The worlds greatest tip ever, if it works.

I remodeled a house near Wolfe City this spring, part of the job was to add a long porch (8' X 48') to the back of the house and a covered parking area (28' X 28'). The home owner requested that we paint the ceiling and underside of the eaves "sky blue" (we used Behr "Vaporize" color, Exterior Premium Plus Ultra, satin finish). He said it works to confuse birds and insects into thinking it is not covered and not a good place to build a nest. I went out to do the satisfaction visit last week and he said it works great. He has been using the technique for years and by my own eyes there were no wasps, barn swallows, spiders or other varmints under the areas we painted blue, not true in other places we did not paint.

I am thinking that next spring I will paint the ceilings and eaves of all my blinds and most of my sheds "sky blue". If it works it will be the greatest thing ever. If not I'll only be out a few bucks.
MT

Dang! I believe it. And simple too.

My father did it in south La. for his front porch, it does work.

Charlie

Yup. Not the first time I've heard of this too.

I b dang... Simple but effective,, wonder if I painted my ceilings in the house gold,, my wife wouldnt want anymore jewelry??? lol

Just got back from Key West, our tour guide pointed that out to us during the tour. It works.

Did it on our place and it works. Old German homesteads had it. We made a mistake of putting tight angle 4×4 supports on the back stoops though. We battle nest building swallows every dern year.

Someone did write a song about it, maybe has your answer... The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling This video has the song set to some awesome video taken on a Teal Hunt.

Gold On The Celing - Teal Hunt video

Charlie

I'm not sure it does. This was recommended several years ago for Purple Martin landlords to do to keep house sparrows out. Not sure why it would scare off sparrows, but not PMs. Every door on both of my house have dings from pellets hitting them.... from me shooting house sparrows

interesting

I've gotta try this at my cabin.

We have been doing this for 15 years. I absolutely works. No daubers at house under any eave, of at lake house. Before that the ceilings would sag with them if I didn't pressure wash.
I learned it from a friends dad.
It is fun to watch them bump into the ceiling and never land.
It does not work on birds. We still fight mud swallows every year. I finally gave up and built corner pieces I place in each corner every year. Now after they nest I just take down the corner pieces and everything looks clean again.

Might spray paint some rocks gold and use them for door stops.

Definitely works on underside of eaves. We also added pesticide to the paint for all non blue color. That works a couple of years. But the blue paint is the best. Light blue, sky blue. Got this trick from my neighbor in a semi rural area about 18 years ago. Works well except for mud daubers. They will build their mud nest anywhere. Next place I have in the country with a carport or garage will be line with FRP so I can just spray the nest down.

Gonna have to try this! t-a-g for color reference.

Ok, just painted the ceiling of my double box blind light blue (with the help of the misses of course, my licensed deer blind interior designer) because of this post. I'll let y'all know in a year how it works.