Conference 7.286::home_work

    
    I've posted a similar note to the ASKENET notesfile and someone
    suggested I post it in here as well...
    
    I'm hoping I can get a solution to this real soon!
    
    =======================================================================
    
    My problem has to do with those nasty, messy birds that we all (?)
    dislike....PIGEONS!!!  Well it seems that for the past 2 months
    they have choosen my balcony as their 'mating grounds'.  I have
    had a total of 7 eggs laid on my balcony and tons of...well you
    know :)  
    
    I don't know if anyone out there has had to deal with sort of thing, 
    but it they have I'm sure you have sympathy for me.
    
    How about a solution for me as well??? 
    
    

    There is anti-pigeon stuff generally available.  One I know of,
    called Tanglefoot, is a rubbery goop placed on perching locations,
    like a balcony rail.  The other environmentally approved solution
    is, of course, to adopt or befriend a neighborhood cat.
    
    PBM
    

I've seen spiky wire things on ledges where pigeons congregate, but it
doesn't seem to work.  One place where they've tried this is a mall near
ZKO -- the one that has Highland in it.

The molded plastic owls only seem to work if they include the element
of change -- if they're stationary, the pigeons get used to them.

Re: .2

So I guess the pigeons figure out that "the owls are not what they seem"?

			Steve

Another anti-pigeon item is a rubber snake.  Natual enemies and all that.
This works unless you live in Hawaii.

Jim

Rubber snakes are natural enemies of pigeons?  In Hawaii, they're natural
friends?  But seriously, I imagine that rubber snakes lose their effectiveness
as the pigeons realize that they never move.  Pigeons are pretty stupid,
but not *that* stupid.

I don't think there ARE any snakes in Hawaii, so the birds have no idea what it
is.

Paul

    As per Tom Lehrer from "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park",   "But it not
    against any religion, to want to dispose of a pigeon. . ."
    
    so go for it! :-)
    
    -Bob

    My neighbor and I have the perfect solution.
    
    BB guns.
    
    If you miss, they fly away and don't come back for a while.
    
    If you hit them, the either die on the spot, or NEVER COME BACK if they
    live.
    
    This may not be practical if you live in an apartment, but for us with
    out 1/2 acre of garden, it works very well.
    
    I hope I haven't upset anyone, but the winged rats don't belong in the
    garden or the flower boxes.

    Most garden centers sell blow-up snakes. They're about 5' long and
    look like rattlers. I use one in my garden, but move it every few days
    or so - on the ground, up the fence, hiding, etc.
    
    I feed the birds, seems like especially the pigeons, during the
    winter. Every morning they wait on my neighbor's  roof for me to
    put out the seed. Once I move the snake into the garden, they're *gone*
    until I remove it in the fall.

My problem isn't pidgeons, but it is birds.

Every morning for the last month or so, I am awakened in the morning by
two STUPID birds that are pecking on my windows.  At first they were sitting 
on the branch of a shrub and pecking at the glass.  I used the simple solution
of trimming the branch so they couldn't reach the window.  Now they fly at
window, hitting it with their beaks and doing very odd looking flight
maneuvers when they discover they can't get through.

They are holding seige to two different windows (on different walls) of my
library.  It's a really nice room, but I don't think the birds are actually
trying to move in (my wife's comment).

I expect they are attacking some reflection they see in the window.  To add
insult to injury, on mornings when I'm really tired and sleep through the
pecking, the cat comes in and wakes me to make sure that I know he is being
annoyed by them also.

Two questions;  How long will this go on? and Any easy, quick way to put
a stop to it?  

I will not get upset by the obvious answers that I have invited with this
problem so go ahead and enter them - a laugh may help on some of these tired
days.

Tom

Get a hawk silhouette and stick it on your window.  I'm not sure where to get
one, though, but you might try a store that sells bird-feeding supplies, or
ask at your local Audubon Society.

-Chris

    
    recently I put up a small shelf under the eves on the back of our house 
    to get a phoebe to stop atacking the screen poarch.  It was poking holes 
    in the screens.  There's a new nest there now and everyones happy.
    
    Gary

My first reaction was "get earplugs," but then I got to the part about the cat.
So...




	get the cat earplugs too.

    If the cat is really aggravated, and if the windows  are openable with
    screens, open the inside windows, leave the screens down.  If your cat
    is irked, it will jump up to the inside sill when the birds appear (or
    earlier in anticipation).  
    
    We had a problem with Blue Jays sitting on a small roof just under our
    bedroom window and jabbering away at 4:00 am or so.  Once we left the
    window open and the cat jumped up to the sill, the Jay took off.  after
    a few days of that, they never returned.  
    
    Of course, then the cat whined about wanting to go out at 4:00 am and
    chase the birds, but that's a different problem.
    
    Dave
    
    
    

    
    Funny, I was just thinking about the hawk silhouette idea
    as I was reading the beaver dam string - stretch a wire across
    the pond etc.  A renowned behaviourist, Konrad Lorenz used
    this in his conditioning experiments.  We had a similar problem
    in REO site, where birds would kamikaze into the side of the glass
    tunnel connecting REO1 and REO2.  Maintenance stuck on some hawk
    silouettes, and it stopped instantly.  Agriculture and garden shops
    often sell them for greenhouses.
    
    Colin
    

    	You could always keep a loaded 12 ga shotgun in your study.  :^)

    
    
    To much noise with the 12ga.....  How about the note with
    the  cat on the door screen and the suggestion  of  electrifing
    the screen.....  Can we try that one hear?????:):)
    
    ........Cook at 120v and serve!!
    
    

    This problem tends to be seasonal (mating season/territory); we had the
    problem a few years back with cardinals and finally dissuaded them by
    soaping the outside of the window with a fairly thick soup of Ivory
    Flakes (Powder? don't recall which).

    Makes the windows kind of ugly for the interim, but when you finally
    wash it off, they're *clean*.

    Well I never thought much about getting rid of the pidgeons - I
    actually enjoyed watching their family grow...on the house across the
    street.  Well these noise creatures who dump large clumps of turd on my
    car, my windows and now the sides of my home, have decided to hang out
    on my roof.
    
    Does the fake owl work - and for how long?  How about that blow up
    snake?  It is not easy getting to my roof (I have no ladder) so I need
    something that once its there I won't have to bother with it.
    
    Thanks,
    Joyce

I've heard that stringing some sort of wire or string along the peak of your
roof, standing off about 2" to 4", will keep birds (pigeons, seagulls) from
resting there.  This probably won't help if the birds are resting on the sloping
part of your roof, however.

-Chris

    Any suggestions on how to rid my bird feeder of the flying rats and not
    scaring away all the beautiful birds?
    
    Have tried the bbgun approach but it does not keep them away for long.
    
    Judie
    

>>> flying rats

    Bats?

    I heard someone once say that they built a box that broadcast on 
    the bats' frequency. Claimed it had a very pronounced effect on 
    their flight patterns - they couldn't "see" any trees, or the 
    ground for that matter. 'Course, you now have the problem of 
    stunned bats all over your lawn ...

    I think the note said Rats... As in PIGEONS..
    
    Bats in a birdfeeder... :^) never heard of that problem before :^)

    Fake owls do *not* work.   I've seen (more than once) a whole row
    of pigeons perched right next to a fake owl.

    
    Hey, pigeons gotta eat too. 
    
    One approach that recognizes this fact would be to put ultra-cheap
    birdfood (e.g., cracked corn or a bargain mixture) on the ground and
    save the good stuff (sunflower seeds or a premium mixture) for the
    feeders. Pigeons prefer feeding on the ground (as do squirrels,
    bluejays, cowbirds, grackles, redwing blackbirds...) -- I see them in
    the feeders only after the ground food is gone.
    
    JP

	re: Fake owl, etc.

	I used a rubber snake with good effect, for about 4-6 months. Then
	they just got used to it.

	re: Bird Feeder

	Get a bird feeder that the pigeon's can't perch on, like the tubes
	with small perches next to each opening. Lantern style feeders are
	easy for them. They generally can't deal with finch feeders.

	If you're really particular, use a thistle feeder. The thistle seed
	is expensive, but from what I head lasts a pretty long time, because
	the flying pigs can't get at it.

	Roy

I've seen a rubber snake work.

	    How about a cat?  Not that I'm a `cat person', but they can 
	be useful.
	    Hey!!!  If your roof is high enough, you can throw a cat up 
	there and it wont be able to get back down.  Pigeon problem solved!



	    Relax!  I was just kidding!

    
    The fake animal scarers are more effective if you move them
    every couple of weeks.  

    For crow hunting you can use an owl decoy.  Crows like to harrass slow
    flying owls.  Soooo, owl calls, owl decoys with movable wings and
    rotating heads are made.  Put the bird on the roof and pull the string
    every now and again.  Hoot the owl call for effects!  Crow hunting is 
    not popular in New England but a mail order place may carry these.  
    
    A bit extreme, I know.  I also have plans for owl "bird" houses...

    
    How about a scarecrow!!!  ;^)
    
    /Charlie

In Seattle they have plastic owls on top of things (bridges, buildings, etc...)
to keep other birds away. Seems to work pretty well there.

    Thanks but not exactly the "look" I am looking for.  Maybe
    if I could hide it in the tree.

    
    Watch the first 10 minutes of the movie "Steel Magnolias".
    

    If you hide it in the tree, odds are the birds won't see it either.
    
    I'd bet the only solution will be to remove the attraction (i.e.
    get the restaurant to keep its trash covered).

Try a rubber snake.

Art

    
    It depends how much effort you want to put into this.
    
    Animal psychology stuff.  The trash is a strong attractive stimulus so
    you need a very strong negative stimulus to drive them off - especially
    in cold weather when other food is hard to find. Animals tend to be
    very nervous when feeding as this is a time of maximum risk from
    predators.  Make them more nervous and the feeding will stop for a
    few days.  Until new birds move into the area - then you'll have to
    repeat the process.
    
    A couple of options:
    
    The owl/snake scarers are cheap and work pretty well, but the birds
    tend to get familiar with (attenuate to) them unless you "randomize"
    the scare - move them every few days or have a random interval between
    the appearances.
    
    Find out what species they are and obtain a recording of their alarm
    call (local libraries often have sources for these).  Make a tape of
    this, randomizing the time interval between calls.  Play the tape for
    an hour or so at random times during the day (a good excercise for your
    multimedia PC.)  Animals don't attenuate to their own alarm calls like
    they do to scarers.  
    
    Take some of your own food waste and mix it with an emetic like epsom
    salts.  Toss that in the garbage.  (Taste aversion is very effective.) 
    
    Shoot a few and hang 'em by their feet in the tree.  (Cruel maybe,
    morbid yes, but very effective.)
    
    If the pests are a locally-established social group such as rooks, and
    you are persistent in your efforts, you might be able to establish
    a "taboo" in the colony.  This happens when one or more group members
    has been scared enough that they won't approach the garbage to feed.
    If they see another member of the colony approaching the garbage, they
    will give an alarm call.  Eventually, the whole colony becomes 
    sensitized to the place and feeding will stop.
    
    regards,
    
    Colin
    
    

    A beebee gun should do the trick.  No need to be caught with
    real bullets and real weapon in fighting this problem in a 
    (probably) highly peopled area.  A slingshot practice session
    is probably a less put-him-in-jail approach over the beebee's.

    ;*)

    Spread anti-freeze over the garbage...it kills mice, dogs, cats,
    etc...might wipe out your birds.  Might kill the homeless though.

    The last message sounded like a good way of handling the problem
    though.

    
    

    
    re -1
    
    In MA  a BB gun is considered a real gun.
    
    
    Walt

    I have seen ultra-sonic devices that are designed to keep various
    creatures away. Specifically I have seen one for deer, dogs, cats,
    squirrels,etc. There are others designed for rodents and similiar
    animals. I believe there was also one for birds. The device gets
    plugged into a standard 110V outlet and emits a sound irritating to
    the target creatures, but above the hearing range of humans. It has an
    effective range in the neighborhood of 100 feet and it's built for outdoor 
    use.
    
    I am interested in it to keep the neighbors cat's out of my yard, the
    one that my neighbors tell me never strays from their yard.
    
    The price is $99 and I saw it in either Brookstone or the Sharper image
    catalog. If it was cheaper I would have one or two by now. It's one of
    those gadgets that one buys on a whim when you have a few bucks extra
    in your pocket.
    
    It doesn't break any laws, in some locales blackbirds are protected,
    doesn't risk an errant projectile from striking something or someone
    who is not the target and better yet it works 24 hours a day even when
    you aren't there. In fact if it is carefully deployed and you tell
    noone about it no-one will ever know it's there, except the birds. I don't 
    know of anyone who has actually used one so I can't testify to 
    effectiveness. It sounds like bracketing the dumpster and the tree would 
    do the job. Watching birds fly into the exclusion zone would seem to be 
    really interesting, almost like a Star Trek Enterprise Defensive Shield.
    
    JB
      

    
    re :10
    
    It might work, but the same rule of attenuation applies.  A constant
    signal will eventually be perceived as "no threat".  I've seen crows
    rise up and then happily resume feeding near a kilodeciBel propane
    cannon because it went off too regularly.
    
    To get the best out of this device, plug it in to a pseudorandom timer
    set to a short (minutes) interval.  Even better, wire it in some way that
    it only goes off when the birds approach the food.  (A $24 replacement
    motion detector used for outdoor lighting would be ideal.)  
    
    As a sidebar to this, the Royal Air Force has experimented with many
    methods of keeping birds away from RAF bases.  The method they use now
    is a falconry unit.  The falcons are too well fed to actually chase and
    kill the birds, but their mere presence on the field will clear the air
    for miles around.  The birds are flown at random intervals to maximize
    the effect.  Originally, like any military establishment, they flew the
    birds according to a regular schedule (like going on patrol).  The
    geese and seagulls soon learned when there were "safe" periods, and
    arrived to feed at those times.  A few hundred million years of
    evolution produces a smart animal....
    
    Cats are creatures of habit.  Watch where it goes and concentrate on
    those places.  There's a product that you can use to spray your yard
    that animals don't like (I think it's aluminum sulphate solution).
    They also don't like the prunings from rose bushes to be strewn on
    their stomping grounds.
    
    Colin

    Well I guess owls in the trees and snakes here and there are the
    easiest way to keep the birds away.  I can move the owls and
    snakes every few days to keep them effective.  The birds do fly away 
    when I make a loud noise and I do that whenever I can.  
    
    I have taken pictures of the area and will be picking them up tomorrow
    to send with a letter to the Westminster Board of Health.  I have
    complained on 3 other occasions and the restaurant cleans up "once";
    then things go back to disgusting. Does anyone know if I can complain
    to the State Board of Health?  Westminster does not have a health
    inspector at this time so I think I will get put off regarding this
    complaint.  With summer just around the corner I really want to be able
    to enjoy my yard.   
    
    
    

    
     You may want to contact a local newspaper on your plight. A little
    press goes a long way and any bad publicity for the owners of the 
    dumpster may cause them to clean up their act.
    
    
    Bob
    

    
    Is there any advice for a woodpecker problem? Just found out that last
    summer's woodpecker is back and he brought a mate! I keep filling the
    holes and they keep starting new ones. Our exterminator recommended
    Ro-Pel and I tried it last summer but it didn't seem to help much. The
    first time I used it was at night. I climbed up the ladder and pointed
    it at the hole and saw eyes staring back at me just as I sprayed the
    hole! The woodpecker came shooting out straight at me! Direct hit at
    point-blank range! I figured he'd never come back! WRONG! I guess the
    stuff didn't bother him at all.   I'll keep using it but I think
    another strategy is in order. I'll probably try rubber snakes next.
    Vinyl siding is my last resort!
    
    Steve B.

    To -1
    
    Ummmm....why is having a woodpecker a problem? 

    BECAUSE, they beat the h*ll out of one's siding!!!  Large holes
    all over the place!!!  They like cedar siding to boot!!!

    ;*}

I'll admit upfront that this may be a dumb idea.  What about a suet feeder to
give them something else to attack rather than your house? We have a number of
woodpeckers out back.  They are always at the feeder but don't touch the house
which is cedar siding.  If you can't beat 'em....

George

    In the spring at least some kinds of woodpecker like to "drum" as
    a way of establishing territory and/or attracting mates.  They'll pound
    on most anything that sounds good, even if it *isn't* wood -- I had
    one drumming on vinyl siding!

    The lil'peckers DO have wonderful opportunities to pound away at
    many, many suet feeders and many, many shell-on peanut feeders.
    They are well fed in *my* yard!!!   Is there anything to spred on
    the siding that would distract them?  I have placed a large owl
    in the window next to the area.  


    justme....jacqui

The woodpeckers attack your siding because they think they hear bugs underneath.
There may actually be bugs, or something inside your house that sounds like
it (a ticking clock is typical).

					Steve

>    Ummmm....why is having a woodpecker a problem? 

My guess would be all the splinters...

    I put suet out for the woodpeckers and other birds.  the $%&%^ dog down
    the road ate it all.  2 lbs of it.
    
    ed

Last summer I found out that he was actually drilling large holes to make a home
for himself. When I went to spray his favorite drilling area I found him staring
back at me from inside the hole.

Steve

    
    How about if you offer another home site? 
    
    Get a few feet of old log and drill a couple of starter holes
    then rope it to a tree about 10' off the ground.  Bait it with
    suet (or pastry "caterpillars").