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Pest control on pause after disturbing video of pigeon’s death

by Pigeon Patrol | Apr 26, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

LONDON, ONT. — Startling video provided to CTV News shows a pigeon shaking violently before its death. And a warning that some viewers may find the video disturbing.

“We just found one that is literally shaking to death,” explains Bonnie Siegfried.

Siegfried says she found the dying bird near the Northview Apartment REIT complex on Mornington Avenue over the weekend.

She comforted the distressed pigeon in its final moments before posting the video to Facebook.

“We found it upside down shaking and vibrating outside…it was hard to watch,” says Siegfried.

A spokesperson from Northview Apartment REIT confirmed to CTV News that this year and in previous years, management has hired licensed pest control professionals to deal with tenants’ concerns about pigeons at 520 and 560 Mornington Ave. – with the most recent services provided last week.

CTV News has confirmed that Husky Pest Control was the company recently hired to deal with excessive pigeon droppings on balconies.

A spokesperson for Husky says, “Pigeon poop droppings is a health hazard that can cause diseases called histoplasmosis…fungus grows on pigeon droppings which is a health hazard.”

The company says they used a pest control product according to the label, which was made specifically for pigeon control. They also say they cleaned and sanitized the balconies.

A spokesperson from Northview told CTV News in a statement, “We understand that the efforts used by the pest control professionals to mitigate the pigeon situation at the building are now the subject of an investigation by the Ministry of Natural Resources, and we have pledged to cooperate fully with that investigation.”

The Northview spokesperson adds that services have immediately been ceased and all treatments have been discontinued.

Full Statement from Northview:

“As responsible property managers, we have been working- for more than a year- to address the concerns of residents at 520 and 560 Mornington struggling with the effects of a pigeon situation at the building. Tenants came to management concerned about the number of birds assembled on the property, the nuisance they were causing, the property damage sustained as a result, and the potential negative health implications of the birds’ presence.

“Through this period we have retained pest control professionals to address the matter. These professionals were fully licensed, and assured management that their efforts were permitted and humane. Last week efforts made by the pest control professionals attending to the building resulted in a situation that management believed was untenable, and the services were immediately ceased and all treatments were discontinued.

“We understand, that the efforts used by the pest control professionals to mitigate the pigeon situation at the building are now the subject of an investigation by the Ministry of Natural Resources, and we have pledged to cooperate fully with that investigation. As this process is now ongoing, we will not be making further public comment at this time.”

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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 Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

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How to Get Rid of Pigeons – Overview of All Available Solutions

by Pigeon Patrol | Apr 26, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

One of the most common questions that people with pigeon problems ask is how to get rid of the birds from roofs, balconies, and industrial facilities. The pigeons are causing at best an inconvenience and at worst a health hazard. Irrespective of the mess, pigeon feces are corrosive and can etch through steel or even concrete.

In this article, we will discuss how to get rid of pigeons using different methods, so that you can easily find the best solution for your scenario.

How to Get Rid of Pigeons?

1. CULLING PIGEONS – this method includes shooting, poisoning, using traps and even raptors

2. REDUCING PIGEON REPRODUCTION – this method includes using pigeon birth control, nest destruction and dovecotes combined with egg removal or replacement

3. PHYSICALLY EXCLUDING PIGEONS – this method includes using spikes, wires, slides and shock tracks to keep pigeons away

4. USING DETERRENTS -this method includes sonic and ultrasonic emitters, effigies, reflected and direct light sources, propane cannons and trained raptors to deter pigeons

5. USING REPELLENTS- this method includes using gels and pastes, optical gels, fogs and vapors to deter pigeons

How to Get Rid of Pigeons from a Balcony

Getting rid of pigeons from small areas like balconies can be resolved with relatively simple common-sense solutions.

Wires. You can use a wire coil or stainless-steel wire to deter pigeons perching on rails.
Shock Track. Several suppliers offer a “shock track” system to keep birds off balconies. The shock track does not hurt the bird but provides enough stimulation to make the targeted perching area unattractive.
Netting. Consider using a netting system to physically exclude the birds from balconies. This is the costliest alternative, although if installed properly it’s 100% effective. Newer versions of netting are virtually invisible.
Sound or reflected light. The easiest way to deter pigeons from your patio, deck, or balcony, is with sound or reflected light. You can achieve this with a wind chime, Mylar balloon, aluminum foil pans or even hanging CD’s. The reflected light disorients the birds.
Plastic owl or rubber snake. Consider using scarecrows (“effigies”). The most common example is a plastic owl or rubber snake. Unfortunately, the effects will most likely be short-lived. The pigeons come to recognize the scarecrow as something that is not a threat.
Spikes. Consider using anti-perching spikes that you can attach anywhere the birds like to perch. Spikes are best advised for limited areas where the goal is to move the birds someplace else. They are available in different materials from plastic to stainless steel.
Gel Repellants. You can use gel repellants to ledges where pigeons perch. The gel makes the surface sticky and the birds will try to avoid it. Unfortunately, dust and debris take their toll and reapplication is often necessary. The application of gel repellants is not recommended where there are smaller birds. They can permanently get stuck in the goo

How to Get Rid of Pigeons on Roofs

If you have a pigeon problem on your roof, there are a few things you can do to get rid of them. First, try to figure out how they are getting onto your roof in the first place. If you have any holes or cracks that they can use as an entry point, seal them up with some wire mesh or caulking. You can also try installing a physical barrier like a wire fence around the perimeter of your roof.

Keeping pigeons off a roof can be far more challenging. Here are some popular methods you might consider if you wonder how to get rid of pigeons on roofs:

Consider using a wire coil or stainless-steel wire to deter pigeons from perching on the ridge(s).
A “shock track” system might keep birds off rooftops
Using wire or netting is appropriate for a roof design that incorporates nooks. You can also apply nets where the pigeons can construct a nest.
Solar panels provide excellent harborage for pigeons. Metal grid netting is the most effective method to limit access to the birds.
Flat commercial roof styles have their own set of challenges. The first option is to electrify the parapet perching areas. The second option is to install simple spikes. Be aware that pigeons enjoy the comfort of HVAC installations. As a solution, consider netting these units.

How to Get Rid of Pigeons at Industrial Facilities

The basic nature and scope of modern industrial facilities make them highly attractive to pigeons. The design of these facilities is most often open which allows the birds ready ingress and egress. More importantly, pipes, beams, poles, and catwalks offer a wide range of harborage and nesting options. Food sources are typically located nearby and as mobile pests, pigeons can move around freely from one area of the plant to the next.

Pigeons can represent a costly nuisance for plants, and in many cases have been at the facility ever since it was built. Over time, the nests, feces, and debris can cause considerable damage to a plant’s mechanical and electrical components. Furthermore, the birds’ droppings and other debris add additional health hazards to an already hazardous area.

Most conventional methods of pigeon mitigation offer little comfort to an industrial facility and decision makers often select culling solutions since everything else is either prohibitively costly or impractical. Methods such as trapping and poisoning the birds may help alleviate the problem temporarily, however, due to their rapid breeding, pigeons always return and repopulate the very attractive site in a few weeks or months.

While highly effective at smaller sites, physical exclusion is typically not an option at a larger plant. It is simply impossible to cover an oil refinery or power plant with a net.

The more common solutions for smaller scale facilities are only appropriate for the resolution of isolated problems at a larger plant. An area where there is zero tolerance for birds mandates physical exclusion to keep them out, while the overall control strategy needs to focus on abatement.

The following graphic provides an outline of the various options for bird abatement. There are just two alternatives:

Increase mortality with the common culling methods, trap, shoot or poison
Reduce reproduction with a contraceptive.

Conclusion

NO SINGLE METHOD OR SOLUTION WILL SOLVE ALL PIGEON PROBLEMS

Short of exterminating the birds, there is no foolproof way to get rid of all of them. Pigeons have accompanied mankind for thousands of years and, like rats, are not leaving anytime soon. Unfortunately, even the effects of lethal methods are only effective in the short-term as the remaining flock rapidly breeds back the ones that are missing. Lethal solutions often represent a “harvest” of pigeons as opposed to an actual control program. Both larger and smaller problems can be solved with the techniques outlined above although all but the simplest sites require some observation and planning to develop a safe and effective strategy for success.

WHY NOT JUST KILL THE BIRDS?

Irrespective of any humane considerations, the casual observer often asks, “why not just kill the birds” for a prompt and effective resolution to a pigeon problem? While culling options provide an immediate and tangible solution to an acute pigeon problem, the effects are fleeting. More often than not, the population will simply “backfill” the void created by culling with increased reproduction and even more birds. Unfortunately, just killing the birds just provides the illusion of control. Only by limiting reproduction can you effectively manage the population in a manner to provide long-term control. Over time, killing pigeons more closely resembles a harvest as opposed to an actual control program.

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Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Primary groups and cosmopolitan ties: The rooftop pigeon flyers of New York City

by Pigeon Patrol | Apr 18, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

This article examines a group of working-class men who breed and fly pigeons from their rooftops in New York City. It explores how the flyers experience their neighborhoods through their animal practices and shows how ethnic whites transmitted this practice to non-whites. It also documents their gatherings at a pet shop, where the flyers campaign for status based on their birds’ performance. These men form a distinct collective that is strongly rooted in their solitary animal practices but is given meaning largely through social interactions. Most community studies find conflict among different working-class racial-ethnic groups who share urban neighborhoods, but pigeon flying fosters solidarity among Italian, Hispanic, and African American New Yorkers of varying ages. The study highlights how animal practices can organize social relationships and connections to the environment and demonstrates that shared everyday activities can be as vital as ethnicity or class in primary group formation.

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Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Pigeon flies past broadband in data speed race

by Pigeon Patrol | Apr 18, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Broadband is the most modern of communication means, while carrier pigeons date back to Roman times.

But on Thursday, a race between the two highlighted the low speeds of rural broadband in the UK; the pigeon won.

Ten USB key-laden pigeons were released from a Yorkshire farm at the same time a five-minute video upload was begun.

An hour and a quarter later, the pigeons had reached their destination in Skegness 120km away, while only 24% of a 300MB file had uploaded.

Campaigners say the stunt was being carried out to illustrate that broadband in some parts of the UK is still “not fit for purpose”.

It is not the first time that such a race has taken place. Last year a similar experiment in Durban, South Africa saw Winston the pigeon take two hours to finish a 96km journey. In the same time just 4% of a 4GB file had downloaded.

The pigeons are expected to complete a 120km journey to Skegness in around two hours, but Tref Davies, who is organising the stunt to give publicity to the campaign for better rural broadband, said the broadband connection will take significantly longer to transfer the 300MB file.

“The farm we are using has a connection of around 100 to 200 Kbps (kilobits per second),” Tref Davies, the stunt’s organiser, told BBC News on Thursday morning.

“The kids need to do school work and the farmer has to submit online forms but the connection is not fit for purpose.”

Mr Davies, who is co-founder of business ISP Timico and serves on the board of ISPA (Internet Service Providers’ Association), believes the issue is one that industry and government needs to address.

“This is the UK. It should be well-connected but around a third of homes still can’t get broadband,” he said.

However, BT disputes his figures. A spokesperson said that 99% of homes could now get broadband, leaving an estimated 160,000 lines “where excessive line length means broadband won’t work”.

Speed test

Even among those who can get broadband, rural areas are fighting to get reasonable speeds.

Research commissioned by the BBC last year found that around three million homes in the UK had internet connections of below 2Mbps (megabits per second).

The government has committed to delivering a minimum of 2Mbps to every home by 2015.

However, a recent report by communications watchdog Ofcom found that while these “headline speeds” were on the rise, they are not the relevant measure for broadband customers.

According to the report, “although headline speeds increased by nearly 50% between April 2009 and May 2010, actual speeds delivered increased by just 27%, and averaged just 46% of headline speeds”.

Lloyd Felton, founder of the Rural Broadband Partnership, said the effort to draw attention to rural broadband deprivation and low speeds was laudable.

“It’s true that there are particular areas of the country that suffer much more than others,” Mr Felton told BBC News.

“You’ve got massive deprivation – this long-quoted ‘digital divide’. As we all get more dependent on the internet, that divide gets wider.

“In the end it’s who takes ownership and responsibility for co-ordinating how a parish is going to handle it – what we say is that ‘communities need to help themselves to broadband’.”

Source

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Homing pigeon faster than Internet? In S. Africa, the answer’s yes.

by Pigeon Patrol | Apr 18, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Sometimes 12th-century technology wins.

This week, a South African call-center business, frustrated by persistently slow Internet speeds, decided to use a carrier pigeon named Winston to transfer 4 gigabytes of data between two of its offices, just 50 miles apart. At the same time, a computer geek pushed a button on his computer to send data the old-fashioned way, through the Internet.

Winston the pigeon won. It wasn’t even close.

“Winston arrived after two hours, six minutes, and 57 seconds,” says Kevin Rolfe, head of the information technology department at Unlimited Group, a call-center business based in Durban. As for the Internet data transfer, he says, “when we finally stopped the computer, about 100 megs had transferred, which is about 4 percent of the total.”

Officially, the Unlimited Group has not given up on the Internet, nor has it any plans to embrace the use of homing pigeons that was pioneered on the battlefield by Genghis Khan. But while the pigeon-versus-Internet stunt was a resounding success in terms of satire, it also makes a point that many businesses throughout Africa are making: Africans pay some of the highest prices for some of the least reliable Internet service in the world. And if a country like South Africa – relatively prosperous and developed – can’t solve this problem, then it’s going to need a lot more pigeons.

In most parts of Africa, Internet service is provided by satellite transmission dishes, an expensive and unreliable option. Go to an Internet cafe in Kinshasa or Khartoum, and you’ll see dozens of earnest students and businessmen, typing out messages, pushing the send button, and then hoping the power doesn’t go out before the message gets sent.

Your humble correspondent in Africa last year attempted to send about one minute of digital video of displaced people in Kenya to his headquarters in Boston, through the so-called broadband Internet service provided at his Nairobi hotel. Six hours later, there was still an hourglass icon on his screen, with a message that simply read “sending.”

Undersea cable brings broadband to some

In theory, Africa’s problems are already well on their way to being solved. A $650 million undersea cable, linking the Kenyan port city of Mombasa with a larger sea cable system servicing Asia, was officially activated in late July of this year, bringing most major cities in East Africa their first taste of high-speed broadband Internet. But three months later, local Internet service providers have refused to drop their prices, offering increased bandwidth at the same price.

Some African nations have gone all-out to get the most bang out of the cable. Rwanda, for instance, has extended a high-speed fiber-optic cable network to every district and every major town in the country in anticipation of the cable, in hopes of turning itself into an information-technology hub like Singapore. Others, like South Africa, have been updating their systems, but can’t keep up with the exploding demand.

Which brings us back to Winston the pigeon. Mr. Rolfe says the idea for the pigeon race came from a member of his IT department, who remembered an April Fool’s joke of sending data by homing pigeons. After one too many incidents of a dropped line or a failed transfer, one IT tech finally blurted out, “We should just use pigeons.”

Taking a cue from former empires

As unusual as the idea sounds today, pigeons have been a powerful tool for empires, financial and otherwise. In the mid-19th century Paul Julius Reuter (founder of the Reuters news agency) used pigeons to send stock information between the cities of Aachen and Brussels, until telegraph service eventually replaced them. And as recently as World War I the British admiralty used pigeons to send battlefield information. (The Germans, predictably, trained falcons to intercept messages.)

Never a company to do things in half-measures, Unlimited Group began to promote its Pigeon Race 2009 on its website. Winston the pigeon soon had his own Facebook fan page, a website with training videos, and yes, Winston began to tweet. On Twitter. When Winston finally landed at the offices in Durban – risking hawks, gun-happy hunters, and high-winds – the results were carried by newspapers, TV stations, and were a huge sensation in the Twittersphere.

Winston’s feat illustrates larger problem

Perhaps stung by the pigeon experiment, South Africa’s giant communications company, Telkom, issued a statement to the South African Press Agency explaining that it was not to blame for Unlimited Group’s slow internet service.

“Telkom would like to clarify that the company cannot be blamed for this particular customer’s lack of throughput speeds,” Troy Hector, Telkom’s head of ICT, wrote to Sapa in an e-mail. “Several recommendations have, in the past, been made to the customer but none of these have, to date, been accepted. It must also be noted that Telkom is not the customer’s core service provider.”

Rolfe insists that the pigeon experiment was not aimed at any one particular company, but rather at the common problem that Internet have: slow Internet speed. A customer like Unlimited Group, which transmits an average of 500 megabytes of data per day, can’t afford to have unreliable connectivity.

“Look, we don’t blame Telkom or Neotel, or any of the other Internet providers,” says Rolfe. “Those guys, the providers are doing the best job that they can. But we are saying, fine, let’s sit down and think out of the box and figure out how to improve South Africa’s telecommunications.”

As for Winston, Rolfe says the pigeon is in no danger of losing his job. “He still goes out on training runs,” Rolfe says, especially when the computer lines are down. “Using pigeons, it’s not the optimal plan,” he chuckles. “But we may do it from time to time, to give Winston some airtime.”

Source

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

Homing in on city’s pigeon problem

by Pigeon Patrol | Mar 23, 2023 | Bird Spike, Pigeon Predators, Pigeon Spikes, Pigeons, Pigeons in the News, Raccoons, Sparrows, UltraSonic Bird Control

Among the most famous images of London’s Trafalgar Square is one of people feeding pigeons in its grounds. And closer to home, feeding these birds was a favourite pastime on the weekends around the Vidhana Soudha, when people flocked to it for a bit of relaxation in its gardens. But no more, as the pigeons are now as numerous in most parts of the city as they were once around it.

Far from feeding them, people have now taken to shooing them away as they invade their balconies and kitchens, building nests and dirtying them with their poop and feathers. Their numbers have become their downfall as they are no longer priced as pets either. Instead they are the flying rats of urban Bengaluru.

Observes one fed up Bengalurean, industrialist, Narendra Kumar, “Pigeons have adapted so well to our urban civilisation that they are driving other birds away. Cleaning pigeon droppings has become a huge problem today. People in high- rise buildings are the worst affected and even the plants on the balconies suffer as a result of their invasion.”

But what’s worse, the pigeon droppings are not just an eyesore, but also a health hazard, warn wildlife experts. With the pigeon population growing, they have been spreading diseases like avian influenza and castle fever through their droppings, according to them. “ The pigeon droppings contain bacteria and fungus, which can cause major lung disorders that can be fatal,” they explain.

It is also claimed that those who fall sick as a result of the pigeon droppings, find recovery hard despite downing antibiotics, because of the strong infection they transmit. Bird lovers too admit to being on their guard when it comes to these birds because of the infections and diseases they transmit.

The BBMP , which has received numerous complaints from people about the pigeon menace, is now planning to hold a meeting with wildlife experts, bird lovers , health experts and concerned citizens to deal with it, says Mr Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP joint commissioner (health).

The civic agency is reportedly considering taking a cue from other countries, which have effectively dealt with the growing population of pigeons without harming the ecology and is also planning a study on their impact on humans, animals and other bird species.

Source

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »

Pest control on pause after disturbing video of pigeon’s death

Full Statement from Northview:

How to Get Rid of Pigeons – Overview of All Available Solutions

How to Get Rid of Pigeons?

How to Get Rid of Pigeons from a Balcony

How to Get Rid of Pigeons on Roofs

How to Get Rid of Pigeons at Industrial Facilities

Conclusion

NO SINGLE METHOD OR SOLUTION WILL SOLVE ALL PIGEON PROBLEMS

WHY NOT JUST KILL THE BIRDS?

Primary groups and cosmopolitan ties: The rooftop pigeon flyers of New York City

Pigeon flies past broadband in data speed race

Homing pigeon faster than Internet? In S. Africa, the answer’s yes.

Homing in on city’s pigeon problem

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