ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Garlic oil, the pungent flavoring commonly used in cooking, appears to ward off the European starling, raising hopes that farmers may one day have an environmentally safe repellent against the crop-damaging bird.

Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing push to explore so-called green methods of pest control that are safe to plants and animals. For example, capsaicin, the stuff that makes chili peppers hot, is routinely used in repellent sprays to prevent deer and other animals from wandering into gardens.

In lab experiments, scientists found European starlings ate less when their food was mixed with a tiny amount of garlic oil, and hope the finding will lead to garlic-based products to deter the small, glossy black birds from becoming an agricultural nuisance.

“By coming up with alternatives to pesticides, it gives farmers a fighting chance for his crop to survive and grow,” said Eric Block, a chemist at the University at Albany and co-author of the study.

European starlings were first introduced in the United States and released in New York City’s Central Park in the late 1800s. Today, there are about 200 million European starlings roosting in North America.

European starlings are known to be loud and obnoxious in flocks, and can wreak havoc when they congregate in a crop field or airport runway. They’re notorious for ravaging grapes and cherries and displacing native birds like bluebirds and tree swallows when competing for nesting sites. They’re also pests to livestock, eating out of cattle feed troughs and stealing grain.

Over the years, farmers have tried different methods to shoo European starlings away from their fields including frightening them with recorded distress calls or covering young crops with special sheeting.

In some cases, when European starlings get to be too much of a bother, a common poison used for bird management is available, although its risks to the environment causes concern.

Block and colleague Arla Hile, a U.S. Agriculture Department scientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, hope to add garlic-based repellents as a non-lethal arsenal to deter European starlings.

Their research, published recently in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that starlings dislike garlic oil at less than one percent concentration. The study did not address what chemicals in garlic oil make starlings shun it or if garlic oil has the same effect on other bird species.

Block and Hile say that while more study is needed, garlic-based products have the potential to be a viable pest management tool because they don’t hurt starlings or pose an environmental risk since they degrade after a period of time.

Scientists not connected with the study said while the results looked promising, it remains to be seen how much of an effect garlic oil has on European starlings outside the laboratory.

Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said farmers have put up scarecrows to try to scare birds away, but some smart birds have learned to be unafraid of a straw-filled dummy.

“The one thing that we’ve learned when dealing with problem birds is that they get over it,” said McGowan, who was not part of the study. “If it isn’t totally seriously threatening, they just come back.”