Category Archives: Pigeons

Anything to do with pigeons

Pigeons

Pigeon Removal

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pigeon removal

As an interior designer working in the city, I don’t consider pigeon removal as my area of expertise.  I specialize in transforming apartments to really reflect the resident’s personalities.  Most of my clients love living in the city, even though it means paying a lot of money to live in a small, cramped space with no view.  So, I try to make an oasis out of the space they have.  After I’m done, they can still enjoy the passions of city life and have a relaxing haven to call home.

Of course, when I first arrive at most clients’ apartments, it’s immediately obvious they need a professional designer and decorator.  Some people’s attempts (or lack thereof) of decorating are just abominable.  I knew one lady who only owned a bed out of necessity, but hadn’t purchased any other furniture, because she was afraid of making bad decorating decisions.  She sat on the floor to eat her meals and didn’t have friends over, because she had nowhere for them to sit.  She’d been living like that for over a year before finally hiring me.

One gentleman just accepted all the hand-me-down furniture and wall-hangings from his mother, without even trying to make them his own.  When I first met him, I found a heterosexual bachelor living with overstuffed flowered couches and chairs and lace-encrusted pictures of birds and butterflies.

Whatever people’s design-choices, I have noticed a trend amongst city-apartment tenants.  They almost always have to deal with pigeon removal one way or the other.  Some wise people invest in a good pigeon removal service to keep their balcony free of birds and bird-debris.  Some people choose to ignore the pigeon problem and end up with pigeon guano encrusted on their balcony floor several layers deep.  Some people, the do-it-yourselfers, try more creative approaches.  One woman actually drew scary faces on white balloons and taped the balloons to her railing, hoping to humanely frighten the pigeons from roosting on her window sills.  She was traumatized when she realized her “humane” efforts ended up killing the pigeons that swallowed pieces of popped balloons.   Some people attempt pigeon removal with thick wires with nails thrust through them.  They glue these wires onto the areas where pigeons roost, hoping the nails that stick out will prevent the pigeons from resting their tired wings in and around their apartment.  Unfortunately, some people don’t install these correctly, and either end up giving pigeons a perfect nook in which to roost free from predators, or impale their hands as they’re installing it.

Most pigeon removal materials do not enhance the look of an apartment.  I take care of the interior, and make it an oasis for my clients, but I always suggest a good pigeon removal service to get rid of pigeon problems for them.  After all, why spend good money on beautiful furniture and decorations if your guests are just going to focus on the balloons dancing madly in the wind outside your one and only window?

Pigeons

Pigeon Problems

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Ugh, it’s hard enough building our first house without having to deal with pigeon problems!  We thought we were doing great, especially for a first home.  We’d saved and saved until we could purchase the property we wanted, we bought the house plans we loved, took out a construction loan and hired a general contractor.  The idea was the general contractor would take care of construction until we could take over.  We’d hang the dry-wall, take care of the finish plumbing and electrical, we’d do the finish carpentry, floors and painting.  We wanted to do a lot of the work ourselves – it would save us money and we’d enjoy the home so much more knowing our blood, sweat and tears went into it.  Of course, we had no idea how much blood, sweat and tears we’d end up shedding, but through it all, we believed it would be worth it.

We still worked at our full-time jobs, so we worked on the house every evening and every minute of every weekend and holiday.  One evening we showed up and noticed bird droppings on the living room sub-floor.  I cleaned it up, and we got to work on the drywall.  But it happened again the next night and the next night, and I found droppings all over the house.

I was sure we had pigeon problems.

Finally, early Saturday morning, we arrived and went looking for the pigeons before working on the drywall again.  Sure enough, we found pigeons building nests in the air-conditioning vent and also the attic.  My husband had done some research and discovered that pigeons can harbor over 40 types of parasites and transmit up to 60 types of infectious diseases through their droppings.  We had a much more serious pigeon problem than we’d first suspected.

I was so frustrated, because we had such limited time to work on the house, and now we’d have to spend time suiting up for biohazard cleanup, just to have pigeons build more nests in our new home!  It was disgusting, and I was sure that if we didn’t handle the pigeon problem right, they would come back, even after the home was built, and crap all over our hard work and dreams.

So, this is where the tears came in.  We’d already put in the blood and sweat, thanks to an improperly held nail gun and countless hours of work.  Building our first home was already stressful, and now we had to deal with pigeons moving in before we even got a chance to sleep there one night.  It was more than I could bear and my husband, too manly to cry, was on the edge, too.

Fortunately, our general contractor just happened to stop by right then to see how we were progressing.  We showed him the disgusting mess, and he said he saw this kind of thing all the time.  He gave us the number of a professional wildlife removal service that specializes in removing birds out of buildings, cleaning and sanitizing the area and would help us keep them out of the home.  We made the call and went back to work, feeling like it was going to be all right after all.

Pigeons

Pigeon Trapping

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I almost fell out of my roost this morning, I was so excited that the weather was warm and I was sure no one would be thinking about pigeon trapping.  It had been a long and tough winter.  The harsh weather kept most humans from coming out into the park and playground to play, much less to feed us with delicious stale bread or hearty bird seed.  We were left to fend for ourselves, like some sort of wild animals, scavenging and scraping by.

Fortunately, the nearby businesses provided plenty of warm and safe places to roost.  Some of us had found a hole just large enough to get into the warm attic-like space in one office building.   We’d left a lot of droppings everywhere, and some of the snowmelt had mixed with our guano.  It was starting to corrode some of the joists.  Some people from the building got wise to us, though, and put out pigeon traps, but they didn’t follow through and so we ended up spending the rest of the winter in there.

But, today, was beautiful and sunny and just warm enough to get people outside.  I flew down with some of the others to see if the people left scraps behind their picnic lunches, or even better, if anyone had bread or birdseed to toss to us.  I was not disappointed!

Children were squealing with delight as they played on the playground, their parents oblivious (or perhaps choosing to look the other way) to the pigeon droppings smattered around on the slides, swings and crawlspaces.  Adults talked and clearly enjoyed the excellent weather.  All humans were in excellent moods, and not a single one of them even considered pigeon trapping.  On the contrary, some of them had planned ahead and brought bird seed with them to share their good fortune with us birds.

It was agonizingly slow, sometimes, though.  We’d have to wait and wait for a tiny handful of seed to be tossed around, and then fight and squabble with each other over each morsel.  I was getting fed up, so to speak.  I just wanted to gobble up my share, fill my stomach for the first time in months.  Finally, it dawned on me what I had to do, and I was frankly surprised no one else had thought of it.

I waited for the perfect moment, and then, finally, it happened.  One of the women with a large bag of birdseed looked away for a moment.  A moment was all I needed.  A blur, I flew up just high enough and landed right inside the bag!  No other bird could fit in there, and I had all the seed my stomach could hold, all to myself!  Oh, the joy!  Ha ha!  I had been afraid the woman would drop the bag in surprise and ruin my plans, but the weather was so nice that she had to laugh with surprise and joy.  Ah, this was the best kind of pigeon trapping I could have imagined.  All the food I wanted, a happy human, and an exit whenever I felt like leaving.

Pigeons

Get Rid of Pigeons

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get rid of pigeons       
     I’m not sure a certain British-singing-and-umbrella-flying nanny would be very happy with me for wanting to get rid of pigeons from the apartment complex I manage.  But, those little suckers make such a huge mess all over the balconies and walkways.  It definitely takes more than a spoonful of sugar to calm me down after spending a day cleaning up after them.  They get under the eaves to roost, hang out on the roof, the branches overhanging the cars in the parking lot.  Some of the tenants actually throw some bird seed out for them, and then complain to me about the mess they’re making! 

            It wouldn’t be so bad, but that stuff is toxic.  If you just let it sit for a while, it changes from a sticky gooey mess to a concentrated salt that can eat through concrete and make steel rust faster.  I would be so much happier if I could just get rid of pigeons instead of cleaning up after them all the time!

            I go down to the park adjacent to our complex and get so irritated at people tossing bread crumbs to the birds.  They’re just bringing more birds to the neighborhood.  The park is right in front of a beautiful church with gorgeous artwork, and the birds sit on the heads of the statues mocking us and pooping.  The beautiful artwork is ruined with streaks of white and black.  Every few years, the city’s parks manager gets people in there to clean it all up, but wouldn’t it be easier to just get rid of the pigeons?  I’m just saying . . .

            I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I have a totally different version of that fictitious nanny’s song, and it doesn’t make pigeons as charming as she thought they should be.  I’m begging my tenants to please, please stop feeding the birds!

Early each day to the apartment complex

The overworked manager comes

In my own special way to the people I call

Don’t buy that bag full of crumbs

Don’t feed the little birds

Shoo them away

And you’ll be glad if you do

Their young ones are hungry

But they won’t stay

If you don’t give them the food

Feed the birds, and you’ll get a mess

A huge mess, a gross mess, a nasty big mess

Feed the birds, that makes me cry

While overhead, the birds fill the sky

All around the apartment the people are parking

While pigeons are perched overhead.

Although you can’t see it,

You know they are smiling

Dropping the poop that they shed

Though my words are simple and few

Listen, listen, I’m calling to you

Feed the birds, and you’ll get a mess

A huge mess, a gross mess, a nasty big mess.

Pigeons

Pigeon Removal


I LOVE pigeons – no need to call for pigeon removal when you can just call me and have me come in and clean up after them.  Big Red’s my name and cleaning pigeon guano’s my game!  Just pay me year after year to clean up the sticky, gooey mess left by those loveable little flyin’ critters. 

            Do you have a great view from your balcony, as long as you don’t look at the floor?  A wrap-around porch that crunches when you walk on it?  Those little varmints can git into a garage or attic and make such a mess as you’ve never seen!  Gimmee a call, and I’ll pressure-wash it for ya.  Course, I’ll be back, thanks to those beautiful flying rats called pigeons. Those birds paid for my RV.  I plan to drive around in that beauty when I retire, and visit all the big cities where the big flocks live.  Sakes alive, I love to bird watch!

            Pigeon guano has ammonia and corrosive acids that eat away at structures.  You don’t call me, it’ll turn into a concentrated salt that, when combined with rainwater, will rust anything.  Some people even think it was responsible for a bridge collapsing – awful, awful.  Imagine what it’s doing to your beautiful balcony with a view.  It’s been said it can dissolve concrete.  But, you don’t want me gettin’ into all the science n’ stuff – just trust me, it’s not just an eyesore, that stuff.  It’s bad for the building and dangerous for you.

            Pigeon removal?  Sure, you could call a professional to get rid of them, but let’s face it.  Why disturb the circle of life?  Pigeons live, pigeons poop, and I need a steady income of cleaning up after ‘em.  See, circle of life!  My life, that is.

            Am I afraid of getting those nasty diseases that pigeon guano can cause?  Eh, not really.  I mean, I wear my face mask, suit up, and put on my heavy gloves before I power wash that stuff away.  It’s nasty, too.  When it’s dried, and parts of it is floatin’ in the air, it can get right into your lungs.  Better hope you’re healthy enough to fight off those fungal infections!   

            Course, as long as you call me in to clean it up, you won’t be too affected by sickness.  I mean, that stuff can cause pneumonia, fever, chills, muscle aches – all kinds of nasty.  I have to make sure I’m real protected when I come in, and hopefully, I’m careful enough that I do it right and keep you safe from disease.   

            I’m a straight-shooter, so I’ll be honest now and tell ya the best thing you can do is get rid of those critters by calling a pigeon removal service.  But, you still gotta deal with the mess left behind.  That’s where I come in!  Plus, I’ve got this real pretty place in Florida I wanna see from my RV, and I could sure use the gas money.  Gimme a call and I’ll get rid of the nasties for ya.