The Truth About Bird Repellent: What Every Homeowner Should Know | Rule The Roost Episode 1

⭐ What happens when customers love your product... and when they don't?

In Episode 18 of the Rule The Roost Podcast, we read real customer reviews of Flock Free Bird Repellent—both the positive and the negative—and explain why bird control isn't always as simple as spraying once and walking away.

We cover:
 ✅ Why bird repellents aren't an instant fix
 ✅ Common mistakes that keep birds coming back
 ✅ Why timing, consistency, and the surrounding environment matter
 ✅ How different bird species require different approaches
 ✅ Tips to get the best results from your bird control program

We believe every review is an opportunity to educate, and if a customer isn't getting the results they expected, we're always here to help.

Whether you're dealing with pigeons, swallows, woodpeckers, robins, or nuisance birds around your home, this episode offers practical advice that can save you time, money, and frustration.

🎧 Watch Episode 18 and learn why successful bird control is about changing bird behavior—not expecting a miracle spray.

#RuleTheRoostPodcast #BirdControl #FlockFree #BirdRepellent #PestControl

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

About the bird. Hello, welcome to the 18th installment of Rule the Roos Podcast. This is going to be our Amazon edition. We're gonna read some of our reviews and give some feedback.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

All right. Oh, yep. We have Tom here. He's gonna let me read the joke of the day. It's a surprise. Why do birds fly south for the winter? To get a tan. Takes too long to walk. That's a good one. Well then.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Sometimes it's a simplicity. That's right. All right, so we are very appreciative for our online sales. Sales are looking good. However, reviews, sometimes reviews are negative. And that's to be expected because this is a um different kind of solution people are trying to solve. So Tori's gonna read some of the reviews for Erica and myself, and we're going to give some counterpoints and explain why maybe some folks aren't seeing the um uh solutions that they're look that they're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

And just to say we do appreciate all reviews, good or bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Sure, that's how we can help educate people. Yeah, for sure. Some of them are a little rough. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

We've heard it all, Tor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

In person, at least this is over the internet. We're gonna start strong. Scam, don't waste your money. This does not repel birds.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Okay, so that's a great review. Thanks for watching. But so there's a lot to take in. So with bird work, what we offer at Flock Free is a program, not an instant solution. So if you read a lot of the um information we put out there, it's not a touch-it-once solution and it's not an immediate solution by any means. You have to take the time, do the due diligence, and you have to use the products correctly. So that's a lot of open-ended comments. Um, so for instance, if you have a bird nest and you are frustrated, we understand that you want to spray that bird nest and you want it to go away immediately, but that's not how it works. You have to spray consistently and you have to wait for that bird to leave the area. So, what it will do is prevent more birds from coming in and creating more nests, but it won't resolve the immediate nest or the immediate solution or uh issue at first.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Right. Um, to further touch on that, it's hard without knowing any additional details. Um, you know, what Eric and I do day to day is work with customers and work with clients. And one of our biggest things that we try to stress are realistic expectations. And it is hard to transfer all that knowledge through an online sales order, and we understand that. So that's why Flock Free is always available for online support. Call our office, please reach out to us if it's not working. Um, but there are other things that have to be considered besides I sprayed it and they didn't go away. Are there bird droppings there? Droppings actually have pheromones that attract other birds. So if you didn't clean up all the droppings, it's possible that even if you remove the nest and sprayed it, they're gonna come back. Is there a food source nearby? Is your neighbor feeding them? Maybe it's not even your food source. There's endless things that could be contributing. And it is frustrating. If you spend your good hard money, earned money, and they don't leave when you're expecting that result, it does suck. It's frustrating. You know, I'm as a consumer, I don't love when I get something and it didn't work like I wanted. But I also am guilty of not reading instructions. That's like I will do something and then realize I have an extra piece or it didn't work and then go back to the instructions. So I usually have a feeling that if something isn't working, of course we're biased because we know it works. But maybe something, there's either not even user error, there's something else going on in the environment that's contributing.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

All right, this one is I bought this so my parrot would stop eating my door frame. I even use the stickers. She could care less about either of them. I spray and she goes right to it and choose, I was very hopeful.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

You never know what people are using your product for. Parrot deterrent in your house.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Yeah, does it say what deterrent they purchased? Is this all tank bonds? All a tank mix bundle. All tank mix bundle. Okay. Okay, so uh yeah. What's the mix rate for parrots, Erica? Oh, I don't I don't know parrots. Um I would assume a very strong mixer. I would agree, especially domesticated parrot.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

You know, this bird may think that their mom is like playing with it and like it's trying to like get to the doorframe. Yeah, that's a strange one.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah, I I don't that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

There's something else going on there that it's eating the door frame. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

This the birds laughed at me while I was spraying this where they nest. Only gave a fragrance to the area, another waste of money. It does not work.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

They laughed. They should have recorded that and they could have made money off of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Well, isn't once there's a bird's nest, it's you're really almost too late.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

You are too late.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Right? That's the rule.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

What you want to do is you want to spray around the nest, and when it would leave, you want to remove the nest once it's safe to remove the nest and then spray the area. You also want to try to remove that ledge that they're nesting on. So you need to take away that landing spray.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Right. That would require more than maybe just spraying tank mix. That would require surface protec or gel or spikes or something.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

So the consequence comes in.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah. Well, that was this this review that we got. Um didn't work at all for birds after several sprays a week apart, wouldn't get rid of nests, wound up paying Exterminator for steel bird meshes and peak wires anyway. After paying for this, don't buy.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Well, okay, they made a good point. They use different options. So tank mix, sometimes you need a combination of products, it's not just the one-type product. So we recommend a combination so you get the consequence with the visual. You want a few things, not just one. So, like they said, they did multiple things. That's exactly what we would recommend. So um, they just maybe did it a little tougher of a way, but right also, people can any customer can call us, reach out to us directly. We are happy to help them, you know, just because you purchase our product doesn't mean we're not willing to then guide you to how to use the products correctly. Also with tank mix oh, sorry. You do all day. Yeah, we can solve questions daily, yeah. Yeah, but with uh the tank mix, there's also various mix rates. So if it doesn't work and you're using a two-ounce mix rate, you can use a four-ounce mix rate, and you know, vice versa. You want to try different things. So just maybe that bird has been there longer, so it's harder to remove. Just like that parrot you were speaking of. You know, maybe they didn't use a strong enough mix rate either. If they're tasting it, they're used to eating God knows what in a home, not crackers. So they might need a just a stronger mix rate, or just, you know, maybe don't put the dog uh the parrot near the the, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

I was really holding out hopes this spray would work. I used everything on the market, even have the scary owl statues around the cat bowls and in tin foil strips. The birds even go in the cat's house and eat where I put the food in them. Sprayed this all over the outside of my feral cat's food bowls, also on the surfaces where my feral cats eat, put the stickers on the food bowls, and the birds could have cared less. They ate all five bowls of dry cat food within 15 minutes. I have a double-sided bird feeder in my yard away from the cat food, but the birds must like an appetizer before their breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

I mean, they're feeding the birds. Yeah, it's unrealistic. I I mean, and also think there's a natural predator there as a cat, and that's not keeping the birds away. Sometimes nature is stronger than anything you're going to try to do. I mean, in that regard, I'm sorry that they are wanting to save feral cats and keep birds away, but um that's that's uh that's a battle they're not going to win.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Um did not work at all. Birds came back to the nest right away, worthless.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

You know, once a bird has built a nest, they're not going to leave it no matter what. Think about you and your home. If you have a safe space, you have your baby inside, you have all the food you just bought. You're not leaving because of one unpleasant or uncomfortable sniff or taste. So birds that have established a home and maybe have been nesting in the same location for years, it is it you have to be more determined than they are by kicking them out. So that just requires ongoing spraying, ongoing nest removal once the nest is vacant, and making it as unpleasant as possible so they don't nest there again. But once the nest is there, very almost impossible to get them to leave the area. They want their nests.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

It takes patience, you just have to wait for the bird to be ready.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, and you know, there's also nests that are protected that you can't do anything with. So we're we're up against nature, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Well, that's the that's the hardest.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

There is no real such thing as any miracle product in any category. So, and this isn't a miracle product. This is using science and training birds to leave.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yep, we build a program to help train the birds, not to, yeah, it's not an immediate solution by any means.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

This product did not work for mud swallows by my house. I sprayed the product where the swallows were building their home and the smell did nothing to them.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Same thing, they're already building their home. And mud swallows are very territorial annually. Um, you have to look up in your area of the country when they're most active. That tends to be from September. Yeah, and in other parts it's from like June to August, October. So you really have to be aware, you can't remove them once they've started building. Um, and you really want to get that spray in before they've started building. Once the mud goes up, they're not leaving. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Needed to have repeated spraying to be somewhat effective. Doesn't work well on robins, which is what I'm trying to deter.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Okay, so that depends. So if it's working after multiple sprays, that's exactly what the program is. We recommend spraying weekly for three weeks, then monthly. That way the tank mix really penetrates and the outgases correctly. Um, robins, they might just need to make it a little stronger. That uh that's what I would recommend with that. If it is starting to have an effect. And you know, uh the tank mix works great. It's an all-natural 25B product. So you have to be mindful of that as well. If it was a spray at once type deterrent, it would probably be very dangerous if it worked immediately. So you have to make sure it's, you know, the mix rate's correct, but it is just takes time. But it does seem like it was being effective. So they're doing it correctly. They just have to make it. And you can't give up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Just because they leave, does it that's not the sign to stop spraying. No, you can't keep going. You can go down to maybe a maintenance routine. That's why the spray is that's right. That's why we start with three weeks in a row and then you could dissipate down to monthly. And as temperatures drop, you may need to make the mix rate stronger. If the species isn't leaving, you may want to make the mixer stronger. We sell a ready-to-use spray, which is already pre-mixed, but we also sell four-ounce daubers of the concentrate that you can add in to make the um solution stronger, more effective for different species.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Um, this one we also got, we do we also have a lot of positive reviews. Oh, that's nice. We actually have more positive than negative reviews, but the negative ones are the ones that stick out the code. Well, those are who you want to help. Yeah. And this one was it was it was expensive because you it requires a lot of product to treat the multiple locations that they had. They had to use two bottles to get the doves to move on.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Now that's but it did move on. Well, to me, that's very funny because our tank mix, it might seem expensive if you're treating a home, don't get me wrong, but it's actually a very cheap product. Cost effective. It's very cost effective, but you have a concentrate that you can break down into a gallon of water. So it does cover a large area at in, you know. So maybe they're not applying it with the correct uh the correct type of uh sprayer or bottle. Right. So maybe they want to look into using a different um way of spraying because if you put it in a gallon mix, it'll last, you know, a few months, and then you could spray with a blower. That's what we use in our yard, a blower, and then it covers a large area. So it takes 10 minutes to spray half an acre, and that you only need a certain amount of concentrate. So the most it should cost is $20 to cover half an acre. I I think that's pretty effective.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Especially before you're paying a pest control service to come out for a minimum of probably a couple hundred dollars to do a self-application. I mean, money's money, but agreed.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Uh, my mailbox has become the early morning spot for some birds to relieve themselves. Why this becomes why this became so handy this year, who knows? I bought this product to encourage them to find a new spot. So far, after a week of application and mounting the shiny dots, they are untroubled. I'm not up when they are causing the problem and likely couldn't identify the species even if I was. But so far they continue to enjoy my mailbox. And so far, this product is perhaps good for some birds, but definitely not all. Central North Carolina location.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

So in that situation, they have to take away the landing spot of the mailbox. So some surface pro tac on there, some UV paint, and then uh sprays is what they need. If they remove that landing spot.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

And we don't know, there could be a flowery bush right next to the side.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Or it could be a new bird. It could be a new bird every day. You do that, you know, there's a lot of it.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Didn't work well for me for long term, but it has a pleasant smell. That's fair. So that's good. It does actually smell pretty. This says I'm trying to stay positive about the spray because the instructions say it may take a while because birds are persistent. They read the instructions, that's positive. Okay. Um and then this was another common one that we got that they found that it doesn't last long. That they find that after two days they have to spray, but I believe we recommend spray every day or a couple times a day, sometimes in the beginning. Especially if they are.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

The product has nanotechnology. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

What kind of surface? What are they spraying on? Because hard surfaces versus metal surfaces versus grass.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

And just because you don't smell it doesn't mean it's not still outgassing to a bird.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah. Oh, so it's a hard surface, so it doesn't penetrate as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

So you want to do the areas around it too to help.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Now, should I read some positive reviews to should I turn this around? That's helpful. Uh worked instantly. I had a woodpecker outside of my window. It would come by in the morning and peck away on the wood frame. I sprayed it once a week and I have never seen the woodpecker again. Smart bird.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Because it doesn't only smell it, but it ingests it when it pecks. So that's why it's great with woodpeckers.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Birds tend to build nests in the crutch of my gutter due to the fact that I have four-inch gutters. Use this product once when a nest was started. So far, product has performed as prescribed described. Birds have not returned as of yet. Great. Keep spraying. Yep, keep spraying. Yeah, this product works great. Just after a couple applications, birds are staying away.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Easy to use, works great. All right.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It is easy to use.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah. It worked very well. Stopped woodpeckers from pecking on our new cedar post. Just use it correctly. It works very good when use is directed.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

And that should be the caption.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Well, yeah, because the bird deterrent isn't is not the.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

And we've been stressing since the inception of our company that it's bird control like pest control. And you know, you can get lucky in a couple applications that bird is uncomfortable and finds someplace else to move on. Other places, there may not be a lot of competing, comfortable places for it to eat, nest, what have you. And um it may also just be a staging area. It may be someplace where they're jumping off to a tree where their nest is. So there's a lot of factors in play.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Well, that's why it's important you also don't treat the immediate problem, but the perimeter of the problem as well. So you keep the area further out.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Well, I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned today. You have to treat the whole area, not just the affected area. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Well, they because think they relocate or they sit and perch, wait, dive down, go back to where they were sitting.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

So well, that's how we fix our problem. We had that bird that was sitting there, and then once we sprayed the yard and stuff, it eventually they went away. Yeah. They moved on.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Well, listen, we're gonna keep reading the reviews, good and bad. We're always brainstorming how to get our knowledge into your brains, and we're adding QR codes to products. We're trying to make the literature short but effective, right? So the message gets you know out there that ongoing spraying, patience, looking at the surrounding environment. And sometimes multiple products. Yep, yep, yep. Sometimes you just email. Keep spraying.