BS: pigeon-proofing

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Sep 06 - 10:31 AM

Thanks for the input, everyone. It seems that spikes do work.

Wysiwyg, I looked at the site for Fiske and Sons, but they are hundreds of miles from here, and I doubt if they would be interested in this small job.

Here's my long term plan:

1. Install spikes above south door
2. Renovate building.
3. When peace returns, install perch for red-tailed hawk, as    advocated by the Department of Conservation.

Yesterday I was waiting for the bus and saw a crow harrying a huge raptor with pale feathers under its wings - perhaps a red-tailed hawk, perhaps a harrier. It was a remarkable sight.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 11:56 PM

At the high school where I work we have had a pigeon problem for years, not helped by the fact that kids drop food scraps etc, so there is always food for the flying rats. A few months ago poison baits were laid and have been successful, as we haven't seen pigeons since then. Sparrows have come back, and they haven't been seen for a long time.

The joke is....they have moved down the road to the primary school instead!

Where's Tom Lehrer when you need him?

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: mrdux
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 07:42 PM

leeneia --

the building across the street uses the spikes to keep pigeons off their ledges. they seem to work quite well: another building nearby has no spikes and tons of pigeons. the spike strips have been up for about 9 momths so far and no reapplication of the adhesive yet. this is in the temperate pacific northwest -- lots of rain but not terribly cold.

good luck.

michael

ps -- but they sure are ugly. . .

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: The PA
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 05:14 AM

While were on the subject of birds.

We have a problem with magpies.

We used to have swallows, house martins etc nesting in one of our barns but this year they did not return due to the presence of a family of magpies nesting in a nearby tree. We have three semi-ferral cats who live in the barn which we keep to control mice, the magpies even fly into the barn and chase the cats off their food and eat it themselves. Hence, thin cats, fat magpies and no other birds in the vicinity.

Any ideas of how to get rid of the magpies and not harm anything else. We would like to avoid poisons, for obvious reasons, and shooting, due to horses, sheep and public footpaths.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: gnomad
Date: 31 Aug 06 - 03:43 AM

Our local problem is gulls rather than pigeons, but the solutions seem to be the same. Metal spikes seem to be favourite, they are a bit visually intrusive, but then so are guano and nests.

The adhesive used stands up to rain fine, with spikes lasting for years in situ, but we don't really get extremes of heat or cold by US standards, just cold by UK ones.

I have worked in buildings netted against pigeons, the nets seem to get damaged and ineffective after only a few years, and are pretty ugly IMO. Doing spikes seems to be a more expensive job, but ultimately both more effective and more cost-saving.

Good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 08:04 PM

Or you could do as I have suggested in the past and contact Fiske and Sons who specialize in church buildings, for their opinion.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: GUEST, Ebbie
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 07:47 PM

Whew! Leenia, I was picturing the lime (I think) adhesive that is sometimes used to entrap unwanted critters who then either starve to death or are preyed upon.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: leeneia
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 05:16 PM

Thanks for the info.

I'm looking at the spikes, etc, and wondering if anybody has ever actually used them. The spikes are sold by the foot, and you mount them along ledges, etc, to keep the pigeons from landing or nesting there.

Ebbie, the adhesives would merely be used to hold the spikes in place. Obviously it is easier to use adhesive to put spikes down, but will it hold up through cold winters, hot summers and rain?

Plastic spikes are cheaper, less visible and won't corrode, but do they hold up to sunlight?

Drilling holes and installing fasteners will be more permanent, but what if the limestone cracks? And how much work does anybody want to do at 30, 50, 60 feet in the air?

So I'm just wondering what experiences people have had with these products.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 05:48 AM

Talk to your local Environmental Agency or Town Hall Buildings departments, they have experience and can put you in touch with suppliers of ledge spikes, firms who will fit netting and other 'humane' solutions.

Sometimes a model of the pigeons natural enemy will work, but it has to be moved occasionally or they cease to react to it. Audio tapes of the enemy hunting calls played occasionally will also clear the area temporarily. There is no way to remove pigeons permanently.

Try to discourage residents from feeding them (not even the Mayor of London and all the borough councils can get that to work), and generally make their lives as miserable as possible. The numbers will lessen but I suspect that a pigeon is for life, not just for summer.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: The PA
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 03:29 AM

A shotgun, but you may blow the top of the chimney pot, as my friend did.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: open mike
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 01:47 AM

i have a foto of a sign above a side walk
that has been fitted with a series of spikes
along the top to prevent pigeons roosting there.

i have also seen owl decoys used.

yes peregrine falcons have been re-introduced
in some areas where there are places high enough
for them to perch and dive from.

falconers use pigeons to train their hawks..
maybe there is a falconer who could bring a
hawk (falcon) over to hunt them down?


http://www.falconryexperience.com/
http://www.northwoodsfalconry.com/

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 08:56 PM

Nuthin' will keep a pigrat away other than the gun, though...

... I hate to say that but I have the same problem...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 08:48 PM

it is a matter of restricting the places where they can land, perch and nest. This is often not feasible without aesthetic compromises.

I helped pigeon-proof this building a few years ago by stapling chicken wire to the underside of the rafters so they couldn't sit and poop on the audience at events....but some places are hard to do, and pigeons are VERY resourceful.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 07:13 PM

In Juneau peregrine falcons have found the local pigeons. On the other hand since that is a natural process rather than an imposed one I suppose that presupposes some kind of balance, rather than eradication.

I HATE adhesives in rodent and vermin control.

One possibility might lie in walling off- as with the steel wool o chicken wire that Wyzzi suggested - any ledges and protrected nooks that pigeons use for nesting.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Becca72
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 07:06 PM

I don't know about the natural enemy, but there are a ton of pigeons roosting in the old mill building across from my apartment and I watched a baby pigeon being knocked out of the nest and then summarily molested by a crow, presumably trying to kill and eat him. I hate birds but still felt the need to drive the crow off...at least for a little while.

Of course, none of this helps with the original question...sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Kaleea
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:48 PM

Is it really possible to keep pigeons away from the tops of buildings? What is the natural enemy of the pigeon?

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:40 PM

Balls of steel wool or chickenwire. Plastic snakes.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: leeneia
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:09 PM

Sorry, no. The Dept of Conservation says that visual and auditory frightening devices are not effective over long periods of time.

The church is in an area that's too built up to use a gun. Illegal as well.

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Sorcha
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:02 PM

Perhaps some kind of ultra sound?

Subject: RE: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: Greg F.
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:01 PM

Pump 20 Gauge, #9 shot.

Just shoot away from the church. I've always found it effective.
Non-native species, no redeeming social value.

Subject: BS: pigeon-proofing
From: leeneia
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 05:57 PM

This is not an exciting thread, I'd just like take a little survey. I'm on the building and grounds committee of my church, and I have volunteered to look into products to keep pigeons from nesting on the building.

Have you installed something to keep pigeons off your home, church, etc? What products did you use, and did they work?

If the installation used adhesive, how long did the adhesive last?