To hate pigeons with every bone in my body?

[MargoLivebetter]

I live in a flat and we have outdoor space and the pigeons have moved in and I cannot get rid of them. I made a huge mistake in lockdown of letting two pigeons rear a baby pigeon on the deck. I hadn't realised that they'd laid an egg and when I found it, it had hatched and I couldn't bring myself to lob it over the balcony.

Oh what a price I have paid for my kindness / weakness. I now have a colony of the fuckers living on my decking. I am constantly on pigeon patrol collecting up their sad twig nests and endlessly lobbing their bloody eggs over the balcony. I have pigeon shit everywhere and on days I WFH, I listen to their endless mating noises.

I have tried everything (bar shooting them). I have vile sticky stuff all over the edges of things, which is supposed to deter them but doesn't. I had a bird startler noise thing, which they got used to after about 2 days. I have festooned the place in bird scarers and silvery things, all of which they completely ignore.

I am so fed up with them. Does anyone know a way of getting rid of these bastard birds?

What about a kestrel kite. Or cds on string type stuff. Allotments covered in them to keep away the birds. For now.

Then look and see if maybe a company can come and net you in even if they have to add a few bits or wood or metal framing.

You can hire pest control who use Harris hawks to deter pigeons. They often use them at the hospital I work out- always surprising to see a big hawk sitting outside the window!

I could dot a few kestral kites around @OhmygodDont . I've already spent so much money on deterrents, none of which have worked that I'm wondering if they will work. The spikes are the only thing that have been useful and the place already looks like a metal hedgehog, but maybe I need even more.

To be honest, I think expert help is probably what is needed.

@ChickenMaths I like the sound of a Harris Hawk. Thank you.

Throwing the eggs is gross if nothing else. Where do they land? Are there just smashed eggs making the ground outside someone else's window disgusting?

No @TTPD they are in the bushes and grass below with all the fox shit and rat shit. This being an urban area we have loads of both of those too.

This makes me sad . I have a pair of collared doves in my garden . I have named them and love waking up to their coos .

Pepper - buy a cheap large tub, clean the patio with disinfectant and then sprinkle the pepper. This worked for us.

Failing that you could buy a catio mesh product https://catnets.com.au/products/low-vis-19mm-netting-by-the-metre

Spikes are the answer. We got rid of them via them.

We had them in a school l worked at. The council got rid of them so they thought. They just moved to another part of the school.

The kids used to coo all lesson. Drove us mental.

I couldn't hurt them or throw the eggs away. I would try and find a natural deterrent.

On another note;..
There's a couple that patrols/walks Lincoln city centre feeding the pigeons. The woman has a trolley and the man has a backpack with food in it. They sometimes pick them up, put in their jackets and take them away.

They say there looking after the pigeons. I think they're being fattened up and made into pigeon pie.

On another note:: chicken and duck eggs that are eaten, aven't been fertilized by the male so it's never going to be a chick.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow will definitely get more spikes. Good to hear a positive story, thank you.

My Dad was a stone restorer and he hated pigeons and it is believed that he caught an infection from them, which caused a chronic disease that followed him through life (E-Coli and it can trigger ITP/ TTP - nasty). He called them 'flying rats' and said they were the only bird that he saw that lived in their own poo, plus they carry very nasty diseases and their droppings destroy what it falls on, stone, wood you name it! I have wood pigeons in my garden, including a nest and they very different in behaviour to those that live in towns, but I still give them a wide berth. Pigeons actually carry the highest number of diseases in comparison to any other bird species. Pigeons also carry more diseases than rats, with their droppings being one of the core causes of disease. They also carry bird mites, which are extremely common among all pigeons. When you can and breeding is over, do all you can to get rid of them humanely. I am all for protecting the environment and very into allowing wildlife to flourish, just we made this issue and it has nasty consequences for us.

Oh I hate them too but haven't found a way of keeping them out of the garden.

They wind the dogs up who then give chase. Cue a lot of frenzied flapping. Occasionally they misjudge it and one gets caught, which leaves a horrible mess but generally they escape, only to be back on the grass winding the dogs up 10 minutes later.

I had their favourite nesting tree lopped last winter hoping they'd take the hint and move on but nope. They are now in the apple tree instead.

That's a bit of an oversimplification - they are a genetic combination of cliff dwelling rock doves and descendants of birds originally kept for food or sacrifice. They've proliferated because we keep building ideal artificial cliff habitats (buildings) and create a lot of food waste for scavenging.

They aren't sweet little canaries cruelly trying to survive in abandonment. They are overbreeding vermin. (Vermin, like weeds, are things that proliferate where we don't want them. In the right habitat they become wildlife and wildflowers)

I don't like the lazy greedy feckers, but that's mostly because they bully the local jackdaw, and I do love the jackdaw.

Indeed!

They are living beings..regardless of your view on their right to exist.

Your attitude is disgusting. Destroying nests and their eggs is horrible.

Act like a dignified, respectful human being and find a solution that is humane.

It's easy to preach about loving animals until until there's loads of something specific and they're shitting all over your stuff. I mean most of us are 'animal lovers' and want to live and let live with wild animals - but once something is making you miserable because there's too many of them and they're covering your things in poo you have to act.

Rats - imagine that for a moment - how many posters would be delighted to have them running about and shitting in their garden and would just smile and ''Aw they're wild animals leave them alone''

I encouraged lots of birds into my garden a couple of winters ago (the really cold one) by feeding with hanging feeders and seed ect on the ground. The following spring the garden was inundated with pigeons ! The tits ect all went their way but the blessed pigeons had moved in and were still there long after i stopped with the food. There were 7 or 8 always sitting around and they shat all over my daughters swing and the garden chairs and the patio and one even shat on DH's head once. Big meaty shits we're talking about. Solid. Like you need a tissue to pick it up. Not just a splat.

I tried the plastic owls and they did fuck all. I took to rushing out in the garden and flapping at them and they'd mostly just fly a few feet away and stare at me.

Then DH went on Amazon and bought little spike strips and he glued them up along the 3 places the pigeons loved to sit most. Top of the swing. A certain bit of fence. The apex of a pointy bit of the roof near the patio. That did the trick thank goodness. The spikes are delicate and fine and almost invisible but the pigeons wont go near them and it seemed to break up their community sit about and they buggered off into the open countryside around the village.

This winter i just fed from hangy feeders and we didn't get the big influx of pigeons.

A couple of months ago i took a poorly looking pigeon in our front garden to the animal shelter near us; i don't 'hate' them, i just i don't want their shit on my stuff.

Sorry for the essay - try the spikes OP

But they are rats. Would you say this about a rat? They carry disease.

Rats are much nicer than pigeons. Smarter, too.

@YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME that's interesting and worrying. I grew up in the sticks and as kids we were always told not to go anywhere near pigeons. I'd never really appreciated why!

Thanks @Laiste it is 4 years of shit! I would never have said that pigeons bothered me in my life until I spent 4 years scraping baked bird shit off every outdoor surface.

Of course, you find humane ways to deal with them.
Hence why glue traps etc are illegal.

I used to live in a flat with a balcony that had 2 roosting pigeons who lived in the alcove of of it every night.

I used to hose down my balcony and clean it free of droppings regularly and it was fine.

Of course wild animals carry diseases so you take precautions and accept they we share our citys and living spaces and deal with accordingly:

That doesn't mean we have to "hate" other species for merely existing

Not surprising, really. Love your username 😂

it is not illegal to destroy pigeon nests and these birds can make you very very unwell. Get pest control in, they will sort it. It is a nightmare and your feelings are valid. We tend to feel this way about vermin because they make us sick - it is an evolutionary adaptation!

We've had nesting sparrows in the eaves for over 20 years. They are very noisy very early, but I love them. Ity's a privilege to have them living here.

The disease-ridden feral pigeons with their caustic poo? not so much. If the world population of feral pigeons suddenly halved, the planet would be the better for it. (The same would of course be true for humans, if we want to get all Thanos about it)

On another note;..
There's a couple that patrols/walks Lincoln city centre feeding the pigeons. The woman has a trolley and the man has a backpack with food in it. They sometimes pick them up, put in their jackets and take them away.

I do hope not!

There are organised feedings of the pigeons in the city centre here as many had been dying of starvation.

We recently rescued one from the city centre. It had been injured, and was stuck in the middle of the road. The sheer number of people who looked at it and walked past was sad. We took it to one of the pigeon rescue charities.

@MargoLivebetter

Get in touch with council envorimental services first port of call,
If not much good?

Also get in touch with bird life protection charity RSPB
For advice

or

other
Uk wildlife charties too ..