The purpose of solar panels is to be an improvement to your home, thanks to their sustainability and sleek appearance. Therefore, it’s frustrating when you find birds creating their new homes beneath your solar panels. Birds can make a mess in many areas around the house, whether it’s your parked car in the driveway or your backyard patio. So how do you prevent these critters from wreaking havoc at home? Roll out these methods at home when you need to determine how to stop birds from nesting under solar panels.
Careful & Consistent Inspections
One of the critical steps toward keeping birds away from solar panels is keeping track of when they arrive. After all, installing solar panels doesn’t mean that birds will suddenly appear underneath them on day one.
Take time to routinely inspect your solar panels. Whether you want to do it monthly, less frequently, or more frequently, you can keep an eye on the system in the way you want. Just make sure you are inspecting the panels at least once each year. Solar panel inspections are helpful because you can spot bird nests, but they also present the opportunity to spot additional damages.
For instance, if the solar panels are dirty or broken, keeping a close eye on them consistently makes it easier to catch and solve problems in a timely manner. Don’t worry; this doesn’t mean you have to set up a security camera to maintain a 24-7 watch over your panels. But treat inspections as you would any other routine maintenance task around the house. In doing so, you can maintain a clean and serene home. However, there are more hands-on techniques you can use for keeping your solar panels intact—bird spikes.
Rooftop Spikes
Birds landing on residential rooftops isn’t exactly a new occurrence, so many deterrents are available for homeowners to try out. Given that solar panels often lie on the roof, you can use these deterrents to your advantage. For instance, bird spikes are exactly what they sound like: small spikes you can easily install on areas of the roof to keep birds from landing. Remember, these spikes are for repelling birds, not hurting, capturing, or killing them.
The name bird spike sounds violent, but as you explore the various options online, you’ll see that spike designs tend to be more humane than they sound. For this reason, you should still read the product details for bird spikes. It’s a quick step that will detail how the product humanely deters birds. For instance, some spikes are plastic to avoid causing injuries to animals.
Imposter Predators
Scarecrows are iconic tools for deterring birds, but they’re not the only method of doing so today. Decoy animals are available for homeowners to install to make it appear as though a predator is protecting their rooftops. For instance, decoy owls are a prevalent product that you can use, and many of them integrate some sort of motion into the design to make it feel more real. Plus, if you don’t like the look of bird spikes on your roof, these decoys can act as a less aesthetically distracting addition to the roof.
After all, the roof can look just as clean and elegant as the rest of the house if you want it to and are willing to take the right steps. You can also set quality decoy animals to assist if you have any plants in the yard that birds like to pick food from occasionally. Speaking of which, addressing the food supply is one of the easiest ways to keep birds away from your premises.
Reducing Food Supply
Residential rooftops aren’t the only home for solar panels—solar pergola shade structures provide an effective alternative to the typical roof-mounted system design. If you can’t install bird spikes or imposter predators near the panels, then consider the food supply in the area. In other words, do you feed the birds at all? This refers to scraps after dinner and, of course, any bird feeders in the yard.
Seemingly harmless actions like that can cause birds and other critters to get a bit too comfortable on your premises. Likewise, if you like to grill outdoors in the summer and enjoy a meal on the porch, make sure not to accidentally leave any scraps behind for animals, including the nearby birds.
Thorough Panel Cleaning
Now that you know more about how to stop birds from nesting under solar panels, what happens if any rogue birds stop by and cause a mess? Luckily, just like inspections, routine cleaning is a key part of owning solar panels. This doesn’t mean you have to climb up on the roof or pergola with a sponge. Solar cleaning specialists will have the tools and techniques for successfully scrubbing down the panels.
Moreover, birds aren’t the only cause of dirty solar panels; pollutants and debris in the air can all coat the panels over time. If you want to maintain the system’s efficiency, schedule solar panel cleaning at least once every year. It’s not rare to need to schedule two or three cleaning sessions to keep your system thriving. Don’t worry; you won’t have to call someone out to wipe down the panels every weekend.
Choosing Your Plan of Defense
Hopefully, our list below has shown you that the wide range of bird deterrent options for solar panels at home is diverse, convenient, and humane. Typically, birds invade your solar panels for specific, identifiable reasons, from food to nesting.
Thankfully, the many aforementioned solutions can account for those reasons successfully. Start trying out the methods that interest you anytime a nest sprouts up on your roof, though some steps can help beforehand too. Always remember to follow safe, legal steps when getting rid of bird nests at home because the methods you’re allowed to use will vary. However, if you take the right steps for keeping birds away from your home, that’s an issue you hopefully won’t have to deal with again soon.
