Bird Control Overview
Urban Bird Challenges
Urban birds cause major headaches for building and public amenity managers across the UK in complaints, direct and indirect damage, and public health and safety, not to mention cleaning and maintenance costs.
Urban Bird Problems
Bird feathers and droppings are known to be reservoirs for a range of diseases, allergens, insects and mites harmful to humans. These include salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, chlamydia, cryptococcus and histoplasma. In many cases, however, image and physical safety are the most important issues facing building and amenity managers.
Bird fouling looks and smells unpleasant, and frequently deters people from using areas in the vicinity of nesting and perching sites. Droppings further present a serious slip hazard on pavements and walkways; one that rapidly builds up to troublesome levels again following clearance.
Public safety is a major concern with gulls. In coastal towns, in particular, they attack people in the street for food. And they can become very aggressive towards both humans and domestic pets, especially when they have young in the nest.
Acid bird droppings can also seriously damage both stone and metalwork. Equally, the accumulation of nesting materials and droppings can cause water damage by blocking gutters and downspouts.
Good Behavioural Understanding
Physically protecting buildings and structures from perching, roosting and nesting will only be successful if undertaken with a good understanding of the natural behaviour of the particular birds causing the problem.
Apart from its humaneness, the big advantage of combating bird problems by physical proofing is its long-term sustainability. However, the fact that birds remain alive means they will seek to overcome the protection or relocate within the immediate area.
It is, consequently, vital to appreciate that solutions effective for one species of bird will not necessarily be appropriate for another. Larger and more robust gulls, for instance, need a fundamentally different approach to agile and more persistent pigeons, which need to be treated quite differently from smaller and more manoeuvrable sparrows.
Equally, the type of proofing required will depend on the extent of the pressure exerted by the birds in question which, in turn, depends on precisely how they are using the locations.
Better Planned Proofing
Only when armed with a good understanding of the way specific areas are being used by particular bird species can proofing programmes be put in place to effectively protect them over an extended period.
Best Equipment Installation
Alongside the most appropriate system selection, correct equipment specification and installation are the single most vital keys to bird proofing success. Not least because mistakes in work at height in public places can be extremely costly to remedy.
The strong compulsion birds have to regain key nesting, roosting and loafing sites combined with their considerable strength, persistency and ingenuity means proofing will be subject to robust testing from the day of installation. So any defects in materials or workmanship are most unlikely to go unpunished.
