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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How to deal with bloody gulls?!

160 replies

Seagullhell · 30/07/2025 09:21

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!)

OP posts:
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5
Terrribletwos · 02/08/2025 23:48

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/08/2025 23:38

Meh, it's better than parties going on all night, domestic violence, somebody getting their DIY finished around midnight or the local big bollocks property developer starting their latest construction with 3 months of pile driving, then 13 months of building, then all of those people moving in and the next development starting up opposite whilst the local junkies sit on the front wall arguing whilst waiting for their dealer to deliver.

See also foxes with a den in the garden, crows, rooks and jackdaws nesting in the trees, major starling roosts in November, living by a wildfowl sanctuary, a flock of rose necked parakeets - all fine. A husky breeder next door, not fine. Living next to the nearest pub to the main line, not fine. Living underneath the Gatwick flight path or the A3, not fine.

Shytehawks yelling from the roof are far, far better than human noise.

God! Do you have all that going on now?if that's the case, my sympathies!

Also, it doesn't distract from the noise of gulls and shitehawks just adds to the noise. I wish we could move

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/08/2025 23:59

Terrribletwos · 02/08/2025 23:48

God! Do you have all that going on now?if that's the case, my sympathies!

Also, it doesn't distract from the noise of gulls and shitehawks just adds to the noise. I wish we could move

Thanks - to be fair, it's a combination of the noises I've experienced living in different places - I'd move back to the Land of the Shytehawks with DP in a heartbeat (or the ten million corvids that live overlooking his Mum's cottage - with bonus Red Kites up the hill and Red Cows(!) in the next field and harvest time machinery clattering through at all hours), if we could afford it.

The only positive human noise I can think of right now would be church bells. I liked waking up to those.

Terrribletwos · 03/08/2025 00:08

NeverDropYourMooncup · 02/08/2025 23:59

Thanks - to be fair, it's a combination of the noises I've experienced living in different places - I'd move back to the Land of the Shytehawks with DP in a heartbeat (or the ten million corvids that live overlooking his Mum's cottage - with bonus Red Kites up the hill and Red Cows(!) in the next field and harvest time machinery clattering through at all hours), if we could afford it.

The only positive human noise I can think of right now would be church bells. I liked waking up to those.

Aw. Loved the newly dwellers who complained about the harvest machines in the country. ..not sure what they expected
quite like church bells actually but far awsy...like bagpipes

Gull nosie is on another level..you have to live it...it's horrendous .

Isittimeformynapyet · 03/08/2025 00:59

I've lived on the coast for twenty years. To sleep beyond 4am at a certain time of year I kept the windows shut, had a fan on full, put cotton wool in my ears and took OTC sleep aids occasionally.

The first ten years were the worst - so, chin up OP, you do get used to it 😄.

But seriously, I really sympathise.

Oopsadaisysgranny · 03/08/2025 02:28

We have two baby gulls living on my kitchen roof . They started of on the main roof ! They fly to the park each day and come back in the evening . I must admit we do feed them and they recognise my husband . We also have wood pigeons in the front and back garden trees !!! They have a right to live but I can sympathise about the noise . They all best here every year

DrPrunesqualer · 03/08/2025 13:37

Terrribletwos · 02/08/2025 22:25

Why? Have you lived with the ear splitting noise which is all day and night?

If you read my previous post you’ll see I’m half a mile from the sea, with single glazed I’ll fitting windows.
So
Yes

Keepingthingsinteresting · 03/08/2025 16:02

Hangingonthere · 02/08/2025 16:46

My neighbours removed a nest on the roof of their small house. It was a lovely little house built to fit in a small place and the roof had many small flat areas and nooks and crannies and flat areas ideal for nesting - on top of their bedroom. He gull-proofed it - so he thought. He knew removing the nest was illegal but was prepared to face the consequences after being unable to work through exhaustion. When he climbed onto his roof the noise from the gulls was earsplitting, they were dive-bombing and physically attacking him. I lived directly next door and the noise used to start at 4am and woke me even though I kept the all the windows closed.
Later that year he gull-proofed the roof yet again and finally solved the problem. He was a lovely guy and a great neighbour and I would have never dreamt of reporting him - his actions then were so out of character.

So it’s ok to do something illegal and awful as long as it’s “out of character” ? I’d love to hear you apply that to all the people (usually men) convicted of domestic or child abuse….they shouldn’t go to prisons because it was so out of character/ no one expected it!

Our wildlife already faces awful challenges and needs ll the protection it can get, not this horrible behaviour or looking the other way.

Keepingthingsinteresting · 03/08/2025 16:05

Terrribletwos · 02/08/2025 23:26

Ah, I note you don't live there now. I wonder if you would like to live in close proximity to an ear splitting noise 24/7? It's maddening. I am pretty sure you would hate it

And actually no, they are not endangered, that's just something the conservationists like to peddle. I will bet they don't live in close proximity to them.

Would you like to show peer reviewed scientific evidence for the statement gulls aren’t endangered, or is this going to just be your “common sense”. If you don’t like it move somewhere else.

MarxistMags · 03/08/2025 16:20

I was going to say, do you live in Scotland ?
They are a real nuisance up here In our town.Kids being attacked or swooped down on, and pinching food literally out of your hands. 1 OAP had to go to AandE for stitches in her head. The councils advice ? Use an umbrella....
My friend got an approved company to remove the nest. But they are back, so she got the spikes but they are back again for this year.
They are a health hazard IMO
Shit everywhere, on the car, on my washing, on me even ! I can actually hear them now 😆
I hate them. Flying rats.

Rallentanda · 13/08/2025 10:43

Thought of this thread as I was woken by the Seagull Massive at 4am.

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