We had a surprising visitor this week. My son found a duckling wandering in our backyard. And the shocking thing (errant fowl aren’t completely out of the ordinary around here), is how small the baby duck was.

It was the size of duckling in May or early June, not nearly the end of August. Grant caught it, and we put it in a large planting container to keep it safe from Luna, our overzealous Lab.

Ducks in the Garden

The boys loved hanging out with the fuzzy little bird, and I would’ve loved to have kept him (or her) since ducks are great when it comes to taking care of pests in the garden.

Years ago we had a mallard duckling that adopted us. My stepson dubbed her “Little Peep Peep,” and all summer long she followed us in the garden and herded our herd dog, Melvin. I was very impressed with how well she took care of slugs. I remember one time she followed me and snatched up the bugs as I weeded the peppers. What a team!

When I cleaned out the chicken coop the other day, there were a bunch of earwigs in one corner buried deep underneath the straw. I scooped them out and threw them on the ground. I wish I had a video of the chickens going after them. They snatched them up quick as lightning! If I was a smart business woman I’d trap the earwigs, dehydrate them, and sell them as chicken treats. Watching them go after the earwigs reminded me how efficient birds are at gobbling up these treats.

Birds as Pest Control

Birds do a great job of helping keep pests under control around the garden, as long as you do it right. If you let a bunch of chickens loose in your garden you won’t have much left. Nor do you want chickens (or ducks for that matter) defecating on your produce. You’re asking for some nasty disease if you mix fresh manure with fresh vegetables. But if you can keep the birds outside of the garden, either with an electric line or a simple chicken wire fence, they can still take care of a fair number of bugs.

A friend has his hens wandering around the yard. He fenced off his garden, but they have free range of pretty much everywhere else. I haven’t heard him complain of any pests, and even the grasshoppers are practically non-existent. The downside of allowing the chickens have the run of the yard is the chicken poop, but he takes care of it by dousing it with the hose every morning. Truly, you’d never know they have chickens loose if you didn’t have the hens beg for scraps from the table during our picnics.

Ducks are the same way. They have such great personalities. I do think they make a bit more of a mess since they really like having a swimming pool, and do a whole lot of playing in it. But boy do they make up for it in cuteness. And I do think ducks are even better at bug picking than chickens. They don’t give up when they’re going after something.

If you have a decent sized yard and pests are a problem considering adding a few chickens or ducks. They are fairly low maintenance on the care scale, but take care of a whole lot of pests and are a lot of fun in the process.