Pigeon Pollution

            One of my favorite movies growing up a kid was Home Alone. While Macaulay Culkin’s time as a star was brief he took part in many great movies that have become classics of their own. From Richie Rich to The Little Rascals and of course the Home Alone, series, he played big roles in many of the movies people my age grew up watching. In the second of three movies, Kevin (played by Macaulay Culkin) finds himself lost in New York after accidently following a man who looked extremely similar to his father, onto the wrong plane in the airport. While his family was headed for a tropical Christmas, little Kevin finds himself stepping off a plane all alone in the Big Apple. Of the many people he meets throughout his journey, he comes across a homeless woman in Central park who has a rather strange connection with the park residents, feral pigeons. If you have seen the movie, then you can picture the end scene when she scatters the bird on the two criminal thugs and the birds come to Kevin’s rescue as mass on the men and devour the bird seed. While the movie paints a pleasant picture of feral pigeons, the fact of the matter is that they actually are a damaging, costly pest.

            Roosting pigeons are considered a pest for many different reasons. Let’s take city parks as an example in light of the Home Alone movie. Daily pigeons rest on items such as statues in urban parks. You may not think about it as you walk by a statue that was freshly “improved” by a pigeon, but pigeon droppings are caustic and cities pay thousands of dollars a year in just the cleaning and maintenance of statues thanks to the feral flyers. Additionally, because of how corrosive the droppings are, many plants and manufacturing facilities have entire teams dedicated to keep the property clear of pigeons and the debris they leave behind. While the companies may pay several people to strictly clean up after them, which is far less expensive than the damage that can occur by simply leaving the waste where the birds leave it. While it is a significantly smaller problem, injuries occur quite often each year due to slipping and falling thanks to pigeon poop. In areas where pigeons mass, large amounts of droppings can actually create a slippery surface and if you are not paying attention, you just might slip and fall into all that mess.

             Bird Control around the house is much different than urban and commercial areas. Typically homeowners that live in suburban areas see far less pigeons than in more congested areas. But, that does not mean bird problems do not exist for suburban homeowners. Products such as 4 The Birds are designed to be applied directly to the areas that birds are nesting or roosting.  Applied with a caulking gun, 4 The Birds acts as an irritant to birds and once associated with that area, the bird will not return. So unless you are like the bird lady in Home Alone, this might be a product you will want to try.