Twice a year, Marcus Dodge assigns a worker to don disposable coveralls and a respirator for a trip to a downtown Fairbanks parking garage to clean up deposits from a non-native species.
Dodge, director of the Fairbanks Parking Authority, estimates the worker picks up 150 gallons of pigeon dung annually and hauls it to the hazardous materials area at the landfill.
“Pigeon crap weighs a ton,” Dodge said. “It’s not a lot of fun to clean up.”
The downtown pigeon population appears to be growing, according to Dodge and others. Businesses are experimenting with ways to deter the birds.
Roofers last summer discovered 6 inches of pigeon guano on the roof of the Courthouse Square, the former federal courthouse.
Charlie Cole, Alaska’s former attorney general, who has kept an office in downtown Fairbanks since 1957, has been talking with neighbors about fending off the birds.
“They leave droppings around warm air outlets where they congregate,” Cole said. “I think it’s a nuisance.”
Pigeon droppings contain ammonia and uric acids that eat away at metal and the sealant on the parking garage concrete floor.
One pigeon can produce 25 pounds of guano per year, according to a government report detailing New York City’s pigeon problem. The droppings were cited as possible cause for speeding the decay of a Minneapolis bridge across the Mississippi River that collapsed in 2007 and killed 13 people.
Hunters and dog trainers introduced pigeons to Fairbanks, said Cathie Harms, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The best way to deter them, she said, is to eliminate their food source.
“We are aware that some people are feeding pigeons,” she said. “If there wasn’t as much food, there wouldn’t be as many pigeons.”
A maintenance worker for the Springhill Suites Marriot a few months ago tried chasing them off with a recording of predator birds. The sound could be heard from a couple of blocks away and drew complaints from hotel neighbors.
Robert Franklin, a maintenance foreman for JL Properties Inc., which manages the Courthouse Square and the Northward apartment building, calls pigeons flying rats.
“They’re a hazard to the equipment. They’re a hazard to people,” he said. “They get into stuff they are not supposed to.”
He uses spike strips and moves owl decoys around to repel pigeons. Success has been mixed, he said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
When it comes to reducing collisions with the glass of the new Minnesota Vikings stadium, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, environmental advocates told stadium officials Friday.
There’s already a proven solution — “fritted” or patterned glass — which would cost only about $1 million and is being used successfully at places such as the Javits Center in New York City, they say. That’s better than waiting for a potential fix from 3M that might never come to fruition.
Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair of the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, which is overseeing construction of the new $1 billion facility, said at a Friday morning meeting that she was open to a fuller discussion of the issue next month but that “the glass decision on the building has been made.”
The transparent design was approved after vetting by several stakeholder groups and is part of what will make the stadium “an iconic building that people are going to want to be part of,” Kelm-Helgen said. Fritted glass would clash with that look, officials have said.
If there is a solution from 3M that would be transparent to humans but detectable by birds and is possibly more energy efficient to boot, “that would be a very win-win situation for all of us, and so that’s why we’re working on that and pursuing that,” Kelm-Helgen said.
She confirmed earlier this month that the authority was in talks with 3M, the Vikings and the Audubon Society about testing possible “bird-safe window film solutions.”
The status of any such product was unclear Friday.
Kelm-Helgen said that 3M has said it has some existing products it wants to test for bird-deterrent qualities, as well as some new products under development that might work. She stressed that it’s early in the process and details aren’t finalized.
“There is no product yet,” said 3M spokeswoman Fanna Haile-Selassie. Company scientists believe they may be able to find a solution, hopefully by this spring, Haile-Selassie said.
All of which makes some bird advocates suspect the 3M possibility is a red herring being floated by the authority to distract from the fritted glass solution.
“It’s absurd, absolutely absurd, that you’re now pointing to a possible future solution and taking refuge in that as some kind of action that you’re taking to deal with this massacre of birds that’s going to occur unless you change course and change the glass,” Constance Pepin of Minneapolis told authority members.
Brad Bourn, a member of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, said a $1 million fix on a billion-dollar project would be “the equivalent on the park board of painting a swing-set blue instead of green in the final design.”
But Kelm-Helgen said the $1 million is only the cost for the fritted glass. Changing direction at this point also would mean wasting the glass already fabricated for the project, the value of which she said she couldn’t estimate. Plus it would necessitate a redesign and cause a delay, the duration of which she said she was not sure of.
And authority board member John Griffith assured bird advocates they were being heard. “I think that they’ve shown that there’s a large constituency that cares very much about this issue,” he said.
Griffith said he’s personally affected when he sees birds that have died after colliding with buildings. “Every once in a while, whether it’s downtown Minneapolis or wherever, you see one of those little fellows on the sidewalk. It bums me out, there’s no question about that.”
Testing of a bird-safe solution this spring would begin on other existing buildings, Kelm-Helgen said, with the stadium being added to the test after the building is finished in 2016.
The new stadium will have about 190,000 square feet of glass. It sits in downtown Minneapolis in what’s called the “Mississippi flyway” for migrating birds.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
RESIDENTS have been locked in a bitter battle with the council over problems caused by a growing pigeon population.
It has also been claimed that a startled pigeon flew into an elderly woman’s face leaving her with a broken nose and black eye.
Graham Tilston told the Leader he witnessed the incident close to the pigeon coops at Kaleyards, Chester, and is now demanding Cheshire West and Chester Council takes action to reduce the flock of “flying rats”.
Backed by other angry residents, he has bombarded the council with letters and phone calls urging them to cull the birds, which he says carry diseases and are becoming too widespread.
He has slammed the council for failing to move the “useless” pigeon coops, claiming they create huge flocks of birds that defecate on cars and pedestrians, fly into the nearby Tesco supermarket on Frodsham Street, and even injure people.
The coops, called a dovecote, are intended to keep the birds confined to one area and allow eggs to be taken from the roosting boxes to keep numbers down.
Mr Tilston, of Foregate Street, complained to the Local Government Ombudsman about the council’s lack of action over the issue although it was concluded no action was necessary.
He said: “I do not know the lady’s name who received a broken nose and black eye. I have been fortunate in the past by being quick enough to put my hands up in front of my face and stopping these pigeons causing a nasty injury. This is a very important health and safety issue that the council has chosen to ignore.”
Pigeon faeces also creates slippery pathways that are treacherous for older people, who regularly walked close to the dovecote to reach Tesco, Mr Tilston said.
He added: “The close proximity of the pigeon coops and the large flocks of pigeons in the city centre are a serious problem.
“A suggestion of a cull was dismissed on the grounds that it would upset the public. This is a nonsensical excuse as many members of the public consider feral pigeons as vermin and a nuisance at best. It is only a very small minority who would object to the cull.”
No one at the council was available for comment, but in a letter to Mr Tilston, CWaC’s Animal Health and Pest Control department stressed the council had no legal obligation to control pigeon numbers.
A spokesman said: “Unlike many local authorities we do have a control programme in relation to feral pigeons. In Chester, the dovecote is there specifically to allow a feeding area for the pigeons.
“The subsequent congregation of birds in the area means that we can regularly (every two weeks) remove the newly laid eggs and replace them with eggs which will not hatch.”
She said the decision to locate the coops at Kaleyards had been taken by the former city council, not CWaC, which was “exploring the possibility” of removing it.
She said people were generally opposed to a cull and experts generally agreed such a measure could lead to a larger flock than before as young and healthy pigeons “breed almost continuously to fill the vacuum”.
This summer the council introduced fines for people caught over-feeding pigeons in Chester, although it is understood no one has yet been penalised.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
AN OAP was left suffering from a deadly lung disease after a flock of pigeons set up home in an empty property above her.
Rosslyn Osinski, 67, had to be taken to hospital with pigeon fancier’s lung after 70 birds moved into the derelict home and excrement started to seep through her ceiling.
Her husband Michael, 68, feared for her life after she lost more than a stone and was hooked up to oxygen to keep her alive.
Rosslyn spent two weeks in hospital and had to undergo a six-month course of steroids.
Last night, Rosslyn demanded someone is held accountable, blasting: “This has been an absolute nightmare.”
Rosslyn first visited her GP in January last year with breathlessness, diarrhoea, vomiting and fatigue.
She went to Borders General Hospital where she was put on antibiotics and hooked up to oxygen.
Rosslyn said: “On Christmas Day, I just managed to get out of bed. I looked like skin and bone – I looked absolutely terrible.
“I spent a week in hospital on antibiotics and oxygen and then I was released.
“Within 24 hours, I had to call an ambulance. I couldn’t breathe. I went back to hospital, looked at myself in the mirror and I just started crying.
“I just thought to myself, ‘I’m going to die in here.’ I thought, ‘This must be what it’s like to die’.”
Michael said: “They did a CT scan and her lungs were white. If a doctor had not spotted it, she’d be dead.”
Rosslyn’s nightmare started after the Crown Hotel above her basement home in Coldstream, Berwick- shire, fell into disrepair and the birds moved in.
The couple are taking legal action against Scottish Borders Council, claiming they failed to make the building safe despite complaints. But the council’s insurers have denied liability.
Rosslyn’s basement home – which is underneath the hotel – was repeatedly flooded with “dirty, brown, filthy water” which had filtered through piles of pigeon excrement.
The couple were left with a £5000 bill to repair the damage.
Rosslyn, who had hoped to run a B&B from their home said: “I still have scar tissue in my lungs and so there’s no way I can cater for people.
“It’s ruined the little business we hoped to have.”
A spokesman for Scottish Borders Council said: “We have no comment to make at this stage as we feel it may prejudice the legal process.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
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.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
KILLING pigeons over farmland is ‘necessary to protect crops’, according to a shooting and conservation group.
The Sentinel reported earlier this week that Kidsgrove residents’ lives are being made a misery by gunmen shooting the birds near their homes.
But the British Association for Shooting and Conservation believes it must be done to safeguard crops.
Spokesman Simon Clarke said: “Pigeons are the UK’s number one agricultural pest and the damage they can do to is immense. Shooting them is the only effective way of protecting crops and will increase as harvest approaches. “However, if residents find such pest control a nuisance, they should talk to local farmers.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Twice a year, Marcus Dodge assigns a worker to don disposable coveralls and a respirator for a trip to a downtown Fairbanks parking garage to clean up deposits from a non-native species.
Hunters and dog trainers introduced pigeons to Fairbanks, said Cathie Harms, spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The best way to deter them, she said, is to eliminate their food source.
