Many garden owners try to divert the attention of pigeons to protect their plants and trees, but these birds are more intelligent than your thoughts.
Why Do Pigeons Destroy Plants? Pigeons destroy plants because they love to peck on the leaves and fruits as it is a source of their enjoyment and food. Moreover, they can damage the plant roots when trying to eat seeds from the soil and targeting the worms and moths hidden under leaves. Furthermore, they form holes in the leaves while creating a nest on the branch of trees. You can protect your garden from these birds by covering, scaring them with predator models, and using repellant sprays.
The gardens are always at risk of damage by the birds because they prefer to live in the trees.
The damage effects can be mild to severe depending on the type of birds and their requirement.
Like other birds, they also attack the trees and destroy them entirely by targeting their different parts like leaves, fruits, flower buds, and roots.
What kind of destruction do pigeons cause to plants?
Pigeons are the ground-feeding birds that like to keep flying, bobbing, and sitting on the trees stem. Their beaks can pierce the leaves and affect their structure by creating deep holes inside them.
Furthermore, small to large holes in the leaves indicate that birds have attacked them.
In addition, they fly around the bare stems, and the torn leaves of vegetables and fruit plants ensure that they are responsible for this destruction.
They eat the flower beds and affect the seedlings when they appear a few inches above the soil to grow out.
Moreover, you can see them eating the turf and creating patches of clear land on the ground. So, you have to be careful about these flying organisms that can wipe out the whole garden.
Why do pigeons attack plants?
The birds cannot prepare their own food and eat the natural food that is readily available to them. Many reasons are there for these birds to attack the trees in your garden.
Eat seeds from the soil
They can damage leaves, roots, and stems when trying to access the soil.
These birds get most of their food from the soil in the form of tiny seeds and the food leftovers. Many ecologists have studied that dirt protects them from the toxic covering on the seeds.
The soil provides a lot of nutrients like sodium which helps fulfill their salt requirements. Therefore, they can damage the grass when trying to reach the soil in the garden.
Nesting ground
They use the branches of bigger trees as their nesting ground and remain there for many months to years.
They can enjoy food and shelter from the same place as the tree barks provide support to live, and fruits or leaves help meet their nutrition requirement.
They find almost every plant with a good food source and habitat as a perfect place to live. In addition, some of these provide a safe place for these feathered birds to live on.
The tree, like Kowhai, has attractive yellow-colored flowers that attract most of the wood pigeons. The nectar on the flowers attracts the birds toward them.
In the same way, Puriri produces both fruit and flowers that grabs the attention of the birds moving around.
Obtain food
They depend on humans to get their food; they eat the food remains and waste food on the ground and in the trash bin.
The gardens provide a consistent food supply from fruit-loaded trees and green leafy vegetables.
Moreover, they can consume grass on the ground and the small seedling present close to the roots of a fully grown or an emerging plant.
These winged pests can damage the beauty of your garden by feeding on that place.
Moreover, they put their beaks inside the fruit to get the juice of the fruit fiber that can damage the fruit and makes it uneatable.
Love to peck leaves
The freely flying pigeons in the air like to sit on their favorite trees. They keep pecking the leaves whenever they land on the stem.
They strike their beak against the leaves and create small holes when trying to bite them. In this process, they sometimes pull out the whole seedlings from the ground.
These birds do not allow the seedlings to turn into a plant. Therefore, you can only protect them from destruction by covering the seedlings and the leaves.
Targeting worms
The moths and caterpillars like to be on the branches and chew the leaves, roots, fruits, etc., to get nutrition.
They hide behind the rolled leaves, making them difficult to see. Like many other birds, they attack these caterpillars as they are a rich source of protein.
Many worms and insects are a source of food for them, so they try to access the caterpillars.
Not only do they target these to reach insects, but they consume leaves to expel the worms present inside their bodies.
Maintain a balanced diet
Brassica is a rich source of vitamins, fibers, and manganese. Therefore, maintaining a balanced diet for birds is ideal.
They prefer green leaves that can meet all the essential nutrition requirements, so they attack plants in a garden. They can eat cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage also.
However, they are not fond of cherries and peas, but they can eat them for food when there is no other source.
Furthermore, they love to eat marigolds, tulips, and grass seeds rich in vitamin A, phosphorous, potassium, and other secondary nutrients.
How do you stop pigeons from destroying plants?
It is essential to stop birds from destroying the garden as they can be left the stems bare or form holes within a leaf. There are many ways to control the destruction by restricting their access.
Cover the plants
A covering of fruit in the form of cages available in different sizes and shapes can protect your fruits from their attacks.
You can also cover it with a net that allows air to pass but restricts its entry. It is an expensive and easy-to-install method.
You have to put small stones or piles of soil around the net so that they cannot get entered. A wire netting can also protect them efficiently, but the flower beds remain at risk.
Use sound boxes and models
Sound boxes produce different types of sounds that can distress these birds and act as good repellants.
Moreover, these boxes can also produce sounds of the predators, which can capture the pigeons. This way, you can scare these birds so they do not come near the plants.
The falconry or owl models can help scare these birds and make it uncomfortable to land on the tree branches.
Therefore, these ultrasound waves from the devices deter many types of birds and protect the flowers and fruits from damage.
Naphthalene flakes
You can sprinkle the naphthalene flakes in your garden to keep these pigeons away. The repelling smell of these flakes keeps them away from a particular spot.
These flakes are commonly used to control the growth of moths that can affect the natural fiber textiles.
They are present in solid form and release toxic gas to deter the entry of these birds into the garden due to foul odor.
Put shiny things in view
It is better to keep the shinier objects in the garden, like mirrors and aluminum plates, or hang them with the branches.
The reflecting sunlight from these objects will scare the pigeons, so they do not land on the tree. You can use 2 to 5 things if you have 2 to 3 trees in your backyard.
Use a spicy fermented solution
A solution of red chilies and the vinegar prepared in water works well against the entry of pigeons.
You can prepare this spraying repellant at home by grinding almost 10 to 15 chilies and adding the paste to a small quantity of apple cider vinegar.
It is better to ferment this solution for some time in the sunlight to get a better effect. Then, add 2 to 2.5 liters of water and pour the solution into a spraying bottle.
Furthermore, spraying the solution over the leaves and stems regularly can control their destruction by these birds.
Do pigeons destroy all types of plants?
They attack specific plants that provide nutrition, good smell, and a suitable place to live. In addition, the leaves serve as supplementary nutrition to improve their diet.
They prefer to eat sprouts, cabbage, and almost all types of grains and seeds.
At the same time, some of these are toxic to them, like an avocado having toxic leaves and stems causing breathing issues in birds.
I have seen pigeons eating my lilac tree.
The castor bean contains toxic elements that can cause vomiting in these birds.
In addition, the bark and seeds of black locusts are also not good for their health and cause diarrhea.
Furthermore, the coffee bean leaves and their products can cause seizures and increase the heart rate due to caffeine.
Do pigeons completely destroy plants?
They cannot eat the whole plant as they have tough coverings on the stems. They can only attack the thin leaves that are easy to consume and digest.
Moreover, the soft fruits provide nutrition and make it easy for pigeons to peck deep inside, such as juice with their beaks.
However, stems are not easy to break with their beaks and are challenging to digest. So, they leave behind the veins of leaves, stems, and seeds as some seeds contain a poisonous chemical.
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