Owls are a part of our ecosystem. They help us to keep pests in control by hunting them, like rodents, snakes, etc. But sometimes, they might be irritating and can hunt our livestock. So, keeping away owls becomes necessary at a time.
But how to get rid of owls? You can scare them with visual and auditory deterrents. Utilizing physical barriers like netting is also effective. Alongside, you can make modifications to their habitats. Hiring a wildlife control professional could be another effective way.
A lot of ways, aren’t they? However, I will talk about the most effective ways you can get rid of irritating owl presence in detail. So, without further ado, let’s get into the topic.
How to Get Rid of Owls? Practical Techniques You Can Utilize
As I mentioned earlier, there are many techniques you can use to keep the owls away from your properties. Here are the ways I have discussed below.
1. Visual Deterrents
Using visual deterrents is the most effective and the most practical solution to keep the owls away from your property. Let’s see how it works.
- Use Strobe Light
Owls are nocturnal hunters. They are mostly active at night. So, you can use a strobe light. Strobe light creates very fast flashes of light of different colors.
These fast flashes of light can create short-term functional blindness for owls, which they must not love. So, it is certainly a very practical way to keep the owls away from your property with a simple effort.
But make sure your livestock, like chickens, ducks, or other pets, don’t see the light. Enclose them properly. Otherwise, the light also can disrupt them physically and mentally.
- Install Predator Decoy and Scarecrow in the Yard
Though owls are great predators, they also have predators who hunt on them. Foxes, hawks, eagles, etc., predatory animals prey on owls, and owls like to keep their distance from them.
So, you can use predatory decoy that owls are scared of. They are effective, and owls will keep their distance from them for sure. Install the decoys at the top of the tree branch or in the top area from where they are well visible. Also, you can put them near the livestock living area as well.
However, you need to move the positions of the decoys and scarecrows once or twice a week. Moving the visual deterrents will help you to bamboozle the owls and prevent them from understanding that the decoys are not real.
- Use Mirror Trick
Another fun trick to keep owls away from your property is to use large mirrors in the yard. You can install some large mirrors in the places from where you want to keep the owls away, particularly in the flying path of owls.
When owls will see their reflections in the mirror, they will think they have some competitors here. As a result, they will keep their distance from the place.
In Particular, you can use round mirrors that are specially designed to deter predatory animals. They are often called “hawk-globe.” You will find them online or at home improvement stores near you.
2. Physical Barriers
Using physical barriers is also a practical technique to get rid of owls, even any other predatory animals, from your property.
Owls mainly come to your property to hunt on your livestock. If you don’t want to use visual deterrent due to hassles, you can use netting.
Enclose your livestock with nylon netting or poultry metal mesh netting. They are strong enough to save your livestock from predatory animals, including owls.
Aside from netting only the livestock, you can install nets all around your property. Though this is a daunting task, it will be effective to make the owls bothered when they are installed into their flying path. This will keep them away.
- Install Spikes
You can also install spikes in the areas where they roost. This is one of the most humane ways and also one of the easiest ones to implement.
You can simply install the spike using glow-in roasting areas like on the fence, tree branches, sheds, cornice of your building’s roof, etc.
Here’s a video on how to install roost spikes easily.
3. Habitat Modification (Prevent Nesting and Perching)
Another effective method to keep owls away from your living area is to modify the possibilities of their habitat.
- Trim the overhanging tree branches where they can roost and make their nests.
- Remove all perching facilities for owls so that they can’t roost on them.
- Create obstruction to any type of breeding ground for owls.
- Also, seal the openings, holes, and crevices of the building and trees.
- You can also be netting the sheds and abandoned buildings.
4. Remove Food Sources (Rodent Control)
Is the area of your home the heaven for rodents and small animals? Then, it is expected that owls and other predatory birds will come. Because rodents are on the list of owls’ prey, and you made heaven for them.
- Reduce the food source of owls by controlling the rodents and other small outer animals. Use precise pest control to get rid of those animals.
- Eliminate the trash and other waste food sources so that rodents and other animals won’t be attracted to your house for food.
- Also, remove bird feeders so that outer birds won’t come to your place. Small birds are also on the prey list of owls and other predatory birds, attracting them to your property.
Ultimately, make your area least appealing to owls.
5. Use Auditory Deterrents
Another popular way of keeping owls away from your property is to use auditory deterrents. Auditory deterrents include making sounds. To make sounds, you can install noise devices made of aluminum cans, wood, or other metals.
- You can use gunfire sounds, firecrackers, clapping, etc.
- You also can put on a speaker and continuously play loud sounds all night. Owls don’t like loud noises, and they must go away from the sound sources.
But now, come to the reality. Auditory deterrents are not a practical solution to get rid of owls. Not only the owls but also the people around you, particularly your neighbors, will be bothered by the loud noises.
Though you will get suggestions from people or from the internet for auditory deterrents, I would not suggest this for practical uses. However, you can use auditory deterrents once or twice a week for a short time.
6. Take Professional Assistance
If all methods fail to deter the owls, and you want a permanent solution for this, you should hire a professional wildlife control expert.
The wildlife control expert can help you by catching the owls by trapping them. They will also relocate the owl to another place where all their natural habitat resources are available.
The professional wildlife control expert can also help you by educating you on how to handle situations with owls. However, don’t try to handle the owls yourself if they already have nests near your property.
7. Keep Your Pet Safe
Ultimately, remember, your pets are your main concern to safeguard from the owls. So, keep your pets safe.
- Enclose them before it’s evening to their enclosure.
- Don’t let the pets move here and there at night. Since owls are nocturnal predators, make sure your pets are enclosed, particularly at night.
- You can also keep a pet dog, particularly a German Shepherd or a Rottweiler. They will safeguard your pets from owls, as well as from other predatory animals.
FAQs
Here are some additional questions you may find useful regarding getting rid of owls.
Yes, you can. Even keeping a rooster for 3 to 4 hens is suggested. A rooster will fight and safeguard your hens from an owl attack even until its death.
Conclusion
So, now you know how to get rid of owls from your property and safeguard your pets. I discussed humane methods to keep the owls away from your home area.
Please, don’t harm them. They are a crucial part of our ecosystem and help us keep pests in control. However, if you can’t manage them, please contact your local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) official to get help.
