My neighborhood is overrun with doves. They seem to be very happy here, and have been raising lots of baby birds. Their bird poop is all over the back yard where my garden is and where some of my water is stored. It’s no biggie right now, but if that bird poop contained H5N1 it would be. If TSHTF and people can get the virus from breathing or ingesting poop particles, what on earth are we going to do? Shade cloth over garden areas would help, as would tarps over anything else we want to keep clean. But any rainwater harvesting is going to harvest some poop also. Trying to reduce the population of birds will result in a lot of carcasses to dispose of. I’ve seen starlings nesting right next to fake owls, so don’t think that is the answer. Anybody have something that has worked to keep birds like doves & pigeons away from their property?
Mari – at 10:18 If TSHTF and people can get the virus from breathing or ingesting poop particles…
That is the leading contender for greatest pun of the day.
Anybody have something that has worked to keep birds like doves & pigeons away from their property?
We and others in our area have had good luck with flashy metallic mobiles — often constructed of shiny aluminum pie plates and metallic ribbon streamers.
There are fake owls who rotate their heads. Fake snakes??? My birds that nested in the pines have gone. I had to cut down a magnificent flowering plum, and the birds are gone who nested there for thirty years. The doves, the flickers, the cardinals, the blue jays are gone because three mountain ash died in the back yard, and there are not mountain ash berries. I noticed at the local park during the concert last nite, that the bird poo on the lawns and paths are mainly on the north east side. On the south paths and the path with no grass the resident canadian geese aren’t leaving their turds. Whereever there is grass for feeding and sun there are abundent droppings. So it is habitat. Change the habitat in some way.The mallards 25 of them seem to keep to areas out of the way of the canadians.
Dennis in Colorado – at 11:01 - LOL - wouldn’t you know it - never when I try to pun.
I stopped by the enviormental center. She suggested what Dennis did. Just move everything around, ditto with owl. Also found out why I no longer have finches in my pines. An occular infection, contageous passed from bird to bird. Came up from the south and did a number on the finches. Can’t see, can’t eat….
I have a crazy next-door neighor who feeds all the critters in town. If you drive down our street, you see house after house (a rental community) and then you see her house literally covered with birds (because she has an endless reservoir of bird seed apparently). I’m considering asking the landlord to issue an edict against this. The time to stop this behavior is now, not after H5N1 shows up in my neighborhood. Has anyone else tried and had success getting someone to stop feeding birds?
anonymous – at 13:51 --- There was actually an article in the news not too long ago about something like that. Apparently, the owners had been feeding pigeons for several years, and the bird droppings got so heavy on the roof that the front porch literally collapsed!
No. Same with deer. One woman used to actually let the deer into her house to feed them. Talk about soft hearts. I think she was injured doing this, but didn’t stop. When a person decides they are St Francis of Assissi they never stop. (I have a neighbor with a soft heart for animals.) No use talking. My neighbor does not believe there is any problem.
Pigeons seems to be a smaller problem. Aperantly they dont spread the virus. All major europen cities have swarms of them, no one infected yet. Same goes for Asia as well I think. Its the water bird that is spreading.. but you would need a large dose, close contact, imagine plukking a dusty bird with feathers covered with dung…
well this is the official vetrenarian advise given here, and I think the numbers give them right. Basic hygiene, and try to wash the area. Also try to make them go away, they are after all the “rats of the air”…
Dennis in Colorado – at 11:01 Aug, 17
You can also use those annoying AOL CD’s
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