How to Get Rid of Grackles

Grackles are dark-billed mischievous birds which have a mildly similar appearance to a crow. They have a long tail and steely yellow eyes. These birds have a variety of organisms they can consume, such as small fishes, frogs, lizards, insects, and fruits.

They can also be seen eating from garbage containers in alleyways. This makes it plausible for them to contaminate your fruits or crops. Moreover, they might carry several disease-causing germs, which could be hazardous for our well-being.

Grackles are practically every landlord’s nightmare. Mostly, people who own vast fields of crops, which is a common delicacy for the grackles. These birds wreak havoc in large numbers in almost any type of environment. They even thrive in residential areas in the city, feeding off the plants in your garden, and causing them to wither away.

People who like to feed songbirds or other types of small birds on their lawn are also victim to these dark birds’ shenanigans. The seeds can attract flocks of grackles, and they usually end up turning your backyard into their habitat.

Thus, if you are tired of the bird droppings in your yard or want to keep those grackles from eating all your corn, we have certain methods to help you do that efficiently. Just read and execute the following instructions according to your preference.

Instructions to Get Rid of Grackles

Using Bird Nets

The primary way of averting grackle habitation from your property is to set up bird nets. These are durable and light steel netting used to cover small areas of fruits, flowers or crops. They form a preventative structure around your garden that creates an impenetrable layer for the roosting grackles.

Several sizes of bird nets are available in stores and are easily installable. The net is partially invisible so it doesn’t ruin your garden’s beauty. It just prevents those trouble making flocks of birds from ruining your well-grown plants.

It only takes a few days after installation to see a drastic decrease in grackle habitation on your property. This product is usually recommended for maintaining vineyards and orchards.

Using Bird Aversion Chemicals

Another great way of halting those grackles from pestering your crop is making their food source taste bad. You can buy such taste averting liquids to make your fruits or crops taste repulsive to the birds. These chemicals, however, don’t affect the quality of your products in any way.

It’s a 100% safe deterrent used for such bird control problems. Pour it in a spray bottle, and sprayit on all of your fruits and/or crops. Once the liquid is applied, it reacts with the surface of the fruits and makes it too unsavory for the grackles to eat.

Apply it daily, for at least one week. Grackles are intelligent creatures, so before long, they will start relating the foul taste to your particular garden. Eventually, they will be unwilling to eat those plants and will frequent your yard no more.

These chemicals are highly effective at eradicating those pestering birds from your garden only in a matter of days. Make sure to remove all the bird droppings before applying the taste deterrent. The smell of their feces often attracts grackles.

Visual and Audio Deterrents

Like any other organism in the food chain, grackles also have natural predators. They often tend to remain at a distance from individual birds, including short-eared owls, cooper’s hawks and red-tailed hawks.

These predator birds create sounds that are like distress signals for the grackles, and they keep away from those areas for their survival. Fortunately, various electronic devices can mimic these predator calls and make it seem like a danger zone for those menacing blackbirds.

After the audio deterrent is set up and working on your property, grackles in a nearby radius can hear distress signals coming off from the device. It mocks the presence of the predators, and the flock decides your garden is unsafe to visit. This deterrent is more efficient in large areas of crops like farms and barns.

In this regard, whenever we think of a visual deterrent for birds, a scarecrow is an obvious choice. But there are even more functional devices which serve as a better substitute. Certain devices mimic features of predator birds to keep grackles at bay.

You can set up hawk decoys or hawkeye balloons in particular areas of your yard. Mostly, in areas where the birds roost frequently. Install those devices uniformly over your property to maintain a safeguard for your crops.

This process will be most effective if you install the audio and visuals simultaneously. They will work in unison to create a persuasive presentation of the predator birds. Once the grackles get convinced of the danger, they will elope from your property for the sake of their survival, making your garden or farm pest-free.

Grackle Proof Bird Feeders

Grackles are a troublesome foe, not only to humans but also to other species of birds. One of their many disturbing characteristics is stealing food from other birds. A lot of people like the melodious chirping of birds in their backyard and often set up bird feeders.

Songbirds and other exotic species of birds often come in flocks to eat seeds from these feeders. But the stubborn grackles usually bully these birds and end up scaring them away, taking the seeds for themselves. Thankfully, you can use modified bird feeders specialized for smaller birds only.

There are several bird feeders available in the store that are shaped to keep away the nuisance of big birds like grackles. They are fitted with tiny tube feeders which the smaller birds can eat from with ease.

The grackles fit into these feeders as well as the entrance is too small for it. Neither can it fit its beaks through the tiny tubes, keeping the seeds safe and available for your favorite birds.

Final Words

Grackles are highly intellectual birds that adapt to their surroundings. Using a particular deterrent repeatedly might cause the effect to wear off as the birds might realize it’s fake. However, if you use and maintain all the different deterrents together, it will act as an impermeable wall for any uninvited birds.

Also, keep in mind not to stop practicing these methods after achieving the desired results if you don’t want the grackles to flock on your land again. Those above methods will undoubtedly prove useful if carried out as instructed.

Make sure to take safety measures when applying chemicals, and clean your yard before of bird droppings and clean the dust before any other step.