by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 11, 2016 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News
PANAJI: Pigeon population is growing in the city without any growth in awareness among the people that pigeon droppings can cause a lung-related disease.
According to a Mumbai-based news report, dried droppings of pigeons contain spores, which if inhaled may lead to respiratory illness. Their faecal matter is highly acidic and can destroy buildings and monuments.
The report has further adds that daily exposure to pigeons can lead to progressive symptoms like irreversible lung fibrosis and even death.
People feed pigeons as charity, for religious reasons or fun or just because others are doing so, but contact with their droppings could pose a health risk.
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a human disease, is known to be caused by repetitive inhalation of antigenic agents found in pigeon droppings.
A lack of awareness on how pigeon droppings can be a health hazard can become a hurdle in diagnosis for doctors.
A well-fed pigeon on an average dispenses up to 11.5 kg of droppings a year. The pigeons are often found sitting on TV antennas, atop AC units, window sills, housetops, eaves, power lines, and in ducts and vents.
They often make nests in buildings and rapidly reproduce. Pigeon droppings are often found deposited on park benches, statues, and cars, and are an aesthetic problem.
To bird lovers, pigeons are hardy survivors in a concrete city; many feel that caring for pigeons is a humane thing to do. But, to households, corporations housed in gleaming high rises and health experts, these birds are pests that test ‘our commitment to cleanliness and disease control.’
There is no NGO taking care of the birds like pigeons, like some NGOs care for dogs, and surprisingly none of the government authorities – forest department and animal husbandry department have woken up to the pigeon menace.
The forest department claimed of not receiving a single complaint of pigeon menace in the city, but urged the residents to avoid feeding pigeons that can backfire, resulting in a serious menace.
An official said that residents need to take long-term measures by blocking their nesting sites and installing ultra sonic sound system to frighten them up.
The CCP said that they do not have any measures to put curbs on unregulated bird feeding that increases pest menace as such food meant for pigeons invariably attracts rats.
Pigeon-feeding stations are slowly mushrooming in the city. It gets started with feeding the birds with grains and leftover food; and while the flock grows larger, another station emerges a little away on the other side of the road. Often we find pavements and roads with mounds of uneaten grains, bread and rice, which attract other animals too.
In the city, one see some major pigeon-feeding stations near Rameshwar Lodge, Hotel Nova Goa, Hotel Kamat, municipal garden, behind Rebello building, new CCP market area and Tonca near Thomas Garage.
These birds are known to return to the place where they are fed and, according to some studies, organise their day around feeding.
Bird experts feel that unregulated practice of feeding and enough spots for nesting are the main reasons for the pigeon population explosion. The other reason being the absence of natural predators.
“The issue of their population has arose as people started leaving grains and food for them. They no longer have to make an effort to find food and a good nesting area, which has made them prolific breeders,” said president of Goa Bird Conservation Network, Parag Rangnekar, who is involved in bird conservation efforts.
“Unless there is a study done to prove that pigeon droppings cause incidences of respiratory problem then it is wrong to blame pigeons for that,” he added.
A resident of Tonca, Ismail Nawar, called for a plan to control the pigeon population.
“People should also be discouraged from feeding pigeons in public places,” Nawar said, adding that it is the only way to prevent overfeeding.
Sanjay Sarmalkar, from St Inez, said that not only are the bird droppings are health hazard, they also do some serious damage to vehicle paint.
“I have to daily wash my car which remains covered with droppings, otherwise, these acidic and grainy droppings can stain and take the gloss off the paint if left for too long,” Sarmalkar added.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 10, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services
Bald eagles aren’t just an iconic national symbol south of the border — here in Toronto, they’re the noble and brave protectors of garbage dumps.
Local landfills are plagued by garbage-eating seagulls. They harm themselves by eating unnatural food sources and can harm the environment by carrying trash outside the landfill.
The city’s eco-friendly solution to that problem? Massive birds of prey that swoop in and scare the seagulls away.
“We train these raptors to chase the gulls away,” said Stephen Bucciarelli, president of Predator Bird Services Inc. “It’s essentially their job to do it. But to them it’s not going to work, they just have fun all day flying around.”
This one-year-old bald eagle is just one of the predatory birds that scares seagulls away from Toronto landfills. It’s still young and will grow to have a white feathered head as it becomes mature.
Falconry is a practice that dates back thousands of years. The predatory birds, including hawks and falcons, were trained to catch prey as food for humans before guns became a common tool in hunting.
Within the last 40 years, companies like Bucciarelli’s have used falconry as a form of bird control.
“We’ve learned how to manage these birds so they are really comfortable at work and effective at it,” he said.
A one-year-old bald eagle is one of the predators that soars across Toronto landfills.
Stephen Bucciarelli is president of Predator Bird Services Inc. The company trains birds of prey to scare away other, smaller birds.
“He’s just learning the ropes of flying in the wind and he’s doing really well,” Bucciarelli said, adding that the eagle and its winged colleagues are so effective at their job that gulls don’t even frequent the landfills anymore — they’ve learned to stay far away.
It’s a win-win because the seagulls don’t know what’s good for them, he said.
“It’s not good for birds to eat unnatural food sources, so if we’re scaring them…they’re going to be eating from natural sources like fish rather than things leftover from humans,” Bucciarelli said.
Seagulls that are harming the environment and themselves by eating unnatural food sources at landfills better watch out. This bald eagle is serious about protecting city territory.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 9, 2016 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services
Don’t blame the raccoons for this one.
At least one of Toronto’s new supposedly raccoon-proof green bins has been chewed up a week after it was wheeled out in Scarborough.
Brad Gates of Gates Wildlife tells Moore in the Morning it looks to him that this is the work of either a squirrel or a rat.
The bite marks on the bin’s plastic lid tell the tale.
The city’s response to the chewed up bin? Try a home remedy: sprinkle a bit of hot sauce on the lid.
“It is not indestructible,” Jim McKay, general manager of solid waste services, says of the new bin.
He says the unique part of the new bin is the locking lid. The rest of it is pretty standard.
McKay says the plastic is basically the same material and thickness as the old bins, which also had squirrel problems.
He does not sound too concerned, adding that only 0.5 per cent of the old bins would have to be replaced each year due to animal damage.
Gates adds there will be pockets of Toronto more overrun by squirrels where the new green bins will be “rendered useless”.
But Gates says there is not much that can guarantee rodents stay out.
“We see raccoons and squirrels chew through metal all the time in our business,” he warns. “As long as they can get an edge to start to open up a hole, they will begin to chew on it.”
Mayor John Tory, who has been a part of two staged photo ops in the last year to show off the new bins joked about the breach on twitter.
Speaking on the Moore in the Morning roundtable councillor Shelley Carroll says city staff has some explaining to do.
“We guaranteed to people that you gotta do the change-out, the locking mechanism will keep out the raccoons. How did they not know about this?”
The city is paying a California firm $31-million for a 10-year contract to replace and maintain Toronto’s 500,000 green bins.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 8, 2016 | Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes
ACTION is being taken to curb the amount of pigeon mess being left outside a Halstead shop.
The former Lalezar building, in High Street, has become a mecca for pigeons which sit on the various ledges at the front of the shop.
However, this has led to the building and the pavement below it becoming covered in their mess.
Gordon Birchell, of Birchell Steel Consultant Surveyors, which is marketing the empty building for let, said: “They are doing what pigeons do.
“We have put up the scaffolding to do something about it.
“The pigeons are everywhere in Halstead and they are an awful problem.”
Complaints about the mess outside the building were first made in November, with Braintree Council’s Street Scene Team promising to clean up the pavement.
He added that he was in negotiations with a company interested in moving into the ground floor, but declined to say what the company was.
“It isn’t a restaurant, but it is catering related,” he said.
Charity shop St Helena Hospice, opposite the restaurant, was due to move into the building this year, but pulled out after deciding the costs involved were too high.
The building, formerly a post office, was built in November 1895 and has changed hands many times in recent years.
Lalezar opened in May 2014 before closing at the start of 2015 following a gas leak and the building has been vacant ever since.
Mr Birchell said he was confident the former Thomas Cook shop, further down High Street, would also soon be occupied.
The shop had been empty for two years before being bought at auction by a London-based investor for £150,000.
The investor had planned to use the building himself, but is now planning to rent it out, according to Mr Birchell.
He said that it was “just about under offer”.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Pigeon Patrol | Aug 7, 2016 | Bird Netting, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News
Circle Line services were out of action after netting to stop pigeons nestling on the tracks collapsed at High Street Kensington at around 4.25pm. A train in front of the netting, and the entire station, was evacuated.One enraged user tweeted: “It is absurd that some obstruction whatever it may be is causing an entire line to go down!”
A Transfort for London (TFL) spokesman said that services were slowly making a recovery after the track was reopened at 5.12pm.The spokesman told the Daily Star Online: “It was some netting that fell from the roof of the station and on to the tracks and I think it was as a train was approaching.”Obviously we can’t have trains running on netting.
“High Street Kensington has reopened as of 5.12pm so trains are running through the stations without any problems.”As of 5.35pm, there are still severe delays between Earls Court station and Edgware Road on the District Line.There are minor delays on the remainder of the District Line.There is still severe delays on the Circle Line.
The spokesman added: “There were no injuries to passengers and staff.”
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
