How to deal with bloody gulls?!

[Seagullhell]

Posting in AIBU shamelessly for traffic, sorry, but getting rather desperate for some help!

We moved to our new house earlier this year. Our bedroom is in the extension with a flat roof, upon which, we quickly found out, are nesting seagulls. And OMG, the NOISE 😭

It annoys me a fair amount, but I'm generally capable of going back to sleep after being woken. But it's starting to make my DH ill. He's always been a light sleeper, so when they start up at 4/5am stomping around (it actually sounds like they're dropping rocks), he can't get back to sleep. He works in a high pressure job and has a long commute half the week. It's reached the point where he's called in sick - in nearly 20 years I've known him to do this once, maybe twice.

Since this all started we've discovered he has a B12 deficiency, and he's waiting for an appointment to delve into and hopes to get injections prescribed which we hope will help with the lightness of his sleep generally. But what else can we do?!

He tried sleeping on the sofa - can't sleep. The other rooms are occupied or face a busy main road. He's tried earplugs, but can't sleep in them. He's taking B12 tablets until his docs appointment along with magnesium to help, but they don't seem to do anything.

We've got to the point where we can't help but wonder about just kicking the bloody nest off the roof. We know this is illegal, so we won't, but it's hard watching him reach breaking point and not feeling a bit murderous.

We need tips to get him through the summer where the babies will have flown the nest and we can engage professionals to do something to hopefully prevent them from coming back.

Can anyone suggest any other supplements, aids, remedies etc to help him get better quality sleep until that point?

(Also any suggestions about things that will actually work to get rid of the bastard gulls highly appreciated too!)

He just needs to try sleeping elsewhere until they leave. If he struggles to sleep on the sofa get him to take some Nytol for the first new nights until he gets used to it. Or buy a camp bed.

Anyway…

Can anyone suggest any other supplements, aids, remedies etc to help him get better quality sleep until that point?
(Also any suggestions about things that will actually work to get rid of the bastard gulls highly appreciated too!)

Weirdly, I have a lot of experience in both of these areas 😁 (currently listening to the many squawking herring gulls circling the house and garden right now actually).
Oddly, both I and DH had major issues with B12/folate deficiency (and then recently my eldest DD had it diagnosed too). Your DH may not be getting any relief from tablets as the issue may be that he cannot absorb B12. It has been the same for all three of us, and until we started the injections, nothing helped. Sorry. And the list of health conditions it causes is long, not confined to extreme fatigue. It could well be that once he is receiving injections (if that is what his GP decides), the gulls won’t be such a problem for him tbh. I was on a very short fuse and low tolerance of any noise that kept me awake, and even if I did sleep it didn’t make much difference. I can sleep through anything now. A 4am squawk might wake me but it won’t stop me getting back to sleep.

As for the gulls, unfortunately your flat roof is obviously very enticing for them. And unless you make it less enticing, you won’t get rid of them. Or until someone else makes somewhere nearby even more attractive. Neighbours opposite had expensive spikes and wiring put around their flat roof, and from my upstairs window, I’ve watched it make absolutely no difference to the gulls that nested there every year, they just worked round them and pulled some out (probably made them safer from predators like cats tbh). Anyway, they no longer have the issue, thanks to another nearby neighbour having a couple of extensions that had pitched roof areas, they nest there now because presumably they feel safer nestled in the gullies on the new roof. Possibly a high netting might stop them next year but they’re where they are because it suits them as a habitat, unless you can change the surrounding area you’re going to struggle to stop them coming back. DDs and I help a local wildlife rescue. I’ve rescued more than one of the fledging chicks from neighbours roof when they’ve fallen off prematurely and needed a few days on the ground working out how to take off. We’ve always got big umbrellas on standby so we can go in to the garden, that stage only lasts a few days, any younger and they’d need a proper rehabber. Also, people have suggested that you prevent them nesting next year by removing nesting material (ie not just a ready nest but actually stop them if they’re bringing material in). That’s also illegal - “preventing access to or to iIntentionally take, damage or destroy the nest of any wild bird while it is in use or being built” so make sure anything you do to prevent them is well outside of times they may be ready to nest.

If you live near the coast perhaps it’s not for you.

I’m listening to it now, it’s the sound of the coast, so yes, it’s got positive associations for me. They literally live on my roof, like most of the houses here, not a problem. It’s quite fun watching the chicks grow from fluffy little splats to taking their first flight.

I live 50 miles from the coast.
This is not a natural environment for them.

Sorry but property laws don’t apply to seagulls 😂. The wildlife has just as much right to be there as you do. If you don’t like them, then don’t choose to live by the sea? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Honestly, I can’t believe how dickish some people are about allowing other species to have an existence on a planet which is theirs, as much as it is ours.

Do they wake you during the night?

I hate it at 2:30 when they waken me. Maybe you're a heavy sleeper? Nosies from the gulls circulating and creating a racket wake me up..

Ha. Do they live by you? I live 50 miles from the coast and gulls are a constant noise even during the night. Have you experienced this?

Yes I do, as I said I feed them. I live by the sea, I accept that gulls are part of living by the sea.

The reason they are not living naturally is because WE STOLE ALL THE FISH FROM THE SEA and they had to move inland.

I’m really not a heavy sleeper at all (chronic muscle pain). The gull noise doesn’t cause me any upset when I wake (several times a night), and it’s not the cause of my waking because it’s an everyday sound, not out of the ordinary in my mind.

We have gulls and they make a noise during the night, but I like hearing and seeing them. It's sad that people hate and persecute them. I know they can be noisy, but I'd rather hear their call than the horrible sounds that often pass for music now.

Yes. It is. Being designated a Red List Species does not come down to how many of the specific animal occur in one particular town.
South Walney nature reserve in Cumbria had more than 10,000 nesting herring gulls in 1999 and 444 in 2020, a drop of 96%. Decrease in numbers of lesser black-backed gulls at the same site was even greater, at 98%.
The overall numbers ARE decreasing. What they are doing however, is moving, largely because they are trying to rapidly adapt to new habitats because of the destruction or downgrading of their traditional habitats. So, yes, Birmingham (or wherever) may have more gulls than ever. That does not equate to more gull numbers than ever.
Anyone thinking it does probably needs to watch Father Ted for explanations such as the difference between small and far away.

But we are encouraging them to live inland and feed off scraps. How is that natural.
And this thing about we stole all their fish is unfounded. They moved inland because gulls are clever and recognized where easy food is. They could easily move out if there was no longer scraps to feed off and it has been shown that they do quite easily.

Bird flu has taken a good number of them out, it's not all down to humans.

My lovely Stephen

You are part of the problem feeding bloody gulls. How irresponsible. People like you have turned them in to scavangers.

Love them as a species but there are now too many.
Do you have just the one?

lol. Do you object to people feeding all wildlife? Or just gulls?

A pair. They have been visiting for the last couple of years. They go off in the winter.

there are loads around here and they are noisy, but it’s just the pair who visit us daily.

Would you feed rats? They are wildlife also.

Rats aren't endangered.

Perhaps steer clear of waterways of all kinds then
although in the country there’s foxes screaming into the night
and the farmers get up in the very early hours with their combines to work

We share our land with all

OP I feel your pain. I used to live on the coast and this is one reason I wouldn't again. I visited a couple of weeks ago and OMG the noise, their swooping down (one tried to take something off a young girl walking towards me eating), the shit on the pavements, the shit on the cars. They are a bloody pest.
When I lived there (top floor flat) and they built a nest above it. I got a catapult from a fishing shop and used to fire it at them.

You can't do that at night obviously.
I'd get rid of their nest whether or not it's illegal. Lots of things are illegal.

It is normal for gulls to come inland. My sil lives in Germany and sees them all the time there. They follow the tractors round here.

You're wrong - what @MandyMotherOfBrian says is true. Both the species she mentions are declining in number in the UK and are Red Listed.