Keeping swallows from nesting in your home is tricky, especially if you have a nice shed or other sheltered location nearby. These birds love to nest together in colonies and will look for any suitable locations they can find. If your instinct is to get rid of them because they are just so annoying with their constant flying around and chirping, take a moment to consider whether it’s really worth the effort. Swallows are a positive presence in any home their nests don’t cause structural damage, and they won’t set off any home alarms. Instead of getting rid of them, why not make them feel more welcome somewhere else? You might be surprised at how easy that is! Here are some ways you can keep swallows from nesting in your home without driving them away altogether.
How To Keep Swallows From Nesting
1. Provide them with a new home
If you have a shed or a vacant barn nearby, you can easily provide swallows with an alternative nesting location. All it takes is some basic maintenance, and they’ll be more than happy to move in! Just make sure the location is sheltered (preferably with plenty of holes to keep the rain out!) and leave it open for them. It doesn’t even have to be very big small spaces will do just fine.
2. Provide them with bird feeders
Swallows are naturally attracted to any source of food, so providing them with bird feeders is another great way to keep them away from your home. But don’t just use any old bird feeder make sure it’s designed for swallows! Swallows are very particular about what they eat, so if you want them to stick around, you need to give them exactly what they want. You can find lots of options on Amazon, but if you prefer something more local, check out your local pet store or nature center! They should have everything you need!
3. Provide them with nesting materials
Swallows are also very particular about the materials they use to build their nests. They prefer mud and clay, so if you have a mud puddle nearby, you can encourage them to use it instead of your home. Just make sure it’s not too close to your home or else they might just move in for good! If you don’t have any mud puddles on hand, you can always buy some natural clay from your local garden shop and leave it out for them to use instead.
4. Provide them with a place to perch
If you want swallows to stick around but don’t want them nesting near your home, providing them with perches is a great way to keep them away — but not too far away! A simple branch or tree branch will work just fine — just make sure it’s tall enough that they won’t be able to get into your windows! Swallows love high places, so this will also make sure they don’t hang around too close by and bother you while you’re trying to sleep at night.
5. Give them a wide berth
If you don’t want swallows anywhere near your home, the best thing you can do is just to give them a wide berth. Swallows are very sensitive to any kind of human interaction, so if you don’t want them around, just avoid them entirely. If they’re not bothering you, they won’t bother you. It’s as simple as that!
Install A Fake Chimney
- First of all, you’ll want to find a location in your home that has a nice view of the sky and a little bit of open space. Ideally, this should be near a window or door where the birds will see it easily. Note that swallows are very smart, so they won’t be fooled by an old chimney which is for show only. You don’t want them to think it’s their actual nesting site!
- Once you have found this ideal location, you need to build a fake chimney from wood or plastic. It doesn’t matter if it looks real — they will never know the difference!
- Once you have built your fake chimney, stick it up right next to your window or door and attach some twigs and leaves on top as camouflage so the birds won’t be able to tell that there is something up there when they look outside at night.
- If you have some extra time on your hands and feel like being creative, make sure to paint the leaves and add some other natural materials on top of your fake chimney so that it doesn’t look like an unnatural object from above.
- Now all you have left is to hide the fake chimney in plain sight so that the birds don’t even know what it is! You can do this by putting something underneath there or covering it with natural-looking material like branches and twigs or even leaves.
- Your swallows will be so happy to have a new nest site that you can almost guarantee they won’t even bother to leave your home!
Provide Some Kind Of Nesting Box
1. Make a Nesting Box
If you have a spare roosting or nesting space in your home, it might be worth creating a special nesting box for them. A small plastic container with some nesting material inside will do the trick. You can even use an empty toilet paper roll if you have one lying around! Put a little bit of nesting material inside and hope they find it irresistible.
2. Create an Invisible Nest
If you don’t have any place to put your birds, try making a small, hidden shelter for them to use instead. If you’re handy with woodworking, you can build yourself some kind of nest box that they can use without being seen by humans at all! If you don’t feel comfortable building this kind of thing yourself, there are many great DIY plans online that will help you create something perfect for your needs. Just make sure that the box is big enough for the number of birds (and their egg-laying schedule) that will be using it!
3. Create an Artificial Nest
There are many ways to make an artificial nest out of materials that your birds already enjoy using in their natural habitats like old pieces of wood or wire mesh from your garden fence or hardware store. You could also take an old bird feeder and use that as a base for their nest instead! Just make sure to remove any dangerous parts or sharp edges before putting it into position; otherwise, it could cause serious injuries!
4. Make a Nesting Box with a Ladder
A great way to get swallows to use your home is by creating an artificial nest with a ladder. Get some scrap wood, a piece of wire mesh, and some rope or string and you’re ready to go! Just make sure that the wire mesh is safe for your birds. You can also create a small wooden platform with a ladder that can be used for nesting instead if you don’t want to put your bird in any danger at all.
5. Use an Unused Ceiling Space
There are many different ways you can use ceiling space for nesting swallows but the easiest is by building yourself a nesting box on top of it! Simply take some scrap wood and nail it together, then place it up there as high as possible! Build your nest on top of this and they will be able to use the entire area without having to worry about falling off the edge or being too low for them to reach their food comfortably.
Hang Up A Platform For Resting
Put up a platform for resting
Much like a hammock, this is a great way to bring swallows into your home without having them build their nests on the ceiling, or in any other location that you don’t want them. It takes just a few minutes to set up, and it will make it easier for the swallows to find a place to rest and relax when they are not flying around. To set it up, you can use wire mesh (which is what I used) or you can use something else — if you have an old window screen lying around that fits the size of your window well, that could be a perfect choice.
Hang it from the ceiling
If you are using wire mesh instead of plastic, then one way to hang it would be to simply attach it directly from the ceiling. If you are using plastic mesh though, then putting some stakes in between as guides will make sure that your mesh is hung securely and won’t come loose easily.
Position it so that only one side has openings
In order for swallows to get inside from outside without falling out mid-flight, make sure the openings on one side are smaller than those on the other side. This will prevent swallows from getting stuck trying to enter when they try climbing in through one hole and falling out through another hole instead!
Attach some perches
Once your platform is hanging on the ceiling, attach some perches to the mesh so that swallows can perch and rest on them while they are resting.
Put up a net
Another way to keep swallows from nesting in your home is to put up a net around it – this will make it more comfortable for the birds to perch on the mesh and will prevent them from accidentally falling off the mesh when they try to fly in.
Conclusion
If you’re worried about the swallows nesting in your home, try to keep things in perspective. These birds aren’t destructive and don’t pose any real threat to your home. Instead of getting rid of them, why not make them feel more welcome somewhere else? You might be surprised at how easy that is! Keep in mind that these are wild animals — they aren’t interested in being your friends. They might be annoying, but they won’t cause any damage to your home and they’re actually pretty good to have around as long as you keep human contact to a minimum.