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How Long Before Pigeon Poop Damages Your Car?

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 06:05:55 +0000

Pigeon Poop

So, How Long Before The Pigeon Poop Damages Your Belongings? High rated auto detailers say waiting too long to remove bird droppings and bugs from your car can lead to serious damage to the car’s paint job.

Imagine pulling out of the car wash — feeling good that you finally washed the winter salt and grime away — and: “Splat.” A bird poops on your car.

That momentary clean car feeling suddenly turns sour. If your car is a lightning rod for bird byproducts, try not to let it get you down in the, well, dumps. Highly rated auto detailers say it’s important to take a proactive approach and quickly wash away the poop and other harmful objects such as bugs and tree sap.

Damage Your Car Paint

Aside from the fact bird poop is gross to look at — especially a car covered in it — it can be extremely damaging to your car’s paint job. If left untreated, bird poop and bugs can penetrate your car’s clear coat protective layer.

“Bird poop and bugs have acid and can burn through the clear coat in as little as 48 hours,” says paint experts “Waiting too long can burn the clear coat and paint surface all the way to the metal. It increases when it’s hot outside [because the poop can warm up and harden on the paint] and is not as bad in the winter.”

Another reason bird poop can be so damaging is because some birds swallow gravel, which helps them digest food. The tiny gravel bits in the feces can scrape the surface of the car when wiped away.

Bugs, meanwhile, interact in a similar way with paint. They also have chemicals that can eat through the clear coat and cause damage. Bugs can collect by the dozens on cars, especially during long highway trips.

“The clear coat will eventually start to lift at different points,” says Mark Ellis, owner of highly rated Jewel Auto Care in Manassas, Va. “You’ll see scars and little patches where the clear coat has been damaged. Once the clear coat starts lifting, there’s really no way to stop it.”

Paint and clear coat damage can cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000 to repair.

Wash Your Car Regularly

Ellis recommends a car wash once a week to remove poop and bugs; McKay recommends one at least every two weeks. It’s also important, Ellis says, to wax your car two to three times a year, especially between seasons such as winter and spring when road salt tends to collect. The wax provides a layer of protection for the clear coat.

But if you can’t get to the car wash, Ellis recommends keeping a bottle of water and a microfiber rag in the car to quickly wipe away animal waste and other debris. “If you see something that shouldn’t be there, wiping it off with water will help protect your paint,” he says.

A basic car wash runs anywhere from $5 to $10, while a deluxe wash can cost $10 to $20. A professional wax job will generally cost $50 to $95.

source

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Open-Air Pigeon Nest Closes Popular Mission Taqueria

Pigeon Patrol — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 18:53:59 +0000

Brazen Pigeons feeding directly from the table.

Open-Air Pigeon Nest Closes Popular Mission Taqueria

by Chris Roberts | September 13, 2011

Pigeons are more than rats with wings. Birds of the family columbidae are also reasons not to eat at Taqueria Vallarta on 24th Street — or, more precisely, why nobody has eaten at Taqueria Vallarta since Sept. 8th, and why nobody may eat there until a Department of Public Health hearing tomorrow.

It appears a pair of diners were chowing down on their favorite Mission District Mexican food selections — the street-style tacos served until after 3 a.m. are particularly bomb, we hear — when they noticed something was afoot. Or rather, a-wing: there was a pigeon nest in the restaurant’s rafters, and pigeons flying in and out of the eatery via a hole in the roof, according to a complaint on file with DPH.

“There were pigeons flying in and out of the restaurant,” the unnamed resident said, according to the complaint. “The peigons [sic] were leaving peigon [sic] waste visibly around the restaurant.” (You can read the entire complaint here.)

That was on Sept. 6. On Sept. 8, a DPH inspector visited for a reinspection and ordered the restaurant immediately closed after finding six bags of trash in a storage closet and what was delicately described as a “cockroach infestation.” (You can read the inspector’s entire report here.)

This isn’t the first time Vallarta has had to close due to an excess in, shall we say, live animal culture: the eatery also had to close in 2006 thanks to a roach population.

All this will soon be taken care of, according to restaurant owner Juan Rosas Lopez, reached via telephone at the eatery on Tuesday.

“We’re closed to do renovations to the restuarant,” said Lopez, who, God bless him, talked to us after we exhausted our Spanish with repeated “periodico, noticias, noticias,” to one of his employees. “We’re fixing the walls, the bars, the counters,” Lopez said. “We’re doing something nice.”

Lopez says he’ll be able to reopen in a couple of days, pending results on the hearing.
Whatever problems he’s had doesn’t appear to have cut into his bottom line much — another Vallarta location recently opened on 16th Street, and the taqueria’s Yelp rating is a four out of five stars.

But the pigeons? That’s a new one. “‘Pigeon problems’ abound in this city and all cities throughout the US and the world,” observed DPH spokeswoman Eileen Shields.

“What doesn’t abound are pigeons taking up residence inside restaurants. Very unusual occurrence, even for San Francisco.”

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Woman fined £150 for feeding pigeon sausage roll in Bath

Pigeon Patrol — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 21:07:45 +0000

A woman who fed a bit of a sausage roll to a pigeon in the street has been fined £150.

Sally-Ann Fricker said she was out shopping in Bath with her daughter and her two young boys when a pigeon landed in front of them.

She broke off a corner of the snack and threw it to the bird which immediately flew off with the morsel.

Bath and North East Somerset Council said anyone caught littering faced a £150 fixed penalty fine.

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Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

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Lawmaker in Chicago gets pooed on by a pigeon while complaining about pigeon poo

Pigeon Patrol — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 20:43:52 +0000

Chicago has had a long and storied battle against pesky pigeons on their transit systems.

Speaking to CBS Chicago, state Rep. Jaime Andrade was in mid-flow discussing the problem of pigeons pooping on the Chicago Transit Authority, when he was pooped on himself.

In the middle of the interview, he can be heard saying:

“Did I just get – I did, didn’t I?”

He then added:

“I’ll just have to go clean up.”

“That’s what happens to my constituents. They get s*** on all time.”

According to CBS Chicago, bird droppings have long been an issue for commuters at the Irving Park Blue Line station, which has reportedly been dubbed the “pigeon poop station.”

Andrade is reportedly trying to fix the problem, with one of his innovative ideas being to ask the CTA to install a hose line for power washing when it constructs new escalators at the stop. Either way, that’s a crappy situation.

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Durham Teenagers ‘stamp on pigeon’s head’ as horrified shoppers look on

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 21:40:29 +0000

Shoppers who witnessed a gang of teenagers stamp on a fatally injured pigeon have been urged to report the incident to police.

The RSPCA says a crime may have been committed after eight youths were seen repeatedly kicking the bird in Darlington town centre.

One youngster was reported to have jumped on the animal – which was already lying injured after being hit by a car.

A spokesperson with the animal welfare charity said: “This sounds like a distressing incident and we urge anyone with information to contact the police or the RSPCA.”

The attack, on Saturday, was carried out in front of children, the Northern Echo reported. It continued even after a nearby shop security guard attempted to warn the youths away.

One witness, Jordon O’Gorman told the newspaper: “It was disgusting.” He added: “I just saw a lot of teenagers surrounding it. I saw one boy jump and land on the pigeon. “I heard the security guard tell them to move but they wouldn’t. “It had been knocked over – it was dead – but still no need to jump on it.”

“It’s disgusting and there were two younger kids with me so I turned them round. I didn’t want them seeing that.”

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CTA, officials up rally against a determined pigeon feeder at Northwest Side station

Pigeon Patrol — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 20:40:15 +0000

By MARY WISNIEWSKI – Chicago Tribune

State Rep. Jaime Andrade has been fighting a losing battle to clean up the mess made by pigeons at the CTA’s Irving Park Blue Line station on the city’s Northwest Side.

The sidewalk by the station is so thickly spackled with droppings that it looks and smells like a chicken coop. Andrade, who represents the district that includes the station, has pushed for state funds to keep the birds away. Earlier this month, he was hit in the head by guano during a television interview.

But Andrade, state and city officials and the CTA are up against someone who is determined to feed and protect birds around the city and visits the Irving Park station often with big sacks of white rice.

“I protect all God’s creatures because this is my mission,” said Young Kang, 67, while at the Hoa Nam Grocery store on Argyle Street in Uptown last week, where she buys supplies to feed the birds. “This is not for my good. God gave this to me. I take care of the birds.”

Kang, who used to be in the restaurant business, said she is a Christian minister and founder of a nonprofit. It has been incorporated as Young Bird Care Society since April 2015 and is in good standing, according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Over the past 11 years, Kang said she has spent $300,000 of her own money feeding birds in locations around the city, going out every day and hiring people to help.

She said she also helps the homeless, stuffing money under their pillows as they sleep.

CTA riders interviewed outside the Irving Park station described the pigeon situation as “gross” and “terrible” and wondered why more netting couldn’t be put up in more areas of the bridge. Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Guy Tridgell said the agency can’t do this because it needs to have the area open for inspections and other maintenance.

“We’re happy to continue discussing and meeting with all interested parties to see if there’s some solution,” Tridgell said.

Andrade disagreed with IDOT’s explanation, saying netting could easily be removed for inspections. “The problem comes down to who is going to pay,” he said.

There is some metal netting under the Kennedy bridge, apart from the area around the CTA station entrance, but some of it is in disrepair.

By contrast, anti-pigeon netting is completely installed on the beams under the Union Pacific railroad bridge, above the sidewalk, just west of the CTA station. The bridge carries Metra’s Union Pacific Northwest Line.

Mary Parich of Independence Park said that sometimes the pigeon mess on the sidewalk is so bad that she has to tip-toe.

“They are God’s creatures, but you have to look out for the health of people, too,” Parich said.

Kang said she once lived in the neighborhood, and the birds have always been there, long before she started feeding them.

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Windsor city issues warning to clean up rooftop swamp

Pigeon Patrol — Sun, 01 Sep 2019 15:11:20 +0000

The stagnant rooftop swamp on top of a vacant commercial building on Ouellette Avenue continues to fester, attracting wildlife and emitting a wicked stench that has frustrated neighbours who’ve put up with the growing mess for months.

A pond of water pooled on the roof of the empty property at 747-755 Ouellette Ave. long enough for a large patch of reeds and cattails to flourish, providing an attractive destination for the pigeons and seagulls that arrive almost every morning.

Malette says nothing has been done since she highlighted the issue. But help may be on the way, according to Lee Ann Doyle, the city’s chief building official. Inspectors have visited the site several times and issued a final warning to the owner to clean up the property.

“If the work isn’t done, we’ll do it and charge it against the property taxes,” Doyle said.

Building inspectors issued a work order after visiting the site in July. When nothing was done, the city sent out the warning letter on Aug. 11, giving the owner until Sept. 10 to clean up the mess.

Doyle said, if nothing is done, the city will call in contractors on Sept. 11 to do the work.

The building is listed to Entertaining Assests Inc., but company representative Mike Soleski previously told The Windsor Star he hasn’t owned the property for several months. All records on file with the city indicate there has been no change in ownership.

Malette barely goes out onto her 13th floor balcony anymore because of the smell and the mosquitoes.

“I’m not a person to make complaints, but this is just ridiculous,” she said.

Discarded patio chairs, empty pizza boxes and beer cans demonstrate the amount of human traffic on the rooftop as well. The commercial building has been boarded up for years, but at least 10 times, Malette said, she has watched people on the roof, smoking drugs and drinking. They’ve even gone as far as setting small fires.

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CTA Orders Cleaning of Garage Covered in Pigeon Poop

Pigeon Patrol — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 23:43:58 +0000

CTA’s Kiss ‘n Ride parking garage at the Cumberland Blue Line station is covered in pigeon droppings. The CTA has ordered the company that runs the garage to clean it up and install devices to keep pigeons away. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) — The CTA has ordered the company that runs the “Kiss n’ Ride” parking garage at the Cumberland Blue Line stop to clean the place up. The place is overrun by pigeons and some fear it may become a health hazard.

CBS2’s Mike Parker reports, pigeons are everywhere at the parking garage for the Cumberland stop – lurking on every floor of the huge garage. They’re birds of a feather, all right, and wreaking havoc with some pretty fancy car exteriors.

“There are pigeon droppings, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were bats up there as well,” said garage user Mark Gelula.

CBS 2 found no bats at the garage, only pigeons and mounds of droppings all over – some of them two to three inches deep.

Professional bird chaser Joe Seid toured the garage and said, “Maybe it’s cleaned occasionally, but it appears it’s not cleaned very frequently.”

Seid said he’s concerned about the health danger, not the paint jobs of the cars.

“If the droppings get airborne and you breathe it in, it could take a long time to take effect but it can be deadly,” he said.

Late Tuesday, after CBS 2 called to report what we found, the CTA ordered Central Parking Services to take action.

The company, which manages and maintains the garage was told to install measures designed to prevent roosting. The transit agency also ordered that the “area be thoroughly cleaned”, and that “efforts will be monitored and evaluated for effectiveness.”

According to the CTA, “the safety, security and well being of our customers and employees” is a top priority. Looks like a job for the experts!

Original by CBS 2 Producer Ed Marshall.

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Pigeons Huddle for Warmth At “L” Stops

Pigeon Patrol — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 21:33:04 +0000

Dozens of birds crowding the station

CHICAGO (CBS) — Commuters are calling it everything from cute to disgusting – dozens of pigeons warming themselves under the heating lamps at Loop ‘L’ stops.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller reports, pigeons have crowded into the heat lamp stalls on the platforms to the point where there is no place for humans left to stand.

“It’s like we’re being supplanted by the pigeons,” one woman said.

Most people politely let the pigeons have the space, but that may have something to do with all the pigeon poop on the platform under the heaters.

“It’s kind of funny,” the commuter said. “It’s also so dirty that people don’t even dare, trying to make their own way and get some space for themselves.”

The commuter was giving the pigeons a wide berth, noting the smell.

“I think it’s cute and disgusting at the same time.”

The Chicago Transit Authority says it has only gotten two complaints about pigeons this winter. But one man waiting for an ‘L’ train was quite unhappy.

“It’s disgusting that these birds are and the city is not doing anything about it,” he said. Pigeon droppings are known to carry a host of viruses and cause health problems.

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Mum fined £150 for feeding sausage roll to pigeon

Pigeon Patrol — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 22:20:41 +0000

Elisa Menendez – Wednesday 19 Jun 2019 9:56 PM

A woman has been fined £150 by her local council for feeding a piece of sausage roll to a pigeon. Sally-Ann Fricker fed the bird while shopping with her three children in Bath.

Her daughter, Toni Bradley, said they were approached ‘seconds later’ by an officer for littering, despite the pigeon flying away with the food.

Toni said: ‘If she’d chucked the wrapper down then that would have been fair enough, but this was absolutely ridiculous, we were very upset and very shocked.’

According to Bath and North East Somerset Council, those caught littering face a £150 fine, reduced to £100 if paid within 14 days.

Councillor Dave Wood, cabinet member for climate change and the environment, said the authority would review whether the fine was appropriate in this incident.

However, he added that there are notices on many streets asking the public not to feed pigeons as they are a ‘public nuisance’.

Daughter Toni was outraged at the fine, adding that her mum is a carer and the fine was worth more than her weekly earnings.

She said: ‘When I got home my three-year-old asked me to take down the bird feeder from the garden “because nanny got into trouble” for feeding them.’

Wood added that councils and their contractors should use ‘common sense’ with situations like Sally-Ann’s.

‘I have asked officers to urgently look into this matter and review the action taken with the contractor, to determine whether it was proportionate,’ he said.

He added: ‘As a general point, pigeons and gulls cause a public nuisance and are part of the problem the council has to manage when dealing with litter on the streets. ‘There are notices all over the city asking people not to feed birds.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/19/mum-fined-150-feeding-sausage-roll-pigeon-10016074

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Overpopulation has Wisconsin town putting pigeons on the pill

Pigeon Patrol — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 20:25:34 +0000

Business owners in La Crosse are putting pigeons on birth control – sort of.

Feeding stations atop downtown buildings include a contraceptive feed. It’s aimed at lowering reproduction in the birds that leave droppings on sidewalks, awnings and park benches.

Wayne Oliver, a member of the Downtown Mainstreet Board, tells WXOW that it’s the most successful idea the board has tried.

Maria Norberg, owner of a downtown coffee shop and food truck, says she supports anything that can cut down on the overhead threat to her customers.

Funding comes from a city beautification grant.

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Marxist pigeons: a short guide to Oxford’s city wildlife

Ryan Ponto — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:00:53 +0000

The universal acclaim that greeted Planet Earth II shows that people still love watching nature documentaries. Optimists would see this as a sign that we still care about the environment. I am not so sure.

As a child, I watched nature documentaries to actually learn about the natural world. Now, people watch nature documentaries for their graphic violence and sexual content. Having lived in the 21st century for almost seventeen years, their minds now respond to little else.

Like everyone else, I was deeply saddened to see the end of Planet Earth II. Sex and violence abounded. I’ve never liked wasps, since one stung me on the ankle for absolutely no reason as a boy, and I like to see frogs do well, so what better way to spend a Sunday evening than watching a frog repeatedly kick a wasp in the eye? Few moments in modern British television have equalled the sight of the mighty snow leopard, wandering around the Himalayas, occasionally urinating alluringly on a rock.

The last episode of the series went into our cities. Pigeons were treated badly, being eaten by both peregrine falcons and immigrant fish. Monkeys did well; in one city in India they have convinced the locals that they are gods, and now abuse the humans’ goodwill, running around completely naked and demanding food.

The urban slant to this episode did however get me thinking about the animals that can be found in Oxford—and I’m not talking about the freshers! Most Oxford students are disgustingly self-centred, not only do they never take the time to appreciate the animal kingdom—the dissolute life they lead even has a harmful effect on animal life.

Instead of just looking at the nice river, they insist on rowing on it, killing innocent fish with every oar stroke. Instead of walking around the nice meadow, they must run around it in tight sportswear, every other step crushing a duck’s windpipe. Instead of just going to the nice nightclub and listening to the music, they insist on taking ketamine—thereby depriving horses of much-needed stress relief in the modern business environment.

In my one and a half years at Oxford, I have come to appreciate the amazing wealth and diversity of wildlife in Oxford, and I now take almost as much pleasure in looking at animals in real life, as I do from memes. Oxford’s animals have evolved over time to take advantage of the city’s scholastic environment.

In my first term at Oxford I was surprised to stumble upon a reading group for Marxist pigeons, convened in the bird pond outside my building. Magdalen College was originally set up to that local aristocratic families could provide an education for their deer herds, but after the publication of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which warned all landowners of the dangers of talking animals, an age-old tradition was ceased.

Now the deer must make do with the occasional piece of cheap airport literature thrown into their paddock by ‘allied’ students.

I could go on enumerating the many wonders of Oxford’s animal scene: the feminist rats, the techno cattle, even the queer squirrels. I have learnt however in my time at Oxford that most students are simply not interested in the benefits that quiet contemplation of nature can bring. Nature is only of interest to them when it appears mediated by a television screen and David Attenborough’s rasping death rattle.

Compared to the glamourous lives of the animals we see in Planet Earth, it is easy to wrongly believe that Oxford’s non-human inhabitants are boring creatures. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The animals that David Attenborough presents to us are horrible show-offs, whereas the rats and pigeons of Oxford retain a modicum of traditional British reticence.

Your average black rat is perfectly capable of hunting giraffes in the desert, or of catching a fish for its wife and family in the waters of the Antarctic. It chooses not to however out of its natural modesty.

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