I moved to a more rural place with 8 acres about 10 months ago. Started seeing some peacocks from one of the neighbors coming through the property now and then.

Now they are hanging out on the front porch pooping everywhere, coming in the garage and last night had 5 roosting on my roof and banging on the chimney cover.

Anybody have tips on how to deter them away from the house without things turning ugly?

Inb4 propane cannon

12 ga should do it . might cook up nicely

I agree, this recipe looks great!
https://foragerchef.com/peacock-thigh-confit-with-chanterelles-and-leeks/

"Hi neighbor. Please control your peacocks or I will."

Pretty simple.

sounds like you need a pet mountain lion

Hank the Grifter said:

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"Hi neighbor. Please control your peacocks or I will."

Pretty simple.

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Yep a single notice and then shoot away. Pretty simple.

Yeah....I have no idea who owns them. The neighbors that I have met thus far, don't seem to know either.

Well then you should be far enough away to SSS

Saw one last week in Shiprock, NM.

The poop is annoying, but they are good for taking care of rattlesnakes around my parts.

They might be feral so to speak. I know of a neighborhood in S.A that had peacocks that had owners who abandoned them when they moved. Years later they are still there. Shoot em.

Scotty Appleton said:

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The poop is annoying, but they are good for taking care of rattlesnakes around my parts.

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That's awesome I had no idea they could take on a rattlesnake

They're really beautiful

When I was a kid one of the families that worked for us got a couple of peacocks. After a while they started migrating from their house to our tractor barn and dairy barn. After a handful of visits, my grandpa gave me a box of CCI Mini Mags and placed a $5 bounty on their heads. Five bucks was a lot for a 6 year old kid in the late 70's, I still consider that hunt my first and only safari.

Slingshot.

We used to have them at our old work place, they'd wander in from the neighbor's next door & crap all over the trucks. I got really good at thumping them & scaring them away.

One morning I thumped one roosted on the pipe rack of a truck, it only went about 30 yards away & then had the audacity to make that loud noise. In my mind, it was saying "F you Apache, you shoot a slingshot like a little __"

So a snatched up a rock and somehow managed to hit it directly in the head. Bird goes down, feathers flopping just like a turkey shot with a 12 gauge. In disbelief I made my way over, the sucker was dead before I got there.
I wish I could find the old kodak picture of this.

If we still had natural predators there would not be problems like this. But heaven forbid if a bobcat, fox, coyote or hawk goes through somebody's ranchette backyard.

AnScAggie said:

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When I was a kid one of the families that worked for us got a couple of peacocks. After a while they started migrating from their house to our tractor barn and dairy barn. After a handful of visits, my grandpa gave me a box of CCI Mini Mags and placed a $5 bounty on their heads. Five bucks was a lot for a 6 year old kid in the late 70's, I still consider that hunt my first and only safari.

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Similar story. Had a pair show up at the homestead and after my mom got sick of cleaning up their massive ****s, she contracted me to take them out. Think it was $25 per bird. Actually only whacked one, a hen, after which the cock never came back. Used a .22 but I imagine turkey shot would work, too.

Yea it's really sad. I've been watching a Fox here at suburban house for several years. Lives across fence in some rocks. I'm pretty sure it's female and raises kits every year because I can see enough that it looks like her and maybe some smaller units playing in those rocks.
Our neighborhood on the other hand had someone either witness or just assumed that a pair of owls moved in and got a feral cat. So their response was to vilify the owls. Can't be certain but those owls disappeared almost as if someone disposed of them.
Funny and sad really. I live here in water but am fortunate that across from my house is ranch land, as close as I've ever been to city. Most of my neighbors are opposite and this is as close to country as they've ever been and it scares the hell out of them. I've seen coyote, skunk, raccoons, a really cool almost entirely white skunk, all the usuals, and even a pair of quail.
Neighbors see mountain lion frequently although it's never shown up on anybody's cameras.

My metal shop roof a month or so ago.....

I would have gone with something like this, but that's me.

Yes sir. Like you, I'm blessed that I have basically lived in the country all my life.
I have yet to figure it out…..City folks want to move to the country….but then want to kill any bird or animal that bothers them…and sterilize their "country" environment to make it as devoid of life as their concrete and asphalt city life was.
I'm not slamming the OP here over the peacocks…..just agreeing on your comment about the general rule of city folk buying rural land to be in the country……but then don't want any bird or animal around that makes what living in the country is all about.

Friend had the same issue, no need to kill, a few shots with paintball gun made them eventually steer clear.

I'm a city slicker who recently bought land out in the country... I don't live there yet; will build a retirement home on the property in the next 10 years or so... but one of the first things my country-folk neighbors told me was DO NOT EVER GET ANY PEACOCKS OUT HERE.

Gunny456 said:

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Yes sir. Like you, I'm blessed that I have basically lived in the country all my life.
I have yet to figure it out…..City folks want to move to the country….but then want to kill any bird or animal that bothers them…and sterilize their "country" environment to make it as devoid of life as their concrete and asphalt city life was.
I'm not slamming the OP here over the peacocks…..just agreeing on your comment about the general rule of city folk buying rural land to be in the country……but then don't want any bird or animal around that makes what living in the country is all about.

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Agree 110%. Just the other morning there was a young tarantula about the size of a quarter on a rock column in the kitchen. I got a plastic cup and a piece of thin cardboard, raked it off into the cup, covered it with the cardboard, took it outside and let it go. Now I just wonder where the rest of the brood is.....

Same city folks who run 10,000,000 lumens in "security lights" all night long? My barn is 1/2 mile off the highway, and no lights. It disappears after sunset. Meanwhile, the neighbor's house is visible for 10 miles

If you are afraid of nature and the dark, don't move to the country.

oh no said:

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I'm a city slicker who recently bought land out in the country... I don't live there yet; will build a retirement home on the property in the next 10 years or so... but one of the first things my country-folk neighbors told me was DO NOT EVER GET ANY PEACOCKS OUT HERE.

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It's them pesky salacious peahens that are the problem.......

CanyonAg77 said:

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Same city folks who run 10,000,000 lumens in "security lights" all night long? My barn is 1/2 mile off the highway, and no lights. It disappears after sunset. Meanwhile, the neighbor's house is visible for 10 miles

If you are afraid of nature and the dark, don't move to the country.

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My in-laws place that they don't live in is lit up. Can be seen from hiway over a mile away. I keep telling them that the only people that those security lights benefit is the criminals. If you live there you know where everything is, the bad guys don't. But now they know the house is out there because the lights tell them.
Plus, I can't see stars at night because of the friggin lights. As soon as grands are old enough to carry BB guns, I hope that that light does not become a casualty.

OP, I just prompted Gemini and Grok with a bunch of questions about peacocks out of curiosity... one thing both AI engines suggested was to get a dog to chase them off... but also, an Orbit Yard Enforcer. It's a motion-activated sprinkler head that you can stake in your yard or near your driveway- wherever the birds are gathering.



it's about $80 on amazon.

Rattler12 said:

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Gunny456 said:

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Yes sir. Like you, I'm blessed that I have basically lived in the country all my life.
I have yet to figure it out…..City folks want to move to the country….but then want to kill any bird or animal that bothers them…and sterilize their "country" environment to make it as devoid of life as their concrete and asphalt city life was.
I'm not slamming the OP here over the peacocks…..just agreeing on your comment about the general rule of city folk buying rural land to be in the country……but then don't want any bird or animal around that makes what living in the country is all about.

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Agree 110%. Just the other morning there was a young tarantula about the size of a quarter on a rock column in the kitchen. I got a plastic cup and a piece of thin cardboard, raked it off into the cup, covered it with the cardboard, took it outside and let it go. Now I just wonder where the rest of the brood is.....

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I live out in the country.

But absolutely, positively F THAT NONSENSE. I might have to just burn the house down. I can deal with a lot of things, but not spiders. Hate them. Despise them. DGAF if they are beneficial or not. No. Absolutely f'kin no. Fire. Lots and lots of fire.

AnScAggie said:

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When I was a kid one of the families that worked for us got a couple of peacocks. After a while they started migrating from their house to our tractor barn and dairy barn. After a handful of visits, my grandpa gave me a box of CCI Mini Mags and placed a $5 bounty on their heads. Five bucks was a lot for a 6 year old kid in the late 70's, I still consider that hunt my first and only safari.

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Same. But with feral barn cats. And I got $2 each

Never got them all, so they did their job with rodents, but they started inbreeding/fighting, all messed up, missing eyes, dangling ears, just a mess. And when the females went in heat.....such a racket.

Yea kinda funny how things sometimes come full circle. As a kid and young adult I participated in and supported shooting feral cats around the barn.
Now down at in-laws in Zapata I'm trying to figure out how to attract and keep a mouser or two around. In-laws not pet or animal people but agree it would be nice to reduce snake and rodent presence.

Yes sir.
Here is a story. About 8 years or so ago a guy on death row for murder broke out of prison in Oklahoma and made it to SA.
He robbed and beat up an elderly couple in Alamo Heights in SA and stole the old man's truck and headed west on IH-10. About 10:00 pm he was stopped for speeding by a deputy sheriff in Kimble County. Ran from him and exited at the Segovia exit…. Ran the truck in the brush and bailed out.
This was about 8 air miles from our ranch house. All that area has big ranches and many with absentee owners. He alluded a massive man hunt for three days and four nights.
They finally caught him in another stolen truck on Hwy 183 toward Menard.
They put him in jail in Kimble C. They made him tell how he alluded all the law enforcement for three days and 4 nights in the middle of the summer, in a very desolate location with no food, water, flashlights etc.
He said he traveled by night and holed up during the day. He said the thing that helped him locate deer camps and ranch houses was mercury vapor lights. He said he could get up on a ridge at night and look for them and then head to them.
If they were inhabited he would move on. If not he would break in, steal food water, rest during the day and move again at night.
He said the best was deer camps with mercury vapor lights.
He stole, firearms, knives, clothing, food, water etc. and eventually a truck with keys in it at a ranch house.
Mind you he had K-9's, Texas Rangers and DPS, Kimble County, Menard County, Kerr County, Gillespie County and Mason County Sheriff's offices looking for him using aircraft and all kinds of resources.
The Cheif Deputy at the time in KC was Steve Brown and he said the guy told him that lights on at ranches and deer camps helped him navigate and survive the most.
We found out he had actually traversed our pasture and went down the creek below our house but had seen no lights at our house and didn't realize it was there.
We don't have any lights that stay on all night at our ranch then or now.
He also told deputy Brown that he had nothing to lose…..and had some rancher or landowner confronted him he would have killed them.
Pretty sobering that he had walked in our creek bed that was about 400 yards from our house. Wife and I were both there.

Yea, we've got coyotes running humans across our ranch nearly every weekend. The tracks and trash left tell us they came thru. They try every vehicle door when they happen on the compound, but it's dark.

I had a friend who lived just off a US highway. He intentionally left keys in all the vehicles. He said he would rather lose a vehicle than have them try to get in a house

Of course, I grew up in a time when everyone left the keys in. Never know when a neighbor might need to borrow