Paint your porch blue to shoo away birds?

I’ve never heard of this, and I’m doubtful.

You best bet would be to remove any items that are creating a nest building habitat. Are they building in planters? In rafters? Where are they building?

They’re building the nest right in the corner in the top of the porch. I’m really doubtful too.

buy a fake owl at walmart and see if that helps. . . also, at home depot, you can buy these strips of “spikes” that you easily install wherever the nests are being created, and that takes away the birds ability to build there

(you can see examples of these spikes on top of signs like Starbucks, etc) They are used commercially everywhere customers walk below, to prevent customers from being pooped on.

You’ll need to figure out a way to make that area inaccessible or somehow less attractive to nest building.

The fake owls usually for for a short while (until they adapt), but since you just need to keep them out during breeding season, that may work. You can also place a rubber snake up on the rafter – that should give them a scare.

Spray anything you can with some WD-40. They hate it. Do it for a few days and they will find somewhere else to nest.

Well they usually build mud nests in the corners of the walls. Pretty impressive, but still.. so irritating. The barn swallows come back every year!

I might try buying the fake owl. This has just become such a problem. Last spring we had a king snake slinking up the porch window trying to get to the nest.

Ooh, King Snakes are pretty!!

Painting the porch blue only keeps away witches. Birds respond better to being threatened or having their territory taken away from them.

I’ve heard of this, too. The birds think the blue ceiling is the sky & they won’t nest there. It can’t hurt to try. Plus, it’d be pretty if you get a light color.

The only way to discourage a determined nest builder is to heartlessly knock down the partially completed nests…daily.

The spray idea form @worriedguy really works, and it doesn’t have to WD-40, any strong cleaner such as Mr Clean, Lysol Disinfectant, or Clorox will work. Just spray it every morning and evening, and they will stay away.

Historically Victorian homes with covered porches always had a blue ceiling. Sounds like it might make sense. It’s a great look regardless

You can also run clear fishing line along ledges where they land, because they cannot sit on it. I have seen this done in outdoor restaurants by seasides and lakesides, to keep pigeons and seagulls from landing where people are eating!

Well everyone, its summer now and we painted the porch blue. It worked!
However, the birds built a nest in the lamp in my porch. Oof.

Well we just bought a house and the former owners already had the porches painted sky blue! So far no birds no nests and definitely NO snakes! No poop either! It seems to be working!

We have a ledge at the base of our porch ceiling. The previous owners painted the ceiling sky blue but left the walls leading down to the ledge white…and yes, swallows built nests. So, I used a fake owl….worked for 10 minutes. Lastly, I cut strips of shiny ribbon ( 18” long) from the craft store. I picked the glittery, reflective, shimmery type and nailed strips to the ceiling, at the corners so that they flutter in the breeze. Viola! It worked. But, my next trick is to continue the sky blue paint down the wall to the ledges. It’s a little more sightly than glittery ribbon dangling from the porch ceiling. The only other option that would definitely work is to build a staircase for your cat to reach each corner of the porch…...