Birds under the roof what to do. The five best ways to scare birds away How to get rid of sparrows using available tools

Sparrows feed on insects, they help summer residents to get rid of pests. However, if sparrows are short of basic food, they can easily spoil crops and destroy crops. Having settled under your roof, the birds will cause a lot of inconvenience: traces of droppings, chirping, constant noise. This article will show you how to get rid of sparrows in your area. Several simple and affordable ways will allow you to save your harvest and your own nerves.

How to get rid of sparrows using available tools?

If birds are purposefully destroying plants from several beds, try to protect them with a special net. It is enough to drive in a few stakes around the perimeter and pull the threads between them. It is better to use a removable mesh on the frame, then plant care will be greatly simplified;

cassette tape can scare away sparrows. If you do not have such a rarity, you can safely use the usual New Year's rain. Old CDs can also be hung around the perimeter of the summer cottage. They will reflect the sun's rays, and this will frighten the birds;

The scarecrow is a very old, but time-tested remedy for feathered pests. Everyone can build such a structure. Tie two long sticks with a cross and hang your old clothes on them. For more realism, you can fill the scarecrow with straw.

Unusual loud noises, rustling shiny products, tin cans - all this can be used to scare off sparrows.

How to get rid of roof sparrows?

Birds often settle under the canopy. If the sparrows decide to make a nest, it will not be so easy to drive them away. The easiest way is to get a cat who will pay them a visit and scare them properly. If you don't have a fluffy pet, you can ask your neighbor for a while from a summer cottage.

You can also drive the sparrows out from under the roof with the help of anti-slip spikes. Such products are placed directly on the cornice to make it inconvenient for the birds to return to the nest. This method works gradually. Sparrows will simply get tired of constantly overcoming the obstacle, and they will start looking for another place to nest. Have patience, and forward to effective control of pest sparrows! These humane methods will help you get rid of an unpleasant neighborhood without harming the birds.

Birds are wonderful creatures, orderlies of the forest, who rid plants of all kinds of insects. But in addition to being good, they can also be harmful. When the population of birds increases sharply near where people live, they can pose a danger to humans. We will tell you what inconvenience birds living in the attic of a house cause, and give effective methods of dealing with such neighbors.

What inconvenience do birds cause

Birds, including sparrows, can be carriers of pathogens

In addition to the constant rustling and chirping, when arranging their nests under the roof of a house, birds raise a lot of dust, which can negatively affect human health. In addition, birds often show are carriers of infectious diseases, because their excrement can contain various fungi and bacteria that are extremely dangerous for us.

So, pathogens of diseases such as torulosis, psittacosis and others often live in pigeon droppings. All of them are transmitted by airborne droplets.

If the birds build their nests under the roof itself, this can impair ventilation, which will lead to premature failure of the roof structural elements. For example, a layer of insulation must be well ventilated, otherwise moisture will form on it, which contributes to the destruction of the material.

In general, where people live, forest dwellers have no place. Therefore, such neighbors should be expelled immediately.

How to get rid of

In this case, before removing the nest, it is imperative to obtain a corresponding permit from the Department of the Environment.

The fact is that, according to the Law on Environmental Protection, the deliberate destruction of bird dwellings in their natural habitat is strictly prohibited.

If you are convinced that the birds have not yet managed to settle over your head, but nevertheless periodically make unpleasant visits, you need to take care that the birds do not start their next construction. Let's take a look at the most effective means and methods to help ward off these visitors from your home.

Anti-slip spikes

Spikes are mainly used to scare away large birds.

This device is made of polycarbonate or metal and is a mesh with sharp vertical wedges that prevent birds from perching on the roof. However, small birds, for example, starlings, are not afraid of large thorns and sit between them. But if the product is installed on the cornice, then larger birds, such as swallows and pigeons, will not be able to fly under the roof and will soon leave you alone.

Helpful Hint: Periodically clean the thorns from dirt and remove the leaves stuck between them, because birds are also afraid of shiny elements.

Visual deterrents

Scarecrows are usually used by owners of summer cottages or country houses. They are installed in the yard. You can make this tool with your own hands from scrap materials. To do this, knock down two boards with a cross and hang old clothes on top. The head can be made from a regular bag. The only drawback is that birds often get used to scarecrows, and the latter become useless.

Helpful Hint: Try using plastic owls, snakes, coyotes, or other animals based on what birds visit you.

A pet

The cat is a good old remedy for dealing with annoying chirps on the roof!

If the birds have built a nest in the attic of your house, then get a cat. The predator will visit the birds several times, and they will leave their home. And sitting on the balcony, the cat will scare away other annoying winged guests. And do not forget to install strong mosquito nets in the windows so that the animal does not fall off the railing when it hunts and tries to catch birds hovering nearby. Of course, it will not be possible to drive everyone away, but their number will definitely decrease!

Reflective items

Most bird species are afraid of glittering objects. Take a roll of aluminum foil and cut it into long pieces. The tapes can be hung on trees in the yard or on the roof. They will sway in the wind and reflect the sun's rays.

: Sparrows are very afraid of bright glare.

As reflective elements, tapes from old videotapes, New Year's rains or computer disks are often used. By the way, in stores for summer residents, you can purchase a special gel that glows from exposure to sunlight. This substance should be smeared on the eaves of the building and other places of unwanted accumulation of birds.

Sound devices

Example of a bird scaring device

The principle of operation of the device is to reproduce alarms and distress signals of various species of birds. It is also possible to imitate the sounds made by their natural enemies - predators. Sensing danger, birds notify their relatives. Therefore, having heard such sounds, the birds will soon fly away. There are also ultrasonic repellents. These devices generate a high frequency signal that is unpleasant for animals, and they leave the area of the device.

Isolation of places of possible nests

Examine your attic for small spots that might be great for nesting. Use wood planks, steel wool, or wire mesh to cover these areas. Cover the indentations with tape or nails. In addition, it is advisable to cover the underside of the beams with a net so that the birds do not wind their houses there too.

Helpful Hint: To reduce the likelihood of birds settling in your yard and home, you can cover the fruit trees that they flock to in order to profit.

Don't feed the birds

The most correct approach to solving the issue. The birds gather and nest in the places where they are fed. Therefore, the people themselves are to blame for the large population of birds in the city. We first feed gullible birds, and then we get angry that they do not allow us to rest. Place leftover food in the trash bag, do not throw it out the window. Do not throw crumbs and seeds from the balcony, as the birds will instantly appear on your railing, and then under the roof.

If birds often visit your house or have already built a nest under the roof, you should think about removing them. Use the most effective methods of getting rid of these noisy and dangerous neighbors and don't forget about the law.

Ivan Totsky
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Source: https://roof-tops.ru/bezopasnost/kak-vyselit-ptic-iz-pod-kryshi/

Drive the birds out from under the roof

If for city dwellers birds are funny creatures that chirp cheerfully in the morning, then residents of private houses or summer residents have a different opinion.

Every experienced owner, when considering a project for a bathhouse with a gazebo under one roof, at home or any other building, knows how important it is to provide protection from birds. Basically, sparrows "encroach" on the territory. But you can often find pigeons, jackdaws, wagtails.

And how swallows love to build their nests under the roof of a house or a gazebo! On the one hand, this is very nice. But on the other hand ... This and how to get rid of the birds will be discussed further.

Harm from birds in the yard

If we talk about harm to humans, then few people know that birds, and especially pigeons, are capable of carrying diseases. For example, it could be tuberculosis. Also birds shit everywhere. Besides the fact that it spoils the appearance of the yard, the roof (especially if it is made of glass or polycarbonate), decor items, etc., the droppings contain infections and various fungi. For scrupulous owners, in terms of perfect cleanliness and order on their territory, this is an annoying fact.

How to fight

Sparrows-shkodniki love to peck or knock berries from trees. It's not bad - they just get their own food. But not every owner is happy with such a "freeloader" in his own garden. To humanely drive the birds away, they use the following methods:

Reflective and glittering items.
Bells ringing.
Ultrasound.

Old CDs can be used as reflective and shiny objects. For example, hang them on tree branches or on roof drains. Foil paper will also work. The main thing is that the sun's rays fall on the sparkling objects. Of course, in cloudy weather, this option does not work.

You can hang bells around the yard that ring from the wind. Some birds are frightened by their ringing. Resourceful owners cling pieces of foil to the bell - due to its wobbling, it rings, and at the same time glare is created.

Ultrasound is considered one of the reliable options. It produces frequencies that are not audible to humans, and also do not harm other animals. Only birds perceive them. For them, this sound is not pleasant, perceived as a danger. The sparrows will rush to leave the territory.

Using these simple methods, you can get the birds out of the area. Well, or at least make it unattractive to them. But if they have already settled under the roof of the house, most likely there are already nest formations and there are chicks. How to be find out further.

How to get rid of roof sparrows

Birds love to build nests on the roof, namely under the roof slopes. Although it is not dangerous for humans, it can easily harm the roof structure. The presence of nests disrupts normal ventilation, and this leads to the formation of moisture on the insulation and its premature destruction. If these are crows, then they are also lovers of pecking out the seal on the metal tile.

It is dangerous if the bird decides to build a nest in the chimney, and you will not know that it is there. Most often they wind them in the chimney at the bathhouse. Usually there is a gazebo near it, people rest there, eat and leave behind the remnants of food. This is what attracts the gazebo feathered "guests" most of all.

Important: if you melt the bathhouse when there is a nest in the chimney, then a fire may occur. Either the smoke will have nowhere to go, it will go into the room - the people who are there may suffer from the stink.

In cases where the birds have already built nests under the roof, it will be very difficult to get rid of them. The easiest way is to destroy the nest with chicks or block access to it. This option is considered not humane and is punishable by law. Every effort must be made to simply keep the birds out of the way.

Protection options:

Anti-penetration spikes.
Overhang aero element (ventilation tape).
Protective mesh.

Birds penetrate under the roofing material in different ways - these are cornices, valleys, dormers, skates - they are masters of finding a loophole. But you can still prevent them from landing on the lid. To do this, you need to fix the tape with anti-slip spikes on all the ledges of the building. For example, at low tides and gutters. The spikes are made of plastic or steel. There are different types that mimic roofing and will not spoil the appearance of the roof at all.

Important: anti-stray belts will not injure the bird, but simply spoil its "landing strip".

The ventilation tape is attached with nails or press washers. It will not allow not only birds to penetrate under the roof, but also small insects. Very reliable protection that does not interfere with proper ventilation of the space under the roof.

A safety net is a simple and effective way to prevent birds from landing. It is pulled over the roof, fastened to special posts. This mesh is made of either metal or plastic; with large or small cells.

All of these methods are used to prevent birds from settling on your territory, as well as to prevent damage to the roof of the house due to them. But it is quite difficult and practically impossible to drive birds with nests from under the roof without exterminating them. Better not to let this happen. It will not be superfluous to hide all open areas that attract birds. If these are dormer windows, then close them with blinds; eaves overhang - sew up with decorative soffits; close the air vents with gratings.

All of these techniques will help minimize bird visits to your area. This means there is less chance that the birds will set up their camp on it. But do not forget about the benefits that come with sparrows - they protect your crops from small pests. They feed on insects and feed their chicks - thereby protecting the home harvest.

Source: https://www.stroy-krov.ru/articles/vygnat-ptits-iz-pod-kryshi

How to get rid of birds on the roof of the house and balcony?

Birds can delight in their luxurious plumage, touch with chirping or delight with flooded trills, however, if they occupy your home, you will understand how unpleasant these feathered neighbors are.

Inhabitants of old private houses are waging an irreconcilable war with pigeons, sparrows or swallows, freely settling under the roof. These uninvited tenants of attics bring a lot of inconvenience, so only an avid bird watcher can put up with such a neighborhood.

In this article, we will show you how to get rid of pigeons on the roof, as well as what to do to get birds bypassing your house.

Dangers of neighborhood with birds

Pigeons, sparrows, swallows, jackdaws and wagtails are uninvited guests who willfully settle in under the roof of a house or in the attic. At first, homeowners may even like the cheerful fuss of chicks around the nest and their cheerful chirping, but do not forget that birds are carriers of a large number of diseases, the cause of unsanitary conditions. Living literally under the same roof with birds carries with it the following dangers:

Noise... Birds are a very active people, so they do not sit still, but constantly go about their important business, loudly clattering their claws on the metal roof and flapping their wings.
Unsanitary conditions... Pigeons often carry such a serious disease as tuberculosis, psittacosis. In addition, their droppings contain equally dangerous viruses, fungi and infections.
Dirt... As a result of the vital activity of birds, a lot of debris is formed. In addition to feathers, down, droppings accumulated in the habitats of birds, small debris accumulates in attics and roofs, which they bring to build nests.

Note! Birds often arrange their nests in such a way that they interfere with the ventilation of the roof of the house, making it difficult for air to circulate, as a result of which the thermal insulation material and the rafter frame quickly deteriorate.

Ways to fight

Residents of the upper floors know that the constant noise that feathered neighbors make can torture even the most patient person. When small birds populate the attic, a large amount of droppings, feathers, dust and debris accumulate, which makes it almost impossible to go there.

In addition, the danger of catching a dangerous disease exists even if you inhale dust particles that contain microparticles of pigeon droppings. Bird control measures are divided into the following types:

Warning... These measures include a set of actions aimed at making the roof structure unattractive to birds. To do this, when designing a structure, it is necessary to avoid protrusions or niches, which can become a convenient place for nesting.
Deterrent... These measures are aimed at creating such conditions that will scare birds away from human dwellings. To make the roof of the house unattractive for birds, sound or light effects are used, anti-projection devices that make it difficult to land on the roof slopes.
Fighter... These measures include the destruction of birds and their nests by physical or chemical methods. They are the most inhuman, cruel method of getting rid of birds, therefore they are used extremely rarely.

Important! When deciding how to get rid of pigeons on the roof of the balcony, you need to familiarize yourself with the law "On Environmental Protection", which states that the destruction of birds and their nests in their natural habitat is an administrative offense. Although pigeons and sparrows are not listed in the Red Book, they are also part of our ecosystem, so it is necessary to make them eviction from the roof as humane as possible.

Bird-infested attic Sparrows often settle under roofing material

Scare Methods

Since the destruction of bird nests is prohibited by law, it is necessary to scare them away from your home even before nesting begins. To make the attic unattractive for feathered inhabitants, you can use light and sound effects, which they will mistake for signs of danger.

The most humane and effective methods of scaring birds from the roof are:

Anti-intrusion devices... These devices are planks with long, thin spikes attached to the surface, which are most often chosen by birds. The spikes do not harm them, but they do not allow them to land comfortably.
Glittering and reflective items... Sparrows, like many other small birds, are afraid of bright glare, so just install a few reflectors on the roof to make them move.
Sounds... To scare birds away from human dwellings, special devices are used that reproduce the voices of birds of prey, as a result of which pigeons and sparrows feel danger and leave their habitat.

Many homeowners and upstairs tenants are wondering how to get rid of sparrows on their own without harming them. This problem has an obvious answer - it is enough just to get a cat, which by its very appearance will scare away feathered residents to a safe distance without the use of special devices.

-instruction

Source: http://KrovlyaKrishi.ru/obsluzhivanie/kak-izbavitsya-ptic-pod-kryshej.html

People living on the top floors in multi-storey buildings or in private houses may face such a problem as the presence of birds under the roof. They can cause significant discomfort to a person, and even pose a danger. In this article, we will look at several effective options for getting rid of sparrows under the roof of a house.

Why is such a neighborhood dangerous?

Feathered neighbors can be very annoying. It is enough just that they constantly run on the roof, gnash their paws, make all sorts of sounds and build their nests. The constant rumble, noise, singing and feces of such neighbors make life much more difficult for a person. However, this can still be experienced, but if the birds decide to build nests and breed their offspring under a roof, then this can lead to serious problems.

During nesting, birds raise a lot of dust, which in turn is dangerous to human health. Fungi and bacteria that they carry are also dangerous. They can be kept on their feet or in feathered feces.

Many modern people's homes are insulated with special materials that must breathe in order to perform their functions and long service life. Sparrows, swallows or pigeons, when arranging their nests under the roof of a house, disrupt natural ventilation, which leads to the formation of condensation and destruction of the material. In addition, disruption of ventilation also leads to premature destruction of roof structures, not to mention disruption of air circulation in the apartment.

Summing up, we can say that the habitat of people is in no way suitable for the habitation of birds. Next, let's look at how to get rid of sparrows and other birds.

Spiked nets

When starting a fight with intruders, it should be borne in mind that actions should be aimed exclusively at scaring away birds, but not at extermination. Destruction and destruction of bird nests is punishable by law.

So, if there are sparrows under the roof, how to get rid of them? Consider below. In this case, you need a mesh with vertical wedges made of polycarbonate or metal. This structure will prevent birds from perching on the roof.

If the birds have settled under the roof, then this device must be installed on the cornice. It should be noted that the spacing between the wedges depends on the size of the annoying birds. If these are, for example, sparrows, then the mesh should be finer.

It is also necessary to periodically clean the mesh from dirt, because the sheen of the metal itself also scares off birds.

Scarecrow

Feathers in the courtyards of private houses are becoming another problem. How to get rid of sparrows in the yard? To do this, you can build a scarecrow.

It's easy enough to make it. You need to put together two boards in the form of a cross. Hang old clothes on top. A pumpkin, an old pot, or just a bag full of rags is suitable for the head. You can decorate this case with a hat.

However, this method is not as effective as we would like. Sparrows eventually get used to such a watchman and willingly coexist with him.

If sparrows bother you in a multi-storey building, you can use various plastic scarecrows sold in pet stores. They can be in the form of owls, snakes, coyotes and other animals that annoying feathered neighbors are afraid of.

Domestic predator

How to get rid of sparrows if they have already built a nest in the attic or under the eaves? Get a cat. A few uninvited visits of the predator to the house to the sparrows will be enough and they will leave their habitat.

However, one must not forget to take care of the safety of the domestic predator. It is necessary to install strong mosquito nets on the windows so that the pet does not fall out of the window, hunting for birds flying by.

In addition, a cat sitting in a window will be a natural scarecrow for sparrows.

Sparkling objects

As already mentioned, birds are afraid of shiny objects, unless they are magpies, of course. For sparrows, bright reflections are an effective deterrent.

To get rid of sparrows as unwanted neighbors, take aluminum foil and cut it into long strips. These tapes must be hung where the congestion of birds is not particularly desirable: in the yard, in the attic, on the roof.

For more advanced fighters with birds, special gels that glow in the sun are sold in stores for summer residents. This tool is well suited for those who live on the upper floors of buildings. It is enough just to apply the gel to the cornice and "it's in the bag".

Shine and sound

Tin cans can be used in addition to the previous method. Beer or soda containers are perfect. They must be cut in such a way that the inner sparkling part becomes visible. Then collect a garland from them or just hang several cans together.

In the wind, this structure will make sounds frightening for sparrows. And the shiny part of the cans will create glare in the sun.

Scarecrow sounds

How to get rid of sparrows and other birds in one fell swoop, will tell the sellers of special devices that spread sounds that signal danger and alarm to birds.

Also, such devices specialize in the sounds of natural enemies of birds. Hearing them, they transmit information about the approaching predator to their fellow tribesmen, and the birds leave their nesting place.

These devices can also operate at ultrasonic frequencies, which are unpleasant for birds and they prefer to leave the range of these sounds. In this case, you need to be careful, since this device can also be heard by pets, which will be as unpleasant for them as for birds.

Patience

If none of the above methods on how to get rid of sparrows under the roof helped, then there is only one left - patience. Many who have encountered this problem advise simply to wait out this period. If the birds have made a nest under the roof, it means that they have brought out the chicks, and when they want to eat, then a loud squeak and chirp, which causes discomfort, occurs. Many residents claim that as soon as the chicks grow up, the whole family will leave the nesting site.

In addition, comparing various birds by how much trouble and inconvenience they cause, sparrows and titmouses are considered the least evil of all birds that can ruin people's lives.

The problem of the penetration of sparrows into closed rooms is quite relevant. Trade pavilions, warehouses, supermarkets, metro stations, etc. suffer from annoying "neighbors". Birds can live on the site constantly or accidentally fly through holes in the wall structures. This leads to significant destruction of packaging materials, damage to food products, violation of the sanitary and hygienic state of the room as a whole.

SPARROWS: WHAT THREATS THE BIRD "NEIGHBORHOOD"

Expelling a flock of birds on your own is not an easy and tedious task. For more than 5 years, one of the main tasks of the Liquidator company has been the effective extermination of sparrows and pigeons in agricultural, industrial and commercial areas. We know how dangerous the habitation of a large population of birds in a farm can be, and we are ready to competently apply our knowledge at your facility!

Scaring off flocks of passerines is a precautionary measure that helps to avoid serious problems such as:

the transfer of dangerous infections and helminths by birds;
infestation of the premises with ticks and fleas;
damage to architectural structures;
damage by bird droppings to surfaces and engineering structures opened with varnish or paint;
destruction / contamination of food stocks in granaries, elevator stations, grocery stores;
constant noise.

PROFESSIONAL SPARROW FIGHT

Depending on the size of the premises, as well as its purpose, the Liquidator company applies the most effective methods of killing and scaring away sparrows. We provide a pest-control service for industrial and warehouse facilities, which includes a whole range of pest control measures and tracking their numbers. Working with living creatures - birds - we take into account the peculiarities of their behavior, nutrition, accommodation, movement, and thereby minimize the extermination of individuals, focusing on scaring away.

To save you from pests that cause material damage, we use modern equipment and auxiliary structures:

mechanical elements that impede the movement of birds and landings on surfaces;
visual deterrent devices, acoustic equipment;
means that violate the orientation of the sparrows in space (sound, visual).

Sparrow control methods are divided into indoor and outdoor activities. Conventionally, we distinguish several main stages when scaring away birds:

preparatory. It includes blocking access routes to the premises of new individuals (doors, cracks, broken windows), destroying nests, blocking access to water and food (fruits, vegetables, meat, liquid);
expulsion of birds from the premises. Actions are carried out mainly in the dark, using additional light sources, strip curtains, bioacoustic devices, glue traps, etc .;
external scare off. To get rid of the bird population, all possible shelters near the object, attractive to sparrows, are destroyed, acoustic installations, visual scaring objects, and so on are used.

We will carefully analyze the location and territorial features of your farm, select the most effective means to scare away or destroy sparrows, and also develop a detailed set of measures to clean up the facility from pests.

KILLING SPARROWS AND PIGEONS: PREVENTIVE MEASURES

So that the problem of the mass distribution of birds at the site does not become catastrophic, preventive measures should be taken and sparrows should not be allowed to enter the territory.

Protect yourself from serious losses by ordering a pest control service from our company! Experienced employees of the Liquidator service will not allow the breeding of bird flocks at the enterprise or in the hypermarket, prevent an increase in the number of birds and promptly scare away / destroy sparrows if necessary. The following actions will be preventive measures in the fight against sparrows, pigeons, swallows and other birds:

limit the access routes of birds to the room (sealing cracks, carefully closing doors, windows, hatches);
Design engineering structures for potential bird intrusion (for example, eaves at 45 degrees rather than 90 degrees);
Protect food packaging to prevent sparrows from accessing food;
do not allow open storage of food waste or supplies.

Call us to get professional advice and order a specialist visit to the facility. We will help you to reduce the attractiveness of the facility for birds, protect your business from material losses, monitor and control the ornithological situation at the enterprise as a whole.

Birds, including sparrows, can be carriers of pathogens

Inhabitants of the upper floors of old houses are constantly at war with birds that jump on the roof and nest in the attic. If in the first case the problem lies in the rumble, singing of birds and droppings that pollute the roof, then in the second - everything is much more serious. In addition to the constant rustling and chirping, when arranging their nests under the roof of a house, birds raise a lot of dust, which can negatively affect human health. In addition, birds often show are carriers of infectious diseases, because their excrement can contain various fungi and bacteria that are extremely dangerous for us. So, pathogens of diseases such as torulosis, psittacosis and others often live in pigeon droppings. All of them are transmitted by airborne droplets.

In general, where people live, forest dwellers have no place. Therefore, such neighbors should be expelled immediately.

How to get rid of

First of all, you need to understand that the fight against birds should not be aimed at their extermination. The key action here is to scare away birds. It is possible to eliminate nests only if animals pose a true threat to human life or property. In this case, before removing the nest, it is imperative to obtain a corresponding permit from the Department of the Environment. The fact is that, according to the Law on Environmental Protection, the deliberate destruction of bird dwellings in their natural habitat is strictly prohibited.

Anti-slip spikes

Spikes are mainly used to scare away large birds.

Helpful Hint: Periodically clean the thorns from dirt and remove the leaves stuck between them, because birds are also afraid of shiny elements.

Visual deterrents

Helpful Hint: Try using plastic owls, snakes, coyotes, or other animals based on what birds visit you.

A pet

The cat is a good old remedy for dealing with annoying chirps on the roof!

Reflective items

This is interesting: Sparrows are very afraid of bright glare.

Sound devices

Example of a bird scaring device

Isolation of places of possible nests

Helpful Hint: To reduce the likelihood of birds settling in your yard and home, you can cover the fruit trees that they flock to in order to profit.

Don't feed the birds

Many means have been tried to control harmful birds.

In recent years, chemical methods of control have been greatly developed. Poisonous substances are used most often in a bait product - grain, etc. Due to the fact that birds have the ability to easily get used to certain feeding places, poisoned food can be placed in isolated areas or special feeders, where preliminary groundbaiting is carried out with a clean product.

Oddly enough, but birds - such mobile active creatures with a high level of metabolism - are quite resistant to many poisons. In order to cause their poisoning (especially for birds of the passerine order), the most highly toxic preparations for warm-blooded animals are required.

One of the first poisons widely used against birds was strychnine and its derivatives. Baits with strychnine were especially popular in the 50s of our century in the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, England, the USA and a number of other countries. The fight against harmful birds was carried out in winter in settlements and on poultry farms. Wheat was used as a bait product. Strychnine was added to it in such an amount that a lethal (lethal) dose of poison for a sparrow was contained in two grains. The bait, so that it is easily recognized by people and less attractive to beneficial birds, was most often painted blue or green.

Sparrows were fought as follows. On special feeders, raised above the ground and sometimes tightened with a coarse-mesh metal mesh, the birds were fed for at least three days. When they got used to the place of feeding and the color of the food, the unpoisoned grain was replaced with the poisoned one. After eating the bait with strychnine, the birds died quickly (within 15 minutes), so that the corpses are easy to collect. As a result, in the GDR alone in the winter of 1953-54, about 1.7 million corpses of sparrows were collected. However, later it turned out that after the destruction of 70% of the wintering population, the number of sparrows is fully restored within three years. Gradually, the fascination with the method of using strychnine baits to fight sparrows passed. And it is not surprising, since this poison is highly toxic for all warm-blooded animals, including humans, and it is certainly risky to use it in settlements.

In the early 1960s, strychnine was added to grain baits and drinkers in Australia to control emu.

In China, grain bait with white arsenic was used against sparrows. Arsenic compounds were also used for this purpose in the USSR. BK Shtegman (1954, 1956) developed a system of measures to combat sparrows in Kazakhstan. It proposed to poison sparrows with wheat soaked in a solution of sodium arsenite in early spring at last year's currents. Later, with the beginning of the ripening of winter barley, it was recommended to treat special bait crops with a suspension of calcium arsenate. However, this method was not widely used: firstly, the bait with sodium arsenite, as shown by the data of the employees of the Kazakh Institute of Plant Protection and ours, is poorly eaten by birds, and secondly, due to the peculiarities of the weather conditions in Kazakhstan, seedlings of winter crops begin to appear only after rainfall, regardless of the sowing date. Therefore, bait crops of barley enter the stage of milky-wax maturity simultaneously with the rest of the crops of this culture, without fulfilling their assigned role.

Later, we and the employees of the Kazakh Institute for Plant Protection used grain baits with 0.1% barium fluoroacetate or 0.2% fluoroacetamide to control sparrows (mainly migratory species). Poisoned bait was scattered on open soil areas along nesting colonies of sparrows or around crops damaged by them. This method of control has had a good effect in most areas of southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia. To increase the safety of livestock bait, millet has been used as a bait product. It was scattered on soil with a density of no more than 3-4 grains per 1 cm 2. Grazing cattle did not collect small, sparsely located grains. In order to further secure the use of these drugs in Armenia, their content in the bait was reduced to 0.05%. We also used baits poisoned with barium fluoroacetate and fluoroacetamide against sedentary species of sparrows in the Leningrad Region and Krasnodar Territory. The struggle was carried out in the winter in grain warehouses.

It is interesting to note that when almost the entire population of house and field sparrows were exterminated in the winter at the breeding site (in Suida) of the North-Western Research Institute of Agriculture in the spring of next year, no damage was observed by these birds to grain crops, which was noted annually. The full number of sparrows and their harmfulness recovered only in the third year after treatment.

Despite the fairly widespread use of this method of fighting sparrows, there were no cases of death from the bait of livestock. This is explained by the fact that the bait with the specified method of feeding cannot be collected by cows or sheep in an amount sufficient for poisoning. True, there was a massive death of cats and dogs eating the corpses of sparrows that died from poisoning. In the Kurdai district of the Dzhambul region, where sparrows were fought in the forest belts in summer, the death of foxes and a sharp decrease in their numbers were noted the following winter.

Due to the general high toxicity of organofluorine drugs, they are no longer used in agriculture either for controlling birds or rodents, against which they were also widely used.

White phosphorus is often used to control corvids in Western Europe. Poultry eggs are taken as bait, some of the contents are removed from them with a syringe and replaced with 2% phosphorus. In the spring, these eggs are laid out in the fields or in artificial nests.

Feral pigeons were exterminated using bait with hydrocyanic acid in the cities of Hungary, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and a number of other European countries. This poison has advantages over others. It acts very quickly - pigeons that have eaten the poisoned bait die in 30 seconds, without having time to fly far from the bait site, and their corpses are easy to collect. In addition, hydrocyanic acid decomposes in the digestive tract of the bird and the carcasses of pigeons do not cause secondary poisoning. However, hydrocyanic acid is a poison of the first category, highly toxic for all warm-blooded animals, and this should always be remembered.

In some countries, a diene synthesis drug, endrin, has been used against birds. Being a poison designed to control insects, it turned out to be of such a wide spectrum of toxic effects that it was used, in particular in Africa, to control weavers and other birds. But due to its high toxicity for mammals and a pronounced ability to cause secondary poisoning, the drug has not been widely used.

To combat birds, in recent years, the United States has been looking for drugs with a more selective action, low toxicity to mammals. Among them is the drug DRC-1339 (3-chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride), which is highly toxic for starlings, red-winged corpses and bulbul. It is used to control starlings in Colorado (USA). True, there is information about the poor eatability of baits with this poison by birds.

The most widely used for poultry control in the United States is currently 4 nitropyridine N-hydroxy called Avitrol-100 and 4 Aminopyridine, i.e. Avitrol-200. The drugs begin to work in 15 minutes. and lasts 20-30 minutes, poisoning with them causes nervous phenomena - screams, convulsions. For gregarious species, it is enough for the symptoms of poisoning to appear in at least one individual, since the rest of the birds get scared and fly away. This can be considered a positive circumstance, if it is necessary to scare birds away from a certain area, and negative, when it is necessary to reduce their number. Avitrol does not cause secondary poisoning. The bait with this poison has been successfully used in the USA against red-winged corpses, starlings and other species. In addition, spraying with Avitrol on ripening corn cobs was tested. Not the entire field was cultivated, but separate, carefully marked, small areas, from which the plants were harvested and buried before harvesting. A decrease in the harmfulness of birds was observed both in the fields with treated plots and in the neighboring ones.

Thus, the most highly toxic to warm-blooded poisons were used to control birds by the method of poisoned baits: strychnine, barium fluoroacetate, hydrocyanic acid. Only Avitrol has a somewhat selective effect, while the rest of the drugs are toxic to mammals and humans, no less, and often more, than for birds.

As evidenced by the above facts, birds that harm agricultural crops are highly resistant to intestinal poisons and it is not easy to find drugs to combat them that would not work on other warm-blooded animals, including humans. Apparently, in the future, the bait method of poisoning birds will not find widespread use. It is no coincidence that in recent years it is no longer used in Western Europe and the USSR.

At the same time, there are bird control methods that are more dangerous for the environment than bait. For example, in Africa, contact poisons, parathion and fenthion, are currently used to control red-billed weavers. These drugs are sprayed at night from planes over bird colonies or in places of their massive overnight stay. Due to the fact that there are no other effective ways of protecting grain crops, especially millet, from tkachikosis, these drugs are widely used. But, as you know, they have a very wide spectrum of action and are dangerous not only for all species of birds, but also for all vertebrates and invertebrates living in the cultivated area.

In the United States, anhydrous ammonia gas has been used with good results to eradicate indoor birds. Undoubtedly, if necessary, this is the only real way to deal with birds in enclosed spaces.

To reduce the number of harmful bird species, poisons have been increasingly replaced by hypnotic drugs in recent years. Narcotic substances are added to the feed, which is laid out on special feeding grounds or in places where birds usually feed. Having taken the treated bait, the birds soon fall asleep, completely losing their mobility. During this time, they can be collected and destroyed. If among the sleeping birds there are those that are not subject to extermination, they can be released after awakening. True, in some cases, the bait with sleeping pills, eaten in an excessively large amount, causes the death of birds, which is undesirable in relation to useful species. In addition, birds that take the bait can fly a long distance or fall asleep in places where they are difficult to reach. For example, when we tested the luminal lure on pigeons in an urban setting, most birds fell asleep on the eaves of the fourth and fifth floor windows. Therefore, it is more important that the sleeping pills used for catching birds act quickly than lastingly. If the birds fall asleep after a very short period of time, they will not have time to fly far from the place where the bait is fed and eat too much of it.

To a large extent, these requirements are met by the alpha isomer of chloralose, which displaced all other previously used narcotic substances. Alpha-chloralose baits have shown good results in the fight against crows in hunting grounds in Finland. They are often used to control blue pigeons and house sparrows in cities in Western Europe and the United States. In Australia, such baits are laid against these birds in barnyards and poultry farms. The alpha-chloralose-treated bait in New Zealand was thrown from an airplane to a nesting colony of Dominican gulls near the airfield. As a result, a large number of birds were destroyed and the number of collisions with aircraft decreased.

The use of sleeping pills for bird control is most widespread in cities. Alpha-chloralose is rarely used against birds that harm crops. True, in England the method of dealing with wood pigs with grain baits soaked in this preparation has successfully passed production tests. To reduce the possibility of death of small granivorous birds, beans, unattractive to them, were used here as a bait product. It has been found that it is impractical to apply this method to control the entire population of wood pigs, but in selected fields, especially those affected by birds, it can help. After laying out the baits, wood pigs do not appear on the field for several weeks. During this period, the plants manage to bypass the stage of development in which they are most damaged by birds. The bait with alpha-chloralose begins to have a narcotic effect in 15-30 minutes. and it lasts 10-20 hours. Although the drug is also used against house sparrows, there is evidence that it has a very weak effect on them.

Recently, another group of substances has been tested abroad to control birds - chemosterilants. The essence of their action is to reduce the number of birds not by direct destruction, but by artificial regulation of their reproduction. This method of all the existing ones seems to be the most humane. By reducing the number of nesting cycles or interrupting reproductive cycles altogether for some time, it is possible to maintain the number of certain bird species at a level at which they are not capable of harming humans.

A number of substances have been tested as sterilants for birds. By laboratory experiments, it was established in what doses the drugs are needed to stop reproduction for a certain period of time, what is their general toxicity and repellent properties in the bait product. As a result of experiments carried out mainly in the United States on blue pigeons, the drug 20.25 diazocholesterol dihydrochloride (SC-12937) was identified, which at a dose of 375 mg per individual interrupts egg-laying for 77 days, and at a dose of 500 mg for 102 days. However, a bait with the amount of substance required to obtain an effect is often poorly eaten by birds. During field trials in small settlements with the help of this chemostylant, it was possible to stop the reproduction of blue-gray pigeons in colonies for 5-7 months. The larger the settlement and the higher the rate of exchange of birds between colonies, the less effect the drug had. Against red-winged corpses and starlings, a cheosterilant, triethylenemelamine, was used.

Most of the works devoted to the study of the effect of chemosterilants on birds indicate the insufficient development of this method and the need to continue research. One cannot but agree with this, since there are still no effective sterilants, feed with an admixture of which birds do not refuse to eat. The creation of such drugs with the desired properties will allow people to regulate the number of birds living in the anthropogenic landscape.

Thus, of the chemical means of fighting birds in the agricultural zone, poisons used with food bait are now the most widespread. But lately they are losing popularity, because they have a disastrous effect on useful animals. Even more dangerous is the pollination of territories with preparations of contact action. The bait method using narcotic substances is much safer, but it is very laborious due to the need to collect sleeping birds and, therefore, is unacceptable for widespread use in practice. Chemosterilants can be promising in reducing the number of birds only if they become highly selective, otherwise they will have the same disadvantages as ordinary poisons. In the meantime, agriculture does not have reliable chemical means of reducing the number of unwanted bird species that are safe for beneficial birds and mammals. However, the search for them is being carried out intensively.

Shooting is the oldest of the physical methods for regulating the number of birds. But it is only effective against a very few species. Often these are large birds whose meat is eaten. Then shooting makes some practical sense. When fighting in this way with representatives of the order of passerines, where pests include small birds or with little edible meat, the cost of money and time does not pay off. Shooting is currently being carried out to exterminate crows in hunting grounds.

The physical method of bird control primarily includes various methods of trapping. Most often, automatic traps are used. In a number of European countries, a specially designed raven trap is widely used. It is made of light frames connected by hooks and works most effectively when "semolina birds" are planted in it. There are many sparrow traps, from small automatic to large stationary ones, which are used at breeding stations in Western Europe. These traps are set on the earliest grain plots. The sparrows that have flown into the trap from above are driven into its narrow cylindrical end and then removed from there. In England, bullfinches in gardens are caught with a box trap with sorrel seed bait. For catching starlings, birdhouses with an automatically slamming entrance are used. However, when combating schooling migratory species, the best effect is given by large light traps installed during the flight of birds in the places of their nights. In such traps, US farmers caught a huge number of ox birds. In some apiaries in Azerbaijan, fishing hooks with live drones are sometimes used to catch golden bee-eaters.

All methods of ruining the nests are no less cruel, in particular, blocking the entrance to the bee-eater burrow with clay when the female incubates eggs. The destruction of nests is carried out in the fight against birds, the harm from which in certain conditions is especially great. This method was recommended to be used from the twenties to the sixties in the colonies of Indian and Spanish sparrows in many regions of Central Asia - Uzbekistan, South Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. In Rostov and a number of other regions of the RSFSR in the sixties, the destruction of nests was practiced in a colony of rooks. But usually this gave an effect only when there were already chicks in the colony. Birds disturbed at the early stages of nesting quickly restore nests and clutches. On the protected islands in England and Holland, the control of gulls in the colonies was carried out as follows. Bird nests here are located open on the ground and are therefore easily accessible. Considering the ability of gulls to quickly restore lost clutches, when the colonies were destroyed, the eggs were not taken from the nests, but the embryo was killed in them. To do this, the eggs were boiled, or covered with oil or kerosene, or pierced the shell with a thick needle.

The laborious method of busting nests is sometimes mechanized. In some cities of the GDR, in order to prevent rooks from nesting in churches, dropping nests is carried out with a stream of water using fire fighting equipment. In Africa, colonies of weavers (before they began to use parathion) were destroyed by shells with explosive mixtures and flamethrowers.

To reduce the number of starlings in Western Europe, it has been promoted for more than ten years not to hang artificial nesting sites suitable for these birds, i.e., with a tap hole diameter of 4.5-5 cm.

In general, of the physical methods of fighting birds, there is not a single one that is sufficiently versatile and reliable. Apparently, trapping, although this is the most ancient and painstaking method, requiring great knowledge of the object and the ingenuity of performers, will become the leading one in the future, especially since it is the least dangerous for other species of animals. In addition, the industry will produce more and more new materials, of which many can be used to make comfortable and lightweight fishing gear. For example, the appearance in the recent past of the thinnest and most durable nylon threads made it possible to widely use nets for catching birds when ringing.