Barn Owls Are the Best Varmint Deterrent Around

Owls are incredible night hunters and will reduce your varmint populations substantially. A single owl can eat 25,000 mice in a year!

Keeping your rodent populations in check will help prevent damage to your garden and reduce the spread of disease. Owls can help maintain a balanced ecosystem by preying on mice, small rats, ground squirrels, moles, young rabbits and other small animals. Owls are Nature's Way to get rid of troublesome wild animals, better than cats or traps. And much better than poison!

Barn Owl coming in for a landing. Photo by seaworld.org.

Most of the owls around Bonita are Barn Owls which are also referred to as Golden Owls, White Owls, Ghost Owls, Death Owls, Monkey-faced Owls, Church Owls and Hobgoblin Owls.

These skilled raptors will hunt over an area of 100 acres.

If you ever have one come upon you in the dark of night—thinking you're dinner—it will scare the wits out of you. Their wingspan ranges between three-and-a-half to four feet. Their flight is inaudible and they can come face-to-face with you without a sound. Once they realize you're too big to carry off, they'll silently swoop away.

A Barn Owl that I named Olivia and her mate Oliver come to live in an owl box on my property when it's time to lay a clutch. No, I don't own them. It's illegal to own a wild bird. A person wanting to own a Barn Owl as a pet would need to apply for a permit under the Migratory Bird section of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This is Olivia. I took the photo at mid day so she's sleepy from hunting all night. The little dots on her chest are not bugs but rather her freckles. | Photo by Sunnyside Common Sense

Once the female discovers a home she likes, she'll return time after time to lay her clutch. The male just comes along for the ride, or should I say flight? Male and female Barn Owls mate for life.

The female Barn Owl begins to sit as soon as she lays her first egg. They lay their eggs every two or three days and you have to wait for them to stand up so you can count how many. Olivia usually lays between four to seven eggs over an eight to 21 day period.

Each egg hatches after about a 31-day incubation. By the time the last egg hatches, the oldest owlet may be three weeks old. The size difference between chicks can be alarming. And you think that your big brother beat up on you? It's downright frightening to be the last owlet to hatch!

[Click on images to enlarge] Photos by Sunnyside Common Sense

I have a camera in the box that I can watch the owlets hatch and grow without scaring them. The owlets aren't cute like you would expect them to be . . . they're downright frightening. I think they resemble miniature Pterodactyls.

[Click on images to enlarge] Photos by Sunnyside Common Sense

Barn Owls in the wild have a shortened lifespan due to people poisoning wildlife and the owls eating them. Another problem is the use of chemical pesticides that find their way into the owl eggs. This causes a thinner eggshell, leading to the death of the owlet.

Owlet checking out the camera | Photo by Sunnyside Common Sense

Please do not use poison or chemical pesticides. With a healthy Barn Owl population, these beautiful raptors could significantly reduce the mouse/rat/ground squirrel population in a natural way.

Return to Main Page