by Chris R.W.

Created on: March 07, 2010   Last Updated: March 10, 2010

Birds and rodents can be a very difficult problem to control in your yard and garden, even more so than insects and diseases, because you can't just spray chemicals to control them.  There are traps for the rodents, but you can't trap all of them, so this really doesn't solve the problem if you have more than a few of them in the area, which is unlikely as they will reproduce and the problem will continue on.  And birds are even more difficult, because you just can't go around killing birds, and even if you could, it wouldn't be effective because birds can fly, and more will come if your yard or garden has something to attract them, especially berries and small fruits.

So the Rotating Head Great Horned Owl seeks to solve the tricky problem of birds invading your yard by giving you an imitation of most birds natural predator, the owl.  It's a life like hand painted model of a real owl, complete with a moving head that turns and bobs with the wind on its own, to give it a more realistic touch to make sure the birds won't dare get near it!  All you need to do to maintain this owl is to move it around every few days, because birds aren't as dumb as you'd think.  Placement is also important.  The owl should be placed in tall prominent places in your yard so that it will be easily seen, otherwise it wouldn't have as much of an effect as it should.  Also it's important to keep the owl out only when the pests are a problem and are damaging your plants.  If you keep it out for too long, they'll catch on easily and the owl model will not work as a deterrent anymore.

As you can imagine, a product like this does produce mixed results.  It may work for one person, and it might have absolutely no effect for the next person.  Or it might work for you one season, but fail the next.  It's inexpensive and completely safe, which is a huge benefit to you, but it is what it is.  It is a model imitation of a live owl, and it cannot guarantee results.  It's important to keep placement and timing when using the owl, as these are the key to its success.  If anything, it's worth a shot before trying other methods that will require much more time, money, and effort to enact, whereas the owl is essentially effort free and requires no time at all.  

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