Cowley's Pest Control Blog

Each and every day, a Canada goose residing in New Jersey eats 2-3 pounds of grass and deposits approximately 1-2 pounds of droppings.  It is estimated that the 3 million plus Canada Geese in the United States dump 1.8 billion pounds of droppings.  As a coastal state, New Jersey has gotten more than its fair share of these bird and their offerings.  It's bad enough that people slip and fall on these slippery droppings.  Like all bird waste, the droppings are chock full of diseases and parasites.  These geese are not wild in the traditional sense; because they habituated to people and adapted to living in and around us.

Rats with wings.  Sky rats.  Gutter Birds.  Flying Ashtrays. Pigeons are one of the most unloved birds around.  Some even suffer from peristerophobia, an extreme fear of pigeons and their potential for contamination, especially because of their prodigious droppings.  There is a basis in fact for this fear.  More people would be seeing therapists for peristerophobia if they knew the extent of the toxicity of this waste to humans.  When their droppings dry out, turn to dust and become airborne they can be absorbed in the mucous membranes of unknowing victims in their eyes, nose, or mouth.  There are over 60 diseases that pigeons can transmit to humans including potentially fatal diseases like salmonella and meningitis as well as a range of histoplasmosis fungal infections.  Respiratory histoplasmosis permanently affects the lungs while ocular histoplasmosis eats away at the eyeball tissue causing serious vision problems.

Nuisance birds take over and use the inside or outside of a building or warehouse as roosting, loafing and nesting sites.  Nuisance birds cause extensive damage to structures by drilling holes or clogging ventilation systems and machinery with their nests creating fire hazards.  They cause water backup in rain gutters that can lead to dangerous and costly structural damage.  To add insult to injury, these birds leave mounds of diseased waste droppings that are acidic enough to dissolve paint, stain wood, erode metal, and cause concrete and stonework to crumble.  Bird problems don’t magically go away.  Once these birds get settled in, they won’t be leaving on their own accord.  You need to contact an experienced bird control professional who can evaluate the problem and institute cost-effective bird control measures that work.

When a client is at wit’s end in dealing with birds and their noxious droppings, the general attitude is that drastic times call for drastic measures.  They want these birds gone.  Shoot them. Trap them.  Poison them.  That’s wrong for a variety of reasons.  First, the Migratory Bird Treaty and Endangered Species Acts prohibit the trapping or killing of most birds, eggs or nests without a permit.  So, before doing anything, you must identify the pest bird and know any applicable municipal, state, and federal laws.  Proper and effective bird control is about removal and exclusion through various physical, visual, or auditory deterrents.  The objective in bird control is to not only rid yourself of the existing bird infestation, but also to make sure that birds find your facility undesirable. You want your facility made as “bird-proof” as possible so you don’t have to keep revisiting the problem every year.

Bird control is a multi-tactic approach involving a variety of deterrents.  Bird control can be difficult and frustrating, but it is a winnable war.  Physical barrier deterrents such as anti-roosting spikes, nettings, post and wire deterrents, bird slopes, and shock tracks are usually the most effective over the long-term and just as important, no harm comes to the birds.  Effective long-term bird control requires behavior modification.  Eliminate potential food and water sources.  Finally, do not attempt to clean up bird droppings yourself unless you have the proper protective gear and have been trained in hazmat procedures.