Bird Proof Products

by Alex A. Kecskes

If you own or operate a seaside resort, you know the problems pest birds like gulls can create. Large birds like these can invade private outdoor areas, including pools, spas, patios and beachside bars. They can become a real nuisance in outdoor eating areas as they scavenge for food scraps, poop on tables, soil chairs and lounges. 

Guests accustomed to being pampered won’t easily forget the traumas or problems they encountered with pest birds. And word of mouth in this Internet and social media age can quickly ruin a resort’s sterling reputation. As birds continue to harass your resort’s guests, you’ll find yourself spending more time in cleanups and having to comp annoyed guests for their “experience with birds.”

Gulls can also create maintenance and repair problems throughout your resort. Rooftop AC units, lighting systems and security cameras can be blocked or rendered non functional by gull droppings and nests. Pool and spa filters will require more frequent attention as droppings and nest debris contaminate them.

As you may already have discovered, gulls can be aggressive and persistent. You can blast them with a water hose or slap at them with towels, but they’ll come back to pester and poop again. If you ever have a party where food is openly on display, your service staff will be working full time waving away gulls rather than paying attention to guests.

Fortunately, you can now avail yourself of a variety of pest bird deterrents that will keep gulls from invading your resort and bothering your guests.

Bird Sounds, But No Birds. The devices are called Sonic Bird Deterrents. And they sound like birds to humans, but birds are scared of them. These highly effective and humane bird deterrents can be discretely installed on patio covers, under eaves or inside gazebos. They’re ideal for getting rid of gulls from large outdoor areas because they emit predator and distress calls that make gulls really nervous. The best bird sonic systems have the ability to change the pitch, frequency, timing and intensity of the sounds they emit. If you have more than gulls pestering your resort, you might look into one popular system that emits distress and predator calls for as many as 22 types of birds.

Go Solar, Say Bye-Bye to Birds. It’s known as the Solar Powered Bird Repeller, a clever device that uses motor-driven arms to flick gulls off certain troublesome areas. The arms whip around continuously at 30 RPM to “remind” even the most hard-headed gull that this is a no landing zone. Some bird repellers have adjustable “arms” that cover up to 5 feet in diameter. Keep in mind, these devices are solar powered, which makes them environmentally suitable for promoting your “green” bird proofing agenda.  Solar powered repellers can be easily set up on patio covers, gazebos, rooftops and other elevated areas. They even store the sun's energy for efficient, uninterrupted day-and-night operation.

Spike the Landing Zones. Strategically placed plastic bird spikes can prevent gulls from landing on the perches they normally use before they swoop down and annoy guests. The best plastic bird spikes are rugged, U.V. protected deterrents that stay strong in wind and sun. Some manufacturers offer a full 5-year guarantee on their plastic bird spikes. This covers the spike against UV degradation.

For those concerned about aesthetics, plastic bird spikes have the added advantage of coming in a wide range of colors--including white, tan, gray, black, brown, brick red and even crystal clear. So that should assuage your worries about spikes being too noticeable. Even custom colors are now available. Plastic bird spikes are economical, too—important if you happen to be on a tight bird-control budget. Finally, the spikes are blunted at the tips, so they won’t injure birds or installation crews.

By Kathy Fritsch

Baby proofing the home keeps your baby free from harm, but bird proofing the home keeps you and your home free from the harm a pest bird can do.  Summertime is the ideal season to take action.  It is warm and sunny and the perfect time to be outside doing simple and inexpensive home improvement projects.  Installing bird deterrents should be at the top of your things to do list.  This is the time of year where birds are searching for that comfortable location to start building their nests and hatching their offspring.  There are effective products that will bird proof your home so the birds do not choose it as their nesting site.  Although the idea of baby birds may seem delightful, the damage to you and your property from pest birds and their nests can be quite detrimental.

A very important reason to bird proof your home is to keep your family healthy.  Nesting birds accumulate a build-up of viruses, bacteria and fungal matter in their droppings.  The best way to eliminate this problem is to stop the nesting before it begins.  Inspect your home closely.  Determine areas that may be susceptible to nesting that are close to where your family congregates.  One area that is sure to get summertime and often year round usage is your patio. The patio cover is a great place to mount a solar bird repeller.  The repeller can be mounted on either flat or angled surfaces in a matter of minutes.  It scares the pest birds away from the area by the continual movement of the 2.5’ telescoping rods which have iridescent red foil flash tape at the ends.  The constant sweeping movement does not harm the birds in anyway, but distracts them from making your patio their summer home.  The red foil flash tape also scares the birds away from the area when it is simply tied to the patio, or a nearby tree, creating the perfect optical distraction zone.

Another common area for birds to nest around your home is under the eaves, near your front entry way or in your rain gutters.  You want to avoid carrying any droppings from your shoes into your home, or breathing in the fungal spores that can be released from the nest.  A very simple and economical way to keep the eaves free of birds is the use of either a bird slope or a transparent bird gel.  Both make an extremely uncomfortable landing spot for the bird.  The bird slope creates a “slippery slope” that birds cannot land on.  It is easily installed and can be painted to match the exterior of your home.  A transparent bird gel creates a very sticky surface which birds hate.  The gel is virtually invisible and is non-toxic to people and birds.

Making the rain gutters undesirable for landing and nesting is as simple as installing gutter bird spikes. After clearing out any debris from the gutters, just connect the spikes by using the attached clips and check one more thing off your to do list. Taking these precautions early on will save you time in the long run.  Cleaning up the area after a pest bird has made his home would be much more labor intensive.  Cleaning and repairing the physical damage to your home from the uric acid released from bird droppings can be a more expensive project.  Even though pest birds can be hazardous to us, we want to not be half hazard in our humane “good riddance” of them.  Always choose humane bird deterrent products like those available at Absolute Bird Control.

by Alex A. Kecskes

Bird proofing government buildings, parks, military bases, and aircraft hangars has been a problem for quite some time.

At the dawn of aviation, the Wright brothers recorded a bird strike that interfered with their early flights. More recently, Hanscom Field in Bedford Massachusetts had roughly 5,000 starlings roosting in their hangar. Clinton Air Force Base in Oklahoma had six hangars with 200-300 house sparrows in each hangar. Lockbourne Air Base in Ohio had 2,000 to 3,000 house sparrows between three hangars with an additional 2,000-3,000 starlings. Wright-Patterson Field had pigeons in their propeller testing area. Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan suffered from a sparrow invasion. The list goes on and on. Pest birds, it seems, love to hang out in hangers.

Birds entering various openings within aircraft hangars, roost in the I-beams high inside these structures. The Air Force says that the accumulation of droppings, feathers, and other matter poses a big problem. Bird droppings, accumulating on the aluminum skin of airplanes, can corrode the metal and eventually weaken the structure itself. Another concern is that if droppings, feathers, and other matter get into the engines, critically important parts must be cleaned as they could stall an engine during flight. Cleaning an aircraft engine is very expensive and time consuming.

So how does one bird proof these aviation areas? In the past, bird proofing aircraft and the facilities that housed and repaired them was a hit or miss proposition. Toxicants like strychnine-treated grain were used to inhumanely eliminate pest birds—particularly pigeons. Pellet guns were also used. As was high-pressure air or water to discourage roosting.

Today, bird-proofing methods vary from scaring devices, repellents and screening to mists and sonic systems. To bird proof large areas, bird netting creates an impenetrable barrier for most birds. Some heavy-duty bird netting is made of polyethylene fabric and is UV stabilized, flame resistant and rot and waterproof. Netting comes in various mesh sizes to deter a wide range of birds. To seal out small openings, there's copper mesh cloth. Available  in rolls, it's easily stuffed into cracks or holes to let air circulate but keep birds out.

Ideal for hangers, bird-misting systems are both humane and effective. These bird proofing systems work by releasing an ultra fine mist that pest birds can't see and prefer not to be around. The mist typically employs a chemical called methyl anthranilate, a grape extract that naturally occurs in concord grapes. The extract has been widely used for decades to deter a wide variety of pest birds including, sparrows, pigeons, starlings, crows, blackbirds and geese.  Yet it's safe for people, pets, plants and birds.
 
Another useful bird proofing method is the electric-track bird repeller. Ideal for ledges, rooftops, and flat or curved surfaces, these low-profile electrified tracks deliver a non-lethal electric shock that discourages birds from landing or feeding. Some manufacturers offer a flow-through design to keep water from damming up on rooftops and other surfaces.

Bird proofing measures--bird netting, bird repellents, bird spikes and electric shock systems--can be found on our nation's Capitol and White House, as well as on major civil and military facilities worldwide. Bird spikes are ideal for pigeons and other large birds. Some bird spikes are made of strong, rigid unbreakable polycarbonate, others have stainless steel spikes. A cousin to the bird spike is the bird spider. The spider arms wave with the breeze, keeping wild birds from landing. Most come in a variety of diameters and install easily. And although they appear menacing, spikes and spiders won't harm birds.
 
Many government buildings tend to be older with established pest bird populations. Failure to bird proof these buildings and offices can lead to a number of problems. The acid secretion produced by the fungi that live in bird droppings can discolor paint and other surfaces. Pest bird nests and droppings can get sucked into ducts, grilles and vents, blocking air conditioning and heating units. In these tough times with governments under the budget knife, cleaning and restoring buildings damaged by pest birds is one expense many governments can do without.

The bird slope is a simple solution ideal for many government buildings. Suitable for eaves, ledges, beams and other 90-degree areas where pest birds tend to nest and roost, the angled, slippery PVC panels cause pest birds to simply slide off when they try to land. For an even easier-to-install solution, there's bird gel. Birds hate this stuff because it creates a sticky surface that birds find very annoying to land in. It's safe for birds (except swallows) and a great way to keep birds from landing on ledges, I-beams, parapet walls, conduit, pipes, and most flat or curved surfaces.

At public parks, benches, playground equipment, statues, entry monuments and other structures can be rendered unsightly and eventually ruined by pest birds. There's also the health hazard pest birds pose to park visitors. Children placing their hands on bird droppings left on park bench armrests or playground equipment can be at risk, since many fail to wash their hands before snacking at the park. These droppings have been known to carry and transmit any of 60 known diseases. Sparrows and Feral Pigeons can carry bacteria causing Salmonellosis. Feral Pigeons carry Ornithosis--similar to viral pneumonia. If that's not bad enough, birds, bird droppings and their nesting fodder contain insects and mites, which can cause even more damage.

One effective and inexpensive way to bird proof parks is through the use of visual deterrents. Iridescent reflective foil or flash tape can be easily strung around lampposts and turned into pennants. Inflatable balloons are another economical visual scare device. Their lifelike reflective predator eyes and markings drive birds away by creating an “Optical Distraction Zone.”

Keep our country beautiful and safe, and do it humanely by bird proofing.