Do you have, or have you had, any unusual pest problems? 

This website has information on many pests and how to deal with them. We have tried to cover the more common pests such as ants in the pantry, flies buzzing your dinner, aphids on your roses, grass grub eating your lawn, rats and mice scurrying in your roof space and more. However, on occasions, there are pest problems that are a little bit unusual.

One such, I encountered recently myself. During the day I would hear rapping (not in the 'musical' sense) on my front door. But, when I went to investigate there would be no one there. I began to think it was a noise from the wood expanding as the sun warmed it up, or a noise from next door that just sounded like it was from my house. But, then one morning, when I was having a lie in, there was a tapping on my bedroom window and there was a young female blackbird pecking at the glass while in flight. My first thought was the bird was feeding on insects or spiders on the glass, but there were none. The bird was pecking so violently that it was leaving saliva marks on the glass.

Although I now knew what the source of the tapping noise was, this did not solve my problem. The bird returned to pecking at the front door. My belief is that the bird was ‘attacking’ its own reflection. It was also perching on a railing in front of the door and making an enormous mess of guano. So, I hung bird repellent items on the glass in a vain attempt to encourage it to go somewhere else. They did not work, and the tapping became more insistent.

I resorted to fixing bubble wrap to the railing to stop it perching there and a sheet of bubble wrap on the glass in the door to stop the pecking. This has worked, ……up to a point. But it doesn’t look very attractive, and the bird has now moved to pecking the sliding glass door in the living room!

The bird will stop the aggressive attacks on its reflective rival when the breeding season ends, but I will have to do something before then or I will be driven mad from the tapping and constant need to clean the windows and the places the bird perches. This will involve some method of stopping the glass being reflective. My first choice will be translucent decals that can be fitted to the exterior window surface.

I can report that this has worked.

Do you have any unusual pest problems? We would love to hear about them and if you were able to solve them. Contact us here or on info@kiwicare.co.nz. If you haven’t solved the problem, maybe we will be able to help.

David Brittain
Kiwicare