How Not To Do Bird Control – As Demonstrated By The Movies

I don’t know about you, but I have a real bird control problem in my garden. But I wouldn’t want to take any advice from these movies:

The Hitchcock film “The Birds” shows us how not to do bird control.

The message learnt is to not buy lovebirds as pets, as their very presence will incite all other birds to viciously attack humans – if we are to believe the film, which, of course, we don’t. We certainly do not want to be outnumbered by birds – think of all the bird mess and potential spread of disease…..

Next, we move on to the children’s classic film “Mary Poppins” (one of my favourites) and the song called “Feed the birds”. However lovely this song may be, it encourages people to feed birds – this is an absolute no-no! This will be completely counteractive to any bird control measures.

Always, always clear away food leftovers when eating outdoors into bins.

Never leave your scraps in the open, unless you want an entire kit of pigeons (did you know that a “kit” is the collective noun for a group of these birds?), to descend on you en masse.

Then there is the animated film “Valiant” featuring WWII homing pigeons. The main character, Valiant, befriends a flea-ridden London pigeon.

Again, you certainly would not want to encourage the close presence of pigeons, especially flea-ridden ones – this would not help your bird control cause. You should keep pigeons far away and be particularly weary of those that look ‘dodgy’. If they are flea-ridden, you certainly want to discourage them from coming near your home or pet, otherwise you will have a flea problem too!

There are many other movies that pest control would have ruined – given the opportunity of course! So instead of the movies, I would turn to a professional pest control company for practical and effective advice on bird control. Here are some basics:

• Bird points: My husband installed pigeon spikes (or more correctly a bird point deterrent system) on the side of our garden fence where we built our pergola with a seating area underneath. This certainly does help to deter pigeons and minimise bird droppings on our lovely patio… though sadly our efforts are overshadowed by our neighbours, who regularly feed birds. Not just with a bird feeder, but by throwing larger crumbs on the lawn – that is what encourages the pigeons and also rats. Arrrrgh!
• Bird netting: this can be used to deter all species of birds. This bird netting is available in all sizes and can be used on any part of a building to prevent bird nesting. You can see these in-situ at many train stations around the country.
• Scarecrows: Ever heard of a flash scarecrow? This spins in the slightest breeze to peacefully scare birds away. Probably more suitable for large field and not your average garden.
• Birds of prey: Birds of prey have a genuine, proven success in bird control measures. We are lucky enough to regularly see Red Kites flying in the sky above our home …. I wonder if they are good for bird control too?