Morning Live: Rav Wilding gives tips on deterring garden thieves

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Crows are regarded as a pest bird species, alongside woodpigeons and magpies – and are often not welcome in gardens. Often crows feed on vegetable patches, raid the nests of other birds and generally are menaces for wildlife. Flocks of crows can also be very noisy, and leave behind messy droppings. So if you want to humanely prevent crows from landing in your garden, what should you do?

How to get rid of crows

1. Tidy your green space

This may seem obvious, but one way to make your garden less appealing to crows is to give it a good clean.

Make sure any garden waste or food waste is disposed of, so there is nothing laying around for the crows to eat.

Cover your vegetable patches with mesh or netting to prevent any unwanted pests stealing the fruits of your labour.

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2. Hang a plastic owl in your garden

A temporary solution could be to buy a plastic owl and hang it in your garden.

This will scare away the crows and keep them from coming back.

However, crows are clever and may soon wise up to the owl being fake – so other solutions may be needed in tandem.

3. Build a scarecrow

No, really. This age-old tip may make you roll your eyes, but scarecrows really do work.

You can either buy scarecrows from garden centres or make your own.

You will need a bamboo pole stake, something to fasten the clothes like cable ties or rope, and any old clothes which will flap in the wind.

Build roughly in the shape of a person – you can use grass cuttings to stuff the figure if you wish!

4. Get something shiny

Despite the old wives tale of crows collecting shiny items, popping anything with a sheen in your garden can deter the birds.

Crows don’t like anything shiny or reflective, and so putting these in your garden will deter them from visiting.

You can use CDs, old silverware, wind chimes, or anything with a shine to it.

Amazon sells reflective scare tape, which can be placed around your garden – on top of sheds etc. to prevent crows from visiting your garden.

5. Bird deterrents

Another tip to prevent crows from landing your garden is to use noisy bird deterrents or scarers.

You can find these handy things on Amazon, and they emit a noise which the birds dislike.

Some even come in the shape of owls, so will be an extra deterrent.

6. Play predator sounds

If you’re desperate for a quick fix, you can play sounds of predators to scare away any crows.

Either through your phone or with a speaker in your back garden, simply look up ‘crow predator sounds’ on YouTube.

Then play these around your garden, this will include owl sounds, raptor sounds and even frightened crow noises.

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