Pest Bird Control

Environmental and Non-Chemical Bird Control

In order to achieve lasting effectiveness, most bird control work begins with non-chemical measures to exclude birds from sensitive areas and/or make a property less attractive to birds.

Done properly, non-chemical bird control is both safer and more permanent than using chemicals. It does, however, require working on ladders or scaffolds, so many people prefer to call a professional.

Some non-chemical bird-control measures include:

Proper sanitation and refuse management, to remove sources of food that attract and sustain pest bird populations.
Exclusion measures, such as covering roof vents and other structural openings with bird-proof covers, bird netting, or hardware cloth.
The use of Nixalite bird spikes, which are placed along ledges and other places where birds roost.
"Fright devices," such as ultrasonic repellers, Irri-Tape, stroboscopic devices, motorized owl manikins, coyote silhouettes, inflatable snakes, and inflatable eyeballs, all of which are designed to frighten pest birds away without harming them.

In general, pretty much all of these methods will help keep birds away -- for a while. However, most of the fright devices lose their effectiveness as the birds lose their fear of the devices. Birds may not be the smartest animals in the world, but even they eventually realize that bird fright devices never actually seem interested in attacking them. Periodically moving the devices does tend to prolong their effectiveness.

Chemical Bird Control

In many cases, non-chemical measures are all that are needed to manage bird problems. But sometimes chemical control is also needed.

Chemical control falls into two broad categories:

Chemical repellents, such as Goose Chase, an organic product specifically designed to make grass taste bad to geese so they move on somewhere else; and bird-repellent gels and gooey stuff that is applied with a caulking gun or putty knife to ledges, rain gutters, and other places where pest birds tend to perch and roost.

True avicides, which are poisons designed either to temporarily make birds ill so they leave a given area (they associate their illness with the treated area), or to outright kill them. True avicides are restricted pesticides and are available only to specially trained, certified pest control operators.

Other Novel Approaches to Bird Pest Control

Birds can create a nuisance in all sorts of situations, and many novel and unique approaches to bird control have been tried -- with varying degrees of success. For example:

Some airports, like Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada, employ predator animals such as trained falcons or dogs to scare birds away from aircraft flight paths.
Trained dogs are also helping to keep golf courses free of unwanted geese.
Some people make mobiles out of the unwanted CD-ROM disks that constantly show up in their mailboxes, and hang them outside their homes to frighten away woodpeckers. Old pots and pans hung from the side of the house also seem effective. (Of course, your neighbors may wonder if you've lost your mind by hanging your pots and pans outside, but hey, nothing's perfect.)

We offer a variety of bird control chemicals, netting, and fright devices at our online pest control store.

Of course, many people prefer to simply call a pro. Many companies provide professional bird control. One Atlanta, Georgia Bird Control Company has an interesting bird control page (complete with pictures) that you may find interesting whether you decide to do the work yourself, or call a pro.