by Pigeon Patrol | Jul 8, 2014 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
Sunday and Monday I had the doses of chemotherapy that would completely destroy my immune system. Again, that is something I thought would register physically, where I’d think, “Wow. So this is what it feels to be completely vulnerable to any sort of infection.” Again, I was wrong. Other than a slight increase of nausea… bupkus.
Tuesday was what they call around here my new birthday. My stem cells were reintroduced to my system through an IV drip. For such a major event in my life, it didn’t seem like much, but, of course, it was. It really meant turning the corner and getting back to being healthier.
I did feel sorry for my day nurse, who had to stand — no sitting allowed — and study the IV, just in case, for more than an hour. But all went well, and he finally got to sit down, I assume. No one here seems to sit down much, at least not that I get to see.
I am isolated, other than staff and my wife, Sheri, who come in, but always masked, so I see just their eyes, forehead and hair. At times, it looks like bank robbers left their convention early to avoid traffic. The last couple of days, I’ve been able to walk around the pod outside the door, as long as I wear gloves and a mask. Believe me, it’s a lot more exciting than it sounds.
Let’s see, what else has been going on. Sheri finally buzzed off the rest of my hair and beard yesterday. It seems OK to me. I have to be careful, though, because when I run my hand across my head to fix my non-existent hair, my hand goes flying off the back. Even that’s OK as long as Sheri isn’t right behind me and gets a poke in the eye. Today, I’m sharing my new Yul Brenner look with you, especially those who watch “Hoarders” just so you can look around your house and say, “Hey. This isn’t so bad.”
The two pigeons who have been hanging around outside my window for the past couple of days appear to be getting ready to fulfill their part of the “Birds do it, bees do it” equation. They are the only other living creatures I see on any sort of regular basis, so I’m quite happy for them. Hey, don’t even think about judging me. If you were watching it on PBS you would be falling all over yourself to get to a phone to renew your subscription or make a pledge.
Right now, my biggest enemy is boredom, which you probably could tell. There is a TV; I have my computer, Nook and iPod, but sometimes it’s just hard to focus, let alone sit up and do something. Sheri comes every day, for a few hours, and it’s nice to have her here, but it leaves a lot of other empty hours to fill. Staffers stay and talk if they have the time, and I try to do little spurts of stuff and then rest.
I talk to my daughters Jennifer and Alison each day. I know it helps them to hear my voice and know that I really am doing quite well. I can write and text anything, but when they hear it in my voice, they know it’s real, whatever “it” might be.
I do have a couple of difficult stretches ahead. My white blood cell count continues to drop, which is a good thing because it means the chemo is working, but it also means I will be really, really tired and have some other side issues to deal with, including a high temperature. But the allergy team has already been in and determined the best antibiotic to knock down any fever, and there are plenty of measures the staff can take to help counter other symptoms. I admit I really have become quite the chicken about feeling sick. I hate it, but the anti-nausea medications really help.
Still, I feel better than I did, for now, and frankly, at this stage, that’s more than good enough. We’ll see what happens next. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to write again, but it helps me a lot, so I will do my best.
For now, I have some pigeon watching to do.
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 | Jun 12, 2014 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
As complaints about pigeons in Uptown Greenwood continue to roll in from business owners, the City of Greenwood is considering options for dealing with the problem.
Greenwood City Council heard options for dealing with the problem during their monthly work session last Monday. City manager Charlie Barrineau said the pigeons have been a problem for a number of years, but the problem has gotten worse since many of the buildings along Main Street in Uptown have undergone renovations. Many of the birds had nested in some of those buildings and have been forced to move. The birds have settled in the arcades in Uptown Greenwood.
Barrineau told council that he found a company which specializes in solving problems with birds, though Barrineau noted pigeons would always be a problem. Barrineau also said there was no guarantee that what is done will be of any long term help in solving the problem. City workers spend a significant amount of time cleaning up the droppings from the pigeons in Uptown, Barrineau said. Mayor Welborn Adams said he has received a number of calls about the issue.
The first option Barrineau presented to council was an owl statue. Owls are natural predators of pigeons. The statues would keep the pigeons at bay a week or two, Barrineau said, but they would figure out the owl is not moving and come right back. The other option was to place bird spikes along the ledges in the arcades and netting to prevent the birds from entering areas where they nest and cause the most damage. The netting is similar to what is used behind home plate at baseball fields to stop foul balls from flying into the stands.
The cost for all three arcades would be about $15,000 Barrineau said, and would still be no guarantee the problem would be solved. The cost do one of the arcades as a beta test would be about $6,500 and would allow council to see if the spikes and netting will work before laying out the remainder of the cash for the other two arcades. The funding for the project will come from existing hospitality tax funds.
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 | Jun 12, 2014 | 4-S Gel Bird repellent, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons in the News
It seems that the city of Vienna has a problem with pigeons, or is it the pigeons that now have a problem with the city? Anyhow, if you feed a pigeon in Vienna you will now face a fine of 36 euros for your efforts.
“Waste-Watchers” that have been employed in Vienna to monitor naughty dog owners who neglect to pick up the poop. Now the city is going one step further and targeting the poor pigeons.
City management reckons there are too many pigeons in the city and they have even compared the birds to vermin, with city councilor Ulrike Sima stating that “Whoever feeds pigeons, feeds rats.” Sima added that feeding pigeons is “misunderstood animal welfare.” She said that human food and bread crumbs are actually bad for the birds and that “they get sick and suffer.” OK, and the mention of rats actually means that any bread left over by the birds attracts the vermin.
“We live in a big city, but there is already limited green space,” she added, saying that this should not be rendered unusable due to the pigeons.
It seems the pigeons are breeding beyond all expectations and there is now an excess number of the birds hanging (and flying) around in the city. In the meantime a poster campaign has been launched to warn the general public on the dangers (and expense) of feeding the poor birds.
Experts in the city are coming up with some ideas, however, on how to reduce the population by setting up a special nesting site for the birds. Apparently this site will attract the birds using what they term “pigeon psychology.”
The new fancy site will house up to 400 pigeons who will be fed the appropriate food. All well and good. But in return for their life of luxury, the pigeons’ eggs will be taken from the nests and replaced with dummies, thus preventing them from breeding.
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.
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 4, 2014 | Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeon Patrol's Services, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Sonic bird control systems are becoming more common in the bird control sector and broadly speaking fall into three distinct categories; ultrasonic systems, sonic systems and bio-acoustic systems. For information on ultrasonic systems please see our ‘Ultrasonic Systems’ product review. Sonic systems produce a variety of electronically-generated sounds normally emitting noise levels up to 120 dB (A) and are designed to frighten birds with loud and unpleasant noises. Sonic noise is sound that is audible to the human ear – ultrasonic sound is normally not audible to the human ear but in some cases can be heard by women or young children. Bio-acoustic systems use natural alarm and distress calls as well as predator calls in order to create a hostile environment for the target species. Alarm calls are made when the bird perceives itself to be in danger, distress calls are made when the bird is in pain or has been attacked by a predator and predator calls are cries made by a predatory bird. Distress calls, alarm calls and predator calls are audible to the human ear.
Pure sonic systems are not widely available for the purpose of bird control with a majority of sonic devices being provided as part of a 2/3/4-way or even a 5-way system. These systems may include any of the following; distress calls, alarm calls, predator calls, ultrasonic sounds and sonic sounds. In some cases these systems are complimented by strobe lights providing a visual scaring element to the system. Most systems are available for internal or external use and a majority of the combo systems have multi-speaker options for ‘surround-sound’ scaring.
The most effective sonic systems appear to be those that are programmable and which offer sonic, ultrasonic and bio-acoustic options. For the purposes of this review it is these systems that we will concentrate upon. A majority of these systems are static systems with multi-speaker options that would normally be used for the protection of larger areas such as football stadiums or large industrial warehouses. For smaller more intimate areas the single-speaker units may be more appropriate but many of these units are only available with single-voice options such as distress calls or predator calls. Where sonic systems are installed in areas in areas of human habitation it must be understood that noise will be generated which may be intrusive, unpleasant and anti-social. For any type of urban application a thorough survey of the area must first be undertaken to assess the potential for human disturbance. If a sonic system is to be considered for an internal application such as a factory unit where people are working, care must be taken to ensure that workers do not suffer sonic disturbance (or visual disturbance if a combo unit with a strobe is used).
Most sonic systems are powered by mains electricity (AC current) for ease of use and in an effort to reduce the need for human interaction, but a majority of systems also offer a battery-powered option (DC current) and in some cases a solar panel option as well.
- Ultrasonic frequency range: 15-25 KHz
- Sonic frequency range: 3-5 KHz
- Ultrasonic sound pressure: 95-102 dB (per speaker) at 1 metre
- Sonic sound pressure: 105-110 dB (per speaker) at 1 metre
- Switchable sound options: Distress calls, Predator sounds, Sonic sounds
- Constant sounds: Ultrasonic sounds play constantly
- Ultrasonic modes: High frequency, Medium frequency, Low frequency
- Operation modes: Delay period (time between playing calls), Time of operation, Random mode
- Delay period settings: Short/Medium/Long/Extra Long
- Timed operations: Day only/24 hour/Night only
- Random settings: Mode on, Mode off
Another major consideration when siting a sonic device is proximity to human habitation. The benefit of a fully programmable device is that the various sounds and calls (and lights if applicable) can be switched off at times when the device may be liable to cause disturbance, but the more basic units may need to be manually switched requiring regular human interaction. In the case of all sonic systems the transmission of sound will be effected by wind, temperature and the deflection of sound waves from surrounding buildings and therefore finding the optimum site may be time consuming. It is also the case that when the speakers need to be re-located due to the risk of habituation, the process of risk assessment must be undertaken all over again to ensure that the reflected sounds not only continue to be effective as a deterrent but also do not disturb people living or working in the vicinity.
The sonic bird scarer is a relatively inexpensive product based on the sheer number of scaring options provided together in one unit, certainly in the case of the multi-function scarers, but the issue of habituation is an ongoing concern for users. Most experts believe that sonic products, be they bio-acoustic, ultrasonic, sonic or a combination of all three can only ever play a part in an overall control strategy combining other deterrents and anti-perching products. Although the product may appear to be reasonably priced based on the various options available to the user and relative to some of the more cost-prohibitive exclusion products such as bird netting, when provided as part of an overall control system the product does not seem quite so cost-effective. Many users will purchase this product because they are simply looking for a maintenance-free option that is clean, cheap to run and which has numerous operating options. It is possible, however, that the product will not quite live up to their expectations when the necessity to regularly re-site the product and/or the speakers to reduce habituation is taken into consideration, combined with the probable need to complement the system with deterrents.
Also commonly known as:
Bird wailer, sonic scarers, ultrasound bird scarers, quadblaster, wailer, silent bird scarer, electronic bird scarer, maxi wailer, midi wailer, broadband pro, billboard pro, ultrasonic scarers, sonic deterrents, ultrasound deterrents, bird xpeller pro, super bird xpeller pro, distress call system, sonic distress system
Relevance to pigeon control:
Sonic systems are used to scare a wide variety of birds, predominantly in the agricultural sector, but the product is also commonly marketed as a pigeon-scaring device
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)
The information on this blog is for personal use only. Content for this blog obtained from other websites is not being used for any commercial reasons whatsoever as per the copyright statement on the Pigeon Control Resource Centre’s website. http://www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/ Special thanks for the people and companies that helped gather this information. This information is to be used for reference only.
by Pigeon Patrol | Jun 4, 2014 | Animal Deterrent Products, Bird Deterrent Products, Pigeons in the News, UltraSonic Bird Control
Laser technology is now being used more commonly as a bird deterrent and research into effective scaring techniques using low-power lasers is ongoing. The most common type of laser used for bird control is the handheld laser which resembles a small handgun. Other formats exist including a rifle which is designed to produce a narrow spot of light for more precise targeting and a laser ‘stick’ which resembles a conventional torch. The main benefits of a laser is that the product is silent, environmentally safe, simple to use and non-lethal. The main disadvantage of a laser is that the product is considered to be ineffective in daylight, certainly in strong sunlight, and has its main use between dusk and dawn. This restricts its use to the control of those species that are active during darkness or dawn/dusk as well as for the control of roosting birds.
The laser is not commonly associated with pigeon control due to the fact that the pigeon is not active during the hours of darkness or at dusk and therefore the product has been more or less ignored by the pigeon control industry. As the laser is developed and as trials are undertaken to establish a broader application for the product, pigeon control will inevitably be a major consideration. If the laser could be used to effect as a roost inhibitor, or as a scaring device in low-light conditions, the product would undoubtedly be used far more extensively for the purposes of pigeon control.
One serious problem associated with the use of lasers as a bird scaring device is the fact that the product can be indiscriminate when used with a wide beam and in darkness. In low-light conditions, at dusk or dawn for example, the beam can be trained on the target species with ease ensuring that there is no ‘over-spill’ that may disturb non-target species or birds or animals. In darkness, however, the beam from the laser is visible over a large area and may disturb non-target species birds or possibly protected species of birds. For example, if a laser was used in an urban environment to scare pigeons and if protected species such as swallows or house martins were scared sufficiently to abandon their nests, there would be serious legal consequences for the property owner.
The laser would appear to have limited applications as a bird scaring device due to the fact that the product is considerably less effective when used in daylight. Although the ‘Avian Dissuader’ was found to be extremely effective when used to control pigeons, in daylight hours, whilst roosting and perching on a food processing plant in New Zealand, the consensus suggests that the product is less than effective when used as a daytime scaring device.
As with most scaring products there are also concerns in respect of habituation and therefore the product will almost certainly need to be used in conjunction with other scaring devices and anti-perching products where appropriate. The laser is clearly species-specific and will be completely ineffective with some species but surprisingly effective with others. The laser has been particularly effective when used to control Canada Geese and other waterfowl such as cormorants but the product clearly has limitations when used in an urban application. The laser is also context-specific confirming that the product will not necessarily offer the same degree of scaring on each site where it is used. Weather conditions and the availability of alternative sources of food and roosts will both impact on the success of the laser.
The laser is recommended for use as a roost inhibitor but it is clear that the product can only be effective with nocturnal species if used in darkness, thus reducing the versatility of the product. There are also concerns voiced byDEFRA that the laser can cause non-selective disturbance when used in darkness due to the fact that the light beam is visible over a large area. This could cause serious issues should the product be used in the vicinity of rare or protected species of breeding birds. It should also be pointed out that the light beam could also cause human disturbance when used in darkness.
The laser has its main application in rural environments, on water and on airfields but not in urban environments. Although the laser appears to have been successful in moving pigeons from their perches on a food processing plant, it is unlikely that the product could be used to effect in a town or city centre or in residential areas.
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)
The information on this blog is for personal use only. Content for this blog obtained from other websites is not being used for any commercial reasons whatsoever as per the copyright statement on the Pigeon Control Resource Centre’s website. http://www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/ Special thanks for the people and companies that helped gather this information. This information is to be used for reference only.
Sunday and Monday I had the doses of chemotherapy that would completely destroy my immune system. Again, that is something I thought would register physically, where I’d think, “Wow. So this is what it feels to be completely vulnerable to any sort of infection.” Again, I was wrong. Other than a slight increase of nausea… bupkus.
