Saturday, November 14, 2009

How do I stop the birds from eating the leaves on my Hibiscus plants.?

Cats and extermination are not solutions in this situation. I was thinking orange peels or coffee grinds? Help?

How do I stop the birds from eating the leaves on my Hibiscus plants.?
how about bird netting?
Reply:Thank you to the other answers. They are creative. I am so chemically sensitive, I avoid them. We have seen the sparrows ripping up the plants. They probably don't eat them. They just are repaying me for feeding them seed. (No good deed goes unpunished). You should see how they bomb the car. Report It

Reply:Birds don't eat hibiscus leaves. It could be beetles, grass hoppers, or any number of other insects. Disyston is a good systemic insecticide, sold at nurseries, sprinkle around drip line and water in. Coffee grounds are good for the plant, but will not discourage anything from eating it.
Reply:This sounds strange and I personally have never tried it but I heard that putting an aluminum foil miniature pie pan towrds the sun reflects the light and scares the birds away. The pan must be attached with like a metal skewer or something similar, in order to hold the pie pan above the plants so the pan is not shaded. My future mother in law told me she did this to keep birds away from her raspberries. She said it was pretty effective even though it's not very aesthetic. Just pull the skewers out before company arrives.


3 comments:

  1. Hi,

    We planted 2 hibiscus a few weeks ago, only to find out that they started to look like someone was cutting the leaves off. I thought it was grasshoppers, but I was told by a neighbor who spends the whole day home that she saw birds feeding on them ! Not surprising really, since hibiscus flowers are edible...
    I still don't know what to do about it though. I see hibiscus all around, so people must have found solution...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So these things with wings that look like birds eating my hibiscus are some new breed of animal? They sure look like wrens and sparrows to me!

      Delete
  2. I have a 5.5 foot hibiscus and only recently noticed that the little chickadees really like to peck on the flowers - the ones that have not opened or are dead - not sure what they are trying to eat. One solution is to get the "scarecrow motion activated water sprayer" - as soon as the birds or other animals go near your hibiscus it will shoot out a good blast of water, strong enough where the birds won't go near it anymore and the best part, no harm done to the birds or other animals.

    ReplyDelete