While it’s still hot in many places and hurricane season is moving into full swing, we shouldn’t forget that autumn is right around the corner. With the fall season upon us, it’s time to start thinking about how our gardens will look in the cooler months. This can mean planting fall veggies and flowers, getting ready for harvest time, preparing trees and shrubs for the cooler months—and decorating! So many fun holidays happen in the fall—Halloween (October 31st) and Thanksgiving (October 14th in Canada, November 28th in the US) chief among them. As we’re setting up our fall décor and celebrating any or all of the holidays that come at this time of the year, we have some questions about one of autumn’s most enduring symbols: the scarecrow. Sighted in gardens and fields around the world, the scarecrow evokes emotion of sympathy, humor, and even fear by degrees. So what are scarecrows? Why do we use them—and do they work? And where do they come from? Let’s dig in and learn more about the history and uses of scarecrows!
The History of Scarecrows
Scarecrows have a long and interesting history—one that teaches us a lot about the story of agriculture. Early agrarian societies, like the Ancient Egyptians and the native peoples of the Americas, relied on human-power to scare birds away from eating their crops. Farmers (or more likely their children) would hide near a field and shout or make noise to scare birds away before our feathered friends could feast on the harvest. At some point things changed, and farmers began erecting effigies of fertility gods in their fields to help the harvest. One such deity was the Greco-Roman god of fertility, Priapus, who became a popular addition to farms and gardens around the ancient world, where he would protect the harvest from pests including birds.
Now in reality we all know that scarecrows work because birds mistake them for real life humans and stay away—and the ancient civilizations around the world who used scarecrows probably figured that out fairly quickly. Ancient scarecrows could be made of a variety of materials—the Greeks and Romans used wooden statues, Ancient Japan preferred figures made of rags and wearing pointed hats, and figures made of straw were popular around the world. Floppy materials that could move in the breeze and thereby help scarecrows look more alive are a constant in scarecrow design everywhere.
Many of these traditions continue to this day. Traditional scarecrows are still in use as a pest-repellent on subsistence farms and backyard gardens around the globe. In more suburban settings, scarecrows are often used as decorations celebrating fall—a tribute to their longstanding role in the harvest—and are celebrated in festivals dedicated to their history and construction Making scarecrows at home can be a fun activity, especially with children, and we may just cover that in a future blog.
Do Scarecrows Work?
So now that we know a bit more about their history, let’s address another pertinent question: do scarecrows work? Do they, actually, in fact, scare crows?
There’s been a lot of scientific research about this over many centuries, and the results are . . . inconclusive. While scarecrows can help keep birds away, they need to give the illusion of life in order to do so—if they stay still in one place for too long, critters figure out that they’re just part of the scenery. So at a minimum scarecrows need to be moved to new locations every day or two in order to have an effect. We mentioned above that scarecrow designs and materials that move with the wind look more alive and are thus more effective.
Contemporary bird-scaring technology builds on that idea by creating devices that make noise, move in ways birds find disruptive or frightening, and otherwise scare them off with actions rather than presence. While we were researching this blog, we found a number of articles about laser-powered scarecrows being used as bird repellent. These are especially interesting as they are computer—and in some cases AI—controlled, meaning that the scarecrow finally has a brain! On a more practical level, controlling birds is best accomplished in the home garden by erecting netting to keep them away from plants in need of protection, providing food and water for them elsewhere, and by making good use of greenhouses and other protective structures.
Every Garden Needs a Scarecrow
So, while scarecrows may not be the most effective way to keep birds away from your garden, they can work if built and used properly and they’re a fun piece of gardening tradition. We vote to keep scarecrows around—as decorations, as bird-repellent, and as connections to a rich agriculture history shared around the world. They’re fun friends to have in the garden and great decorations for this time of the year, so long live the scarecrow!
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