By Kathy FritschBaby proofing the home keeps your baby free from harm, but bird proofing the home keeps you and your home free from the harm a pest bird can do. Summertime is the ideal season to take action. It is warm and sunny and the perfect time to be outside doing simple and inexpensive home improvement projects. Installing bird deterrents should be at the top of your things to do list. This is the time of year where birds are searching for that comfortable location to start building their nests and hatching their offspring. There are effective products that will bird proof your home so the birds do not choose it as their nesting site. Although the idea of baby birds may seem delightful, the damage to you and your property from pest birds and their nests can be quite detrimental. A very important reason to bird proof your home is to keep your family healthy. Nesting birds accumulate a build-up of viruses, bacteria and fungal matter in their droppings. The best way to eliminate this problem is to stop the nesting before it begins. Inspect your home closely. Determine areas that may be susceptible to nesting that are close to where your family congregates. One area that is sure to get summertime and often year round usage is your patio. The patio cover is a great place to mount a solar bird repeller. The repeller can be mounted on either flat or angled surfaces in a matter of minutes. It scares the pest birds away from the area by the continual movement of the 2.5’ telescoping rods which have iridescent red foil flash tape at the ends. The constant sweeping movement does not harm the birds in anyway, but distracts them from making your patio their summer home. The red foil flash tape also scares the birds away from the area when it is simply tied to the patio, or a nearby tree, creating the perfect optical distraction zone.Another common area for birds to nest around your home is under the eaves, near your front entry way or in your rain gutters. You want to avoid carrying any droppings from your shoes into your home, or breathing in the fungal spores that can be released from the nest. A very simple and economical way to keep the eaves free of birds is the use of either a bird slope or a transparent bird gel. Both make an extremely uncomfortable landing spot for the bird. The bird slope creates a “slippery slope” that birds cannot land on. It is easily installed and can be painted to match the exterior of your home. A transparent bird gel creates a very sticky surface which birds hate. The gel is virtually invisible and is non-toxic to people and birds. Making the rain gutters undesirable for landing and nesting is as simple as installing gutter bird spikes. After clearing out any debris from the gutters, just connect the spikes by using the attached clips and check one more thing off your to do list. Taking these precautions early on will save you time in the long run. Cleaning up the area after a pest bird has made his home would be much more labor intensive. Cleaning and repairing the physical damage to your home from the uric acid released from bird droppings can be a more expensive project. Even though pest birds can be hazardous to us, we want to not be half hazard in our humane “good riddance” of them. Always choose humane bird deterrent products like those available at Absolute Bird Control.