| by Adam Provance |
This is a unique real estate topic for today, and while it may not apply to many of you, it could in the future, and it will not only negatively affect the curb appeal of your house, but if you’re selling your home, this could be a big obstacle for potential buyers to overcome.
A couple of years ago, I had an appointment with some clients looking to buy. I like to get to the house about 15 minutes early, open up the house, turn on all the lights, and do a walk-through. The house had been vacant for about three weeks.
As I approached the front porch to access the key box to open the door, I quickly noticed a few things. 1) As soon as I got out of the car, and started walking toward the front door, several birds began to squawk and dart in and around the porch, 2) there was a huge pile of bird droppings, on the porch. As I got to the front door the squawking increased, and I saw a robust mud hut nest directly over the front door. Swell. There were like 4 birds trying to dive bomb me from above as I was frantically trying to get the key out of the electronic key box. I could feel these angry birds swarming around my head. I seriously thought I was going to get my eyes pecked out. I finally got the key out and quickly unlocked the front door and dove inside.
After regaining my composure, I went around and opened up the garage door so the buyers wouldn’t get attacked. Needless to say, my buyers did not buy the house, the deal breaker being the aggressive barn swallows outside the front door. It was too bad, because it was a great house, and even though dealing with the barn swallows would be easier and less expensive than most other normal home repairs, it was a deal breaker.
The barn swallow is a small sparrow sized bird found throughout the United States usually between April and July that likes to use man made structures to build nests of mud pellets in the most inconvenient locations possible, like under the eaves of your house, and by or above your front door. They have a dark blue back and wings, a rusty-colored throat, and a forked tail. They are commonly seen flying low to the ground, make breakneck turns as it pursues insects. They can be aggressive, as all Moms are when you get too close to the nest, by flying at you. In Utah, it is common to see barn swallow nests in barns, and on the eaves of a covered patio or porch. on the front porches of houses where the homeowners don’t use the front door very often.
So some of you may be thinking that it would be cool to see a bird nest by your front door so you and your kids can see nature up close. However, it you were to ask a homeowner who has had to deal with barn swallows over the course of a spring and summer, they’ll probably tell you otherwise. Since these birds didn’t build little flush toilets in their expertly crafted mud nests, they will leave huge piles of bird poop all over your porch. This is not only unsightly and gross, but it isn’t sanitary.
Here’s another fun fact. Even though barn swallows will migrate to Central and South America in the fall, they will return to the same place year after year. So if they’ve picked your house, it’s just not a one-time thing. You may have won the battle, but not the war… at least not yet.
As you know, one of the first things that guests, friends, or potentials buyers will see when they come to your house is your front porch and entrance to your home. If you have birds dive bombing your visitors or tip-toeing around piles of bird droppings, that’s not the best first impression.
Prevention is always your best bet. Barn swallows typically start building their mud nests in March or April, sometimes earlier depending on the weather.
Now, swallows are protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Act of 1918, which states that once an egg is laid in a nest, the nest is to remain intact until the hatchlings have left. So it’s our goal to deter them from wanting to use your porch, eaves or barn, as their summer vacation home. Most of us don’t use our front doors very often as we typically enter and leave the house through the garage. Since that’s the case, the area around the front door becomes an ideal, sheltered, supposedly quiet spot for the barn swallow to build its nest.
A pair of barn swallows can build one of their mud nests in less than a day, and they are pretty determined, so you’ll have to be very proactive and knock down the nest as soon as you see them building. Doing that once won’t stop them. Or even twice. You’ll come back three hours later and you’ll find they’ve been busy at work the second you left. Be persistent. because they are persistent. Remove the nest and sweep up and get rid of the remains of the mud so they don’t turn around and use it again. Instead of doing that a couple of times a day for a week or two. Here are a couple of possible solutions. Homeowners can use bird netting to block off the areas, bird spikes can be added, reflective bird repellent tape, and even plastic owls are an option, although I hear that once they see that the owl doesn’t move, that the swallows catch on pretty quick. Many of these can be pretty unsightly.
I had a friend that had a barn swallow problem and he had the most interesting solution when it came to deterring barn swallows. He would mix four packets of grape koolaid in a gallon of water and then with a spray bottle, mist it on the stucco of his front porch. I’m not sure about you, but I lived on grape kool-aid as a kid during the summer. It was delicious. It turns out that grape kool-aid contains a non-toxic ingredient called methyl anthranilate which occurs naturally in Concord grapes that birds happen to hate. It is a food grade bird repellent. He would get a small spray bottle from the dollar store and spray his stucco porch walls starting around the beginning of March, and spray every couple of weeks. It wouldn’t stain the stucco, but it scared off the barn swallows. I would watch with him as the swallows would investigate his front porch for nest locations, but then dart off, not to come back. Around July/August after the barn swallows were done raising their young and would leave the area, he’d simply hose down his stucco.
Who would have thought that?! An unorthodox, yet kool (you see what I did there) way to deter barn swallows from building their summer home on your home while maintaining your curb appeal.
Have you had encounters with barn swallows building their nests on your home? Let’s hear your experience! Do you any questions or comments about this or any other topic relating to real estate? Leave me a message!