Tips to keep an inordinate amount of birds away from house

[Takiap]

Since there's not much you can do, just adopt the Thai attitude, and forget about it. Personally, I would much rather listen to the birds than listen to city noises, such as traffic; sirens, 125cc lawn mowers being riden by kids who think they're riding a 1100cc, and last but not least, those damn pickups advertising Index and Black Mountain Water Park. I've been listening to "Daddy, I want to go the Black Mountain Water Park" rubbish every day for months already. Why doesn't the little bugger's father just take him, providing I'm not there of course because I'll drown the bugger.

Anyway, back to the birds.

[ozuncle]

I like birds and bird noises EXCEPT PIGEONS. I HATE THEM.

For years we endured bird shit all over the house and our lovely neighbours kindly cleaned up every time, before we arrived. I think we had at least 100 roosting every night. some making nests under air cons and in the ceiling space of the sala.

We tried numerous things over the years including laser pointers bb guns fake owls and cats, netting etc. Nothing was successful and the problem just got worse.
The fact that we can only get over for holidays a couple of times per year and that the house is two story with plenty of overhangs to get some shade or to get out of the rain made it perfect for them.

On my most recent trip we decided that we would bite the bullet and fix the problem. We phoned Stop Bird (see the link posted by nereus above) to find an agent close to us but they advised that they would send a team from Bangkok. We got an idea of costs and we decided to go for spikes (200 bht per meter) on all the ridgecaps and Gel (150 bht per meter) on all the areas under eaves.
I cant remember the exact amount but there was also a per kilometer fee to send the team down.

An appointment was made for the day I was arriving and they were waiting for me when I arrived. A team of six in the pick up complete with ladders and all their equipment.

The job took about 5 hours and after 84 meters of spikes on the ridgecaps and more than that of gel
the total cost was 37000 bht.

That evening it was quite fun watching the birds come home for the night, and the fun continued for the next few days until they got the message that it was my house, not theirs.

Some might see it as being a bit cruel but I and my neighbors were glad to see the last of them.

Stop Bird guarantee the work for 1 year and so far (two months) everything is good.

I can fully recommend them.

[Frank Hovis]

I like birds and bird noises EXCEPT PIGEONS. I HATE THEM.

Can't agree more.
I find it surprising that Thai country folks will eat just about any kind of bird (and other animal) from sparrows to water rails, rats to snakes and monkeys but they don't appear to eat pigeon.
We are fortunate in not having many of them around, and those that do come get a swift stone from a slingshot. Hopefully the increase in sparrowhawks and the like over the winter will keep their numbers down.
Feral pigeons are the soi dogs of the avian world.

[Nereus]

I like birds and bird noises EXCEPT PIGEONS. I HATE THEM.

Can't agree more.
I find it surprising that Thai country folks will eat just about any kind of bird (and other animal) from sparrows to water rails, rats to snakes and monkeys but they don't appear to eat pigeon.We are fortunate in not having many of them around, and those that do come get a swift stone from a slingshot. Hopefully the increase in sparrowhawks and the like over the winter will keep their numbers down.
Feral pigeons are the soi dogs of the avian world.

From what I have noticed in a village, the stinking things tend to make their HQ at the local Temple, and because of that they cannot be touched.
They are RATS of the air and who knows just what diseases they are carrying.

The owner of the business came to my Condo yesterday (Bangkok), no charge for that and he is going to send an estimate of the cost. He was on his way the Pattaya to look at a job, and said he would be going to Cha Am today.

[Big Boy]

We have a lot of waste ground in front of our house, and Thais are forever hunting pigeons with their catapults - I've always assumed they were hunting them to eat.

[hhfarang]

We have a lot of waste ground in front of our house, and Thais are forever hunting pigeons with their catapults - I've always assumed they were hunting them to eat.

Big Boy, a catapult is quite an overkill for birds as it is usually used to storm a castle (or maybe the birds in your neighborhood are quite organized. ). I think you may mean a slingshot...

Catapult:



Slingshot:

[Siani]

I love birds...but some can be a pain, a real pain. When we lived for 3 months in Hin Lek Fai Road, the pigeons were a nightmare. The Sh*t they left behind on the balconies was a mine field. In the heat it used to bake and was so difficult to remove. They got into the roof and the pool man had to climb up and repair it! No scaffold, just straight up! The pool was always full of bird poop! Not nice! The darn things would wait until the pool was cleaned then fly over and bomb it with poop
Anyway, at the time we were thinking of staying and buying a house, so we went into the problem. There is a scarer you can buy...about £20

http://www.birdstop.co.uk/

However, a simple deterrent would be to buy a plastic Falcon and put it on the roof

It will scare the life out of them, and hopefully do the trick and make them stay away.

Here is the plastic Falcon

[attachment=0]imagesCAHF1TLF.jpg[/attachment]

[Dannie Boy]

We have a lot of waste ground in front of our house, and Thais are forever hunting pigeons with their catapults - I've always assumed they were hunting them to eat.

Big Boy, a catapult is quite an overkill for birds as it is usually used to storm a castle (or maybe the birds in your neighborhood are quite organized. ). I think you may mean a slingshot...

Catapult:



Slingshot:

I think it depends where you grew up HHF - what you call a slingshot in the US, has always been called a catapult in the UK.

[Nereus]

However, a simple deterrent would be to buy a plastic Falcon and put it on the roof
It will scare the life out of them, and hopefully do the trick and make them stay away.

Any pigeon that wants to stay in the family is trained to ignore such stupid human efforts, and they actually have competitions to see who can crap on those things from different heights and speeds. The winners from those competitions are then invited to take a shot at a plastic snake, and the winner is awarded a nice shiny CD to use as a mirror to preen themselves!

Do you really believe somebody would spend 35,000 Baht getting rid of them if a plastic Falcon would do the job.

[Siani]

However, a simple deterrent would be to buy a plastic Falcon and put it on the roof
It will scare the life out of them, and hopefully do the trick and make them stay away.

Any pigeon that wants to stay in the family is trained to ignore such stupid human efforts, and they actually have competitions to see who can crap on those things from different heights and speeds. The winners from those competitions are then invited to take a shot at a plastic snake, and the winner is awarded a nice shiny CD to use as a mirror to preen themselves!

Do you really believe somebody would spend 35,000 Baht getting rid of them if a plastic Falcon would do the job.

Well it just goes to show how much I know I had a neighbour in the UK who put a stork by his pond to stop the Herons from eating the Carp he kept. It did work for him. Maybe pigeons are more intelligent..or braver

OK....plan B ..........Security

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[Vital Spark]

I might try the plastic hawk, Siani. We have a MASSIVE problem with pigeons at our house - they're nesting everywhere they can: on top of the lintels, the air-conditioning unit, and the balcony. When the landlord pops round he tells me to throw the seeds from the palm tree at them. I can't stand all day hurling palm thingies at them, anyway they just flutter off, do a circuit, and settle back down again. One of the problems is our fussy dogs. They don't always eat all the food I give them, and the pigeons are lining up to pick at what's left. One day I heard this weird noise outside and found a plastic bowl skating around the terrace. A stupid pigeon had perched on the edge and the bowl had flipped over on top of it. Yeh, I rescued the frantic thing, and it flew away to annoy me another day.

VS

[Siani]

I might try the plastic hawk, Siani. We have a MASSIVE problem with pigeons at our house - they're nesting everywhere they can: on top of the lintels, the air-conditioning unit, and the balcony. When the landlord pops round he tells me to throw the seeds from the palm tree at them. I can't stand all day hurling palm thingies at them, anyway they just flutter off, do a circuit, and settle back down again. One of the problems is our fussy dogs. They don't always eat all the food I give them, and the pigeons are lining up to pick at what's left. One day I heard this weird noise outside and found a plastic bowl skating around the terrace. A stupid pigeon had perched on the edge and the bowl had flipped over on top of it. Yeh, I rescued the frantic thing, and it flew away to annoy me another day.

VS

In the Victorian era, they used to have ridge tiles or finials in the form of birds.
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Worth a try with the plastic Falcon VS...let us know if it works

If not...you could sit on the porch with one of these
[attachment=1]scarer.png[/attachment]

[hhfarang]

I think it depends where you grew up HHF - what you call a slingshot in the US, has always been called a catapult in the UK.

Then what do you call the one in the first photo that your king's armies used to use to storm French castles?

[Winkie]

The one for storming French Castles was called "Le Catapult"!

[Nereus]

I think it depends where you grew up HHF - what you call a slingshot in the US, has always been called a catapult in the UK.

Then what do you call the one in the first photo that your king's armies used to use to storm French castles?

There appears to be many different names of some of these devices. But you may be thinking of a "trebuchet". Strictly speaking a "catapult" has ONE arm.