion-activated and will only start working when it senses a bird flying close to your property.

Apart from the ultrasonic sounds, there are also others that create sounds of predators or sounds of distressed birds. These sounds will scare the birds away. Some models even give you the ability to change the sounds.

You can find these at different prices ranging from $20 to up to $250. The price depends on the features that you want

How to Get Rid of Bird Poop on Your Patio and Keep Birds Away

Hanging mirrors

There are easy ways to scare birds away, and these are quite affordable. One of the easiest ways to keep the birds away from your patio is by hanging mirrors from the fence or from branches of nearby trees. There are several reasons why this is very effective.

For one, birds detest any shiny thing that moves, and when they see such, they will more often than not stay away.

Another reason why this is effective is that it tricks the bird into thinking that there is already a bird on the patio.

You can get mirrors from your local store. They are cheap, and hanging mirrors around the patio is a very cheap yet effective way of keeping any birds away.

Diverters

These are a good alternative to the wind chime. While it doesn’t have the same allure as chimes, they are effective at keeping birds away and are also quite cheap.

These attachments are small, round tags that are hung from trees and surrounding locations. These tags have an image that mimics the eye of a predator bird. So when the birds see these, they believe they are looking into the eyes of a predator. Furthermore, these tags move with the wind, which will furthermore scare the bird into thinking the predator is on the move.

These are a cheap and easy solution to your bird problem.

Special-purpose products to keep birds away

There are special purpose products that can help you. Here are some of them

Spinning pinwheels

A surprisingly easy way of deterring any birds from your patio is to use spinning pinwheels. These popular kid toys can help to scare off birds as well.

These toys move frantically when the wind blows. The motion is disturbing to birds, causing them to panic and fly away. Also, reflective pinwheels cast a light that scares away any birds.

You can use this properly by setting it on your fence or the patio railing. They are also quite affordable. The best options are the colorful, reflective models. However, plain models will also get the job done.

Wind chimes

If you are looking to improve the décor of the patio and enjoy relaxing sounds while chasing birds away, then you should consider getting wind chimes. These are beautiful attachments that will work to deter any birds. Why are they so effective?

Well, for one, birds hate shiny, reflective things, so the reflection from these attachments is annoying. Also, birds are wary of unfamiliar sounds. The sounds from the chimes disturb the birds as well and will keep them away.

Where can you install these chimes? Well, you can set them up on trees, on a fence, the patio overhang, or somewhere frequented by birds.

These chimes are aesthetically pleasing, and it will not even look like you are trying to scare off birds.

How to get rid of bird poop on patio furniture

Of the many things the birds might poop on, perhaps none is as annoying as the patio furniture. If these birds have already pooped on the furniture, is it possible for you to get it out? Yes. Here are the steps that you should take to get rid of the poop.

  • Using a blunt plastic knife, scrape off as much of the poop as you can from the furniture. While doing this, ensure that you do it gently so that you don’t end up damaging the furniture. If you don’t have a knife available, you could also use a spoon.
  • Fill up a spray bottle with lukewarm water and mix the water with some dishwashing soap. If you don’t have that, you could use a poop remover sprayer. Reviews indicate that the Poop-Off Bird Poop Remover is one of the best products for this purpose.
  • Spray the mixture on to the spot affected by bird poop. Then use a brush or soft cloth to gently scrub out the poop from the surface of the furniture. Poop-Off is one of the biggest names in this industry, and the Poop-Off Remover Brush Top is a versatile product that can help you get rid of the poop.
  • If the poop doesn’t come out, you could introduce baking soda to the surface. Sprinkle some of the baking soda on the surface and wait for some minutes.
  • Clean the surface with a soft, clean cloth or brush after some minutes. The poop should easily come out of the furniture.

How to Get Rid of Bird Poop on Your Patio and Keep Birds Away

How to clean bird poop from patio decking

If you find bird poop on your patio decking, you can easily remove it. Here are some practical steps that will assist you in getting the poop out from your patio decking.

  • First of all, you will need the correct gear. You should have on a pair of protective gloves, preferably rubber before you start cleaning the poop out.
  • If some of the poop has hardened on the decking, you would need a scraper to remove as much of it as possible.
  • Next, fill up a bucket with hot water and add some dishwashing soap to make a foamy mixture. Mix it thoroughly.
  • The next thing to do is to pour some baking soda on the poop to loosen any hard remnants. Let it sit for a few minutes before you start working on it.
  • With a clean, soft brush, scrub the poop from the decking. When scrubbing, ensure that you are moving firmly yet gently so that you don’t damage the surface of the patio. Also, have your movements in a circular direction.
  • Afterward, wash off the soap and poop residue with cold water.

How to get rid of bird poop on concrete

It is not very easy to get bird poop out of concrete patios. However, this doesn’t mean that it cannot be done. Here are the steps that will assist you to successfully remove the poop from concrete.

  • Before you start scrubbing or anything, hose off the bird poop with a garden hose.
  • Use liquid soap, preferably dishwasher soap, to cover the stain on the concrete patio.
  • Next, use a strong brush to scrub the soap into the concrete, which will make it easier to remove the poop.
  • After scrubbing the poop area, cover it with sawdust to absorb the solution. Wait for about 20 minutes. You could wash the mixture into the garden, but that would not be good for your environment.
  • After the sawdust has absorbed the mixture, then sweep it off.
  • If there is discoloration on the stained area, you can use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia to remove this discoloration.
  • Use the hard brush to scrub the mixture into the concrete and wait for some minutes.
  • Once again, pour sawdust on the mixture to absorb it, after which you should sweep it away.

Final thoughts

Bird poop can be pretty annoying as it might end up on your patio umbrellas, fire pit covers, awnings, and other spots around the patio and yard. In this article, we have discussed some of the best ways to deal with this problem. And if you already have bird poop on your property, then the tips and steps provided can be of immense assistance. We hope that this guide on how to get rid of birds pooping on patio will help you.

References

1.
Patio - Wikipedia
patio is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is typically paved. In Australia the term is expanded to include roofed structures such as a veranda, which provides protection from sun and rain.

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