In the beginning, you might think it's sweet. A few twittering birds flying around, making the place feel good. Then suddenly one day, from being cute it progresses to being a nuisance and you don't quite know what's hit you and how to handle it. That's the way it usually starts. A few of them flying around trees, open land or buildings. The few grow into flocks so quickly so it's best you think about bird control right at the start so you're not at a point when the problem becomes too difficult to handle.

One way to scare them off at the beginning is the 'scary eyes' way. Here, all you do is put up some balloons with terror eyes or scary eyes painted on them. Most birds are uncomfortable with these apparitions and tend to avoid the place. All you have to do is blow up the balloons and place them at strategic spots, like up on the roof or along your fence. The trouble is, once there are a large number of them and they are well and truly settled in, there's safety in numbers and this does not seem to work on them. This is especially true if they have already built their nests and laid their eggs. So remember to do it early on.

Once the flocks have taken over a particular place, you will have to try other methods. Observe carefully and you will find in most cases that there are a few dominant birds in each group. These are the ones who fly out first and look into your windows inquisitively. What's worse, if they see their own reflections, they tend to feel it's another bird and aggressive ones that they are, they try and attack your poor windows. You need to act fast so here are two ways you can do so.

First, install Bird Discs on your windows. These are like CDs, very reflective and have pictures of wicked looking large birds which will scare them off. Especially if they are small birds, they give in to their instinctive fear and fly away. Of course you get the very smart birds too so if this is not successful, you'll have to resort to an even more scary device - the Moving Spider.

This device comes with a sensor and any movement activates the spider which 'jumps' at the end of a long string. It then goes back to its static position and waits for the next movement to get back into action again. It comes with a suction cup so you can hang it up if you want. Birds hate insects like spiders and you'll find they are especially useful against woodpeckers whose constant tapping can drive anyone crazy! This is even more so when they start nesting so it might be worth your while for your peace of mind to install both the Bird Discs as well as the Moving Spiders. Together, hopefully you'll keep those pesky birds out. Like we said, don't be softhearted in the beginning. Scare them away right at the start and you'll be better off.