Picking off pests can be fun if you then feed the pests to a butcher bird, blue tongue lizard etc. This way you are not killing anything, just giving the food chain a helping hand. However sometimes you do have to resort to wholesale slaughter of pests. It is always best tho not to use any artificial or even natural poisons as the sick pests will be easy prey for the predators who will also be poisoned. You will then have to keep using poisons because you will have killed most of the predators. You initially may feed the predators when you see or hear them.  Blue tongue lizards will eat snails and sound like they're eating potato chips as they do it. Butcher birds love grass hoppers but don't seem keen on grubs. Pests are better food than meat as they are used to eating the whole thing, shell, bones, gizzard & all. Butcher birds can learn to come when whistled if they're within hearing range. They also have a tendency to call you at the window when they're around (if they've a nice place to sit). They can become demanding though as they can also learn to call you and become dependant on you when they are hungry. I've had a young fast learner peck me on the head while flying over just to let me know it's arrived and it's hungry. A neighbor took exception to it doing this to him and he whacked the bird as it passed over. It didn't come back to him for a couple of weeks but it never did it again. They can learn to be hand fed but I don't advise it as if they come that close to young children it could cost them their lives. I found it best to throw the grasshoppers up in the air and they'll take them in flight. This way is fun to watch and they aren't forced to loose all of their instinctual and sometimes justified fear of humans. Don't feed them so much as it becomes a daily thing. Just feed them occasionally or when you have good numbers of grasshoppers etc. Then whenever you are in the garden they're likely to arrive and hang around just in case there is food to be had. You'll also encourage them to hunt in your garden. This is a much more friendly and respectful relationship to have with a wild bird than for you to train it to be dependant on your whims. It's great to be working in the garden or mowing the grass when a bird sitting near you dives in to pick up tasty morsels that are disturbed. Although sometimes it can slow you down having to be careful not to hurt the bird accidentally. It's not a big price to pay for the delightful company though. Anyway if you wanted to, a close call or two as you tried not to be slowed down would make the bird be more wary and so slow you down less. Don't worrry about denying them food when they become demanding as it is the natural way to prevent them becoming dependant on you. The parents do this to their offspring to force them to get out and do it for themselves.

Pests