Residential Pest Control – Birds
In most respects, birds in the natural environment are very valuable and very desired. Yet, as with nearly all groups of animals, you will find bad apples in the bird community too. Several of the worst type of offenders inside the bird world are the ones that have found their way to North America from various other areas of the world due to human activities which transported them outside their own “natural” habitats. Whenever a bird, or any other living organism, has lived in a geographic region for millions of years, that environment adapts to allow that organism to fit in. It does not overpower the other organisms near it by its existence, and we typically refer to this scenario as a “balance” in the natural environment. Things can happen that upset that balance, hopefully temporarily, but mostly life rolls along smoothly.
As humans accelerated their traveling from continent to continent throughout generations past, they became the means for living things – plants and also wildlife – to quickly shift to new destinations. Often this was a deliberate effort by emigrants that had been moving permanently to new houses in a new land, and they took along many of the elements they felt they might need for survival there. This usually was seed products, grain, or maybe vegetation for their gardens, their food, for or their animals, or perhaps other functions, and the plant life within North America changed substantially. Birds were likewise relocated from Europe to North America by people that didn’t understand the probable effect that exotic invader would have within a part of the planet where it didn’t belong. A few of the birds that cause us the most difficulties right now are among these immigrants, including the Pigeon, the Starling, and the English Sparrow.
Perhaps it will come as a shock to a lot of folks to hear these 3 species of birds are foreign invaders because they have been around in the USA for such a long time and are so common. This, however, is one testament to their invasive behavior. Starlings were released around 1890 as a single species in several birds from Europe, which were intentionally released within New York’s Central Park. The pigeon was already domesticated and used for food, sport, or various other human uses 1000’s of years in the past and brought into North America in the 1600s for all those uses. The English Sparrow, also known as the House Sparrow, is another native of Europe and Asia that was brought to the U.S. and intentionally released. It appears to favor residing near human activity and typically will make its nests in or on our houses. By their feeding and nesting behaviors these birds might compete with some other native birds and in this way can easily pose a threat to the natural order of wildlife in North America.
However, birds can be a hazard to people and our property, and we can sum up the real reason for that in a single term – feces. The excrement associated with birds can be a fantastic growth medium for numerous bacteria, viruses, as well as fungi that may be pathogenic to people today. Whenever we have accumulations of pigeon excrement inside attics, upon patios, or roofs or even ledges, we can also have this sort of disease organisms there also, and if the waste material dries and also becomes airborne, we stand a larger chance of inhaling a problem. A few serious ailments connected with bird excrement include histoplasmosis, candidiasis, cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, and the like. Bird waste additionally often contains Salmonella, and any time the excrement winds up in water that is ingested by people this, serious food contamination could result. Dozens more pathogens of bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and fungus may also be connected with them. Birds also are home to a lot of arthropod parasites, such as bird mites and bird bedbugs, and any time these birds live in near association with people, they often introduce these biting mites and insects into the building. All of these problems are not unique to these 3 varieties of birds, but because of their quantities and their near association with people and also our homes, these birds often pose the greatest health hazard to people.
The reason for this short article is not to cause us to fear or dislike birds, but to be aware of that could possibly be disadvantages to letting them to live in and on our homes. Properly managed birds, such as racing or homing pigeons kept by hobbyists, could be well managed without parasites and in their own hutches where they do not bother people. It is the “feral” pigeons that today reside in semi-wild flocks which pose the problems.
Beyond the possible health risk they pose, everyone has observed the mess they can make on the ground or perhaps other surfaces beneath their nests. It isn’t unreasonable to suggest that it is appropriate to encourage birds to create their nests someplace other than underneath the eaves of our house, in the attic, or on ledges we provide around patio covers along with other horizontal surfaces.
One important thought here, though, is concerning swallows, which create their nests from mud and absolutely love to place those nests under the eaves of houses. It’s quite common to find private homes with solid lines of these mud nests along quite a few sides of the house, with many swallows now taking up residence where persons also live. Swallows are protected birds, so you are not able to hurt them and you are not able to disturb their nest once it’s established and completed, since by that point there may be eggs or even young birds in this nest. Once the nest is finished, you must, by law, allow them to complete their cycle of raising their young, and only once the young birds have finally left is it possible to clear away the mud nests. Given that you may not want these nests on your own house you’ve got a couple of options. The 1st is to dissuade the nest building at the moment the adult birds commence it, by scraping or even cleaning the beginnings of the nest off right away, in the hope that the birds finally go somewhere else.
The second alternative is to prevent access to the nest sites by the birds, and for this you may want to talk with a licensed pest management company that has expertise in bird management. There are lots of physical products which can be installed on homes that can keep the bird from having access to the places they desire to roost or nest. For swallows, this might be plastic netting, put in in such a way that it doesn’t detract from the appearance of the house, lasts for many years, and causes absolutely no injury or distress to the birds. The same kind of netting could be ideal for closing off areas that pigeons are going to. You may often find big retail stores that have had this kind of netting installed overhead, eliminating the ability of birds such as sparrows to roost on overhead pipes.
Other physical products which are really effective at bird exclusion consist of plastic or wire-pronged strips, permanently mounted on horizontal ledges making sure that birds cannot land on the ledge. The specialist could also employ stainless steel wire, strung snugly along ledges and elevated several inches off the surface, once again to prevent the bird from using that ledge. There are a number of other innovative gadgets which are very effective and yet pose no peril to birds that could contact them. The aim should not be to kill the birds, for that would be a temporary remedy anyhow. If your home is appealing to the first group of birds it’ll continue being attractive as long as additional birds can find their way onto it. Physical exclusion of the birds is the best long-term remedy, including making certain that attic vents are in good condition to prevent birds from coming into this enclosed place. This kind of good building maintenance will even prevent the entry of additional undesired creatures, such as bats, squirrels, or rats.
