Robins are birds that I enjoy viewing, but not as they try to build nests under our porch lights which are on both sides of an area right by our front entrance door. For three days my husband has removed the straw, twigs, etc in order to prevent a completed robin's nest. They put the straw, twigs, etc. up, he takes them down immediately. Today after reading these posts, I sprayed the area with ant and roach spray that I use when the ants try to visit too close to our outside walkway. Two robins just came with straw in their mouths, but they flew away. I hope this is a long-term solution. This is the first time that we have had this problem in the nineteen years that we have lived here. I am already tired of the mess on our porch and the potential health hazard presented if the robins succeed in building a permanent nest. We have plenty of trees that the birds usually choose for their nests and are still quite welcome to do so. However, why our porch this year is a puzzle. Thanks to all who have posted for their solutions. To the haters, because one does not want a bird's nest in an area that he/she frequently uses in his/her home, does not label the person as an animal hater. Why should my quality of life be compromised daily upon trying to enter my home for the sake of a bird's nest? The answer is that it shouldn't and will not. We will win this fight and reclaim our safety and keep our good health.

those are good ideas. I don't have any solutions but recently had a bird in my rhiphallis so I know what kind of damage they can do. I ended up starting over from scratch and starting a bunch of new plants. But with a hoya...especially a young one you just can't do that. I have had rats chew leaves off my hoya. Two next to each other one they didn't bother the other must have been tastier. This happened in my shade house which seems to be a rat super highway. I don't put hoyas in there anymore. (I used to put out poison for the rats until we got a puppy and she got into the poison...my bad!!. Pup is ok after emergency vet care but she still goes in there look for some tasty poison)

I had a dove nest in an epiphyllum plant I had hanging under a porch roof. Like your bird - dry and safe location. What I did to water was water v-e-r-y slowly, and not have the water stream hit the dirt by the nest (big pot, nest didn't cover the entire surface). I watered often enough that I didn't need to stand there too long, and I could get slightly different parts of the pot each time. 3 or 4 sets of doves hatched from that pot over 2 years! Luckily, being a succulent, it didn't need the copious watering that my fuchsias always have, but that IS how I handled the situation. Funny enough, that plant grew like nobody's business, and got huge, and bloomed vigorously during the dove 'tenancy'.

They're tough as old boots but don't like waterlogged roots. Plant it in a piece of hollow tree stump, an old tyre slashed at the bottom to let any water drain out, or just in a large very large plastic pot, anywhere it can have excellent drainage. Don't need any soil, throw a bit of leaf litter in the bottom and the fern will be happy. Although an epiphyte that will grow on trees etc, they need less water when grown within a contained area. I live in Qld Aust where they are native, and have them coming up everywhere on my trees. I then transplant small ones into ordinary black plastic pots of very well drained composty material and they flourish.