Residents of Fairbanks, Alaska, are sounding the alarm bells over a surge in guano that’s threatening to consume their city. According to reports, the local pigeon population has exploded in recent years, leaving people reeling from their inescapable excrement.
“It’s Poopsville,” says architect David Whitmore, whose downtown building alone is home to 20 different nests belonging to the pesky, prolific birds.
Producing up to 25 pounds of poop apiece each year, the pigeons are damaging dozens of properties and relentlessly terrorizing townspeople. Roofers recently discovered a 6-inch layer of pigeon poop spackled atop the historic Courthouse Square building. Meanwhile, property owners scramble just to keep the pigeon poop in check, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.
Twice a year, employees at a downtown parking garage must don Tyvek suits and respirators to scrape 75 gallons of guano from the structure’s concrete floors. They then must dispose of the droppings in the hazardous materials section of the area landfill.
“Pigeon crap weighs a ton,” says Marcus Dodge, executive director of the Fairbanks Parking Authority. “It’s not a lot of fun to clean up.”
Probably not. But folks in Fairbanks should expect to get down and dirty with bird waste far into the future, according to wildlife authorities. “Pigeons are pretty darn flexible,” says Cathie Harms, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “They will eat a variety of food. They are prolific breeders.”
Unfortunately for some, that reality has yet to sink in.
“They’re a hazard to the equipment. They’re a hazard to people,” says Robert Franklin, a maintenance foreman in town. “They get into stuff they are not supposed to.”
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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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