Tag Archives: pigeon trap

Exterminator

Summit County Exterminator

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Is it possible to get the Summit County exterminator to follow me around at the park and get rid of these dang pigeons?  Every day, rain or shine, snow or sun, I take my walk, and it used to be a wonderful perk to retirement.  I get up, put on the same dark gray jacket (rain or shine), my dark gray ball cap (snow or sun) and head out the door.  My usual route takes me about a mile and a half down the street, and then I stroll down the park paths of our neighborhood park, and another couple of miles around the business district before heading home for lunch.  I’m a regular, so people know me, and I know them.  Moms have their kids wave to the “nice man” and I wave back and keep walking.  There’s a guy I usually see who’s out jogging around 10:00 every morning, and he gives me a friendly nod as he huffs on by.  A couple of businesswomen take their smoke break around 11:00 every day, and we tease each other as I make my way past their building.  I’m the guy who waves at the cars that pass me, and some of the drivers even wave back.  Walking is just my thing.  I enjoy it every morning, have lunch at home, and then head back out to go play cards with my friends.  It’s not an exciting life, but it’s my life, and I love it.

One day I got stupid.  I had some old bread leftover at home, so I grabbed it up and took it with me on my walk.  As I walked through the park, I tossed a few crumbs here and there to feed the pigeons that roost in the nearby apartments.  And now I need my own personal Summit County exterminator.

These little suckers just won’t leave me alone.  As soon as my feet turn onto the park path, they fly down from their roosts up in the buildings adjacent to the park, poop raining down on the sidewalk and anyone else who happens to be on it.  Then, they parade after me like they expect me to give them a free handout every time I step out my door.  I’ve tried shooing them away, but they just fly up around my head, then land all around me and follow like I’m some dagum pied piper.  I even stepped on one once.  I just can’t seem to get rid of the pigeons.  Now, instead of being the happy, friendly old man who waves at people as he strolls by, I’m the crazy, grumpy old man with a pigeon problem.

Not okay.  I’ve got a phone number for the Summit County exterminator and I’m taking it over to the apartment managers.  I hope they’ll get rid of the pigeons living in their building, but if not, I’ll have to find another park to walk through every day.  Either that or just accept my fate as the leader of the pigeons.

Pigeons

Pigeon Control

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Before this week, I had no idea that pigeon control could control my life.  My wife and I have entered into the previously unknown world of rental properties and property management, and we’re learning it involves much more than getting a tenant and collecting rents.

Since our last child moved out, we have wanted to move to a smaller, but nicer, home.  Despite our grown children’s sadness at seeing their childhood home go on the market, we spent a lot of time and effort sprucing up the place to our realtor’s specifications, and hoped for the right buyer.  As time passed, we hoped for any buyer.  We soon realized that our beautiful home was not going to sell quickly in this depressed market.  Of course, we had already located a gorgeous town home, and desperately wanted to buy it.  We just needed to sell our home first.

Finally, our realtor suggested that we either drastically lower the price, or consider renting.  We worked it out with our mortgage people, and thanks to some money we had stashed away, we were able to put a down payment on the town home.  Fairly quickly, we found a family happy to rent our previous home.  We thought we had it made.

And, then, pigeon control became a part of our life.  Our rental family was nice enough.  They paid their rent on time, which helped us make our mortgage payment on time.  Our former neighbors never complained to us.  But, they just didn’t take very good care of the house.  Since they didn’t own it outright, they just let minor problems go on until they became big problems.

A couple of shingles blew off our roof during a recent thunderstorm, and instead of replacing them, or even telling us about them, our tenants just ignored it.  Before long, we had a little bit of water damage in the house, and pigeons had moved into the attic.  Not many pigeons, but just enough to cause a ruckus and get the attic filthy.  Of course, that’s when our tenants finally called us for pigeon control.

When I went to inspect the damage and the pigeon problem, it was so gross.  There were pigeon nests up there, a couple of dead pigeons, and pigeon guano everywhere.  The smell was bad, and the damage was worse.   I didn’t even want to think about all the tiny little mites and other bugs that might be infesting our house.

Allstate Animal Control came out and did the pigeon control for me, and they even cleaned up the mess and installed pigeon blockers.  We suffered through the rest of our lease term with the renters, went back in and fixed everything up the way we like, and put the house on the market.  Hopefully, this time, we’ll get buyers and not have to worry about pigeon control ever again.

Pigeons

Pigeon Control

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pigeon removal

My brother’s nuts, because he thinks the pigeons in our bedroom are a sign of good luck, but I know it’s better to get pigeon control in here immediately.

We live in a typical big apartment building, devoid of any personality.  From the outside, it’s just an ugly white, broken up by tiny black windows, fire escape ladders, and streaks of bird droppings.  It has even less personality on the inside, where ancient floors echo footsteps off white walls, and the doors leading to individual apartments are decorated only by little black numbers.

It’s a whole different world inside our apartment, though.  Mom doesn’t make a lot of extra money at her job, so it’s not like we had an interior designer come through to transform our small, two-bedroom apartment into a sanctuary from the world.  But, Mom sure does believe in color, and she’s draped bright red curtains over the windows, painted our room an eye-searing blue, and she’s filled every shelf with brightly colored glass knick-knacks.

My brother’s turning ten next week, and the only thing he’s begged for is a pet.  I know that’s not going to happen, and Mom’s even explained to him we can’t have a pet in this small apartment.  It would stink, we don’t have room for a pet, and worst of all, my brother’s allergic.

So, I can’t really blame him when he thought his birthday wish came true early.  He loves to open our bedroom window to hear all the noises of the kids playing in the playground below, and to his delight, two pigeons flew in the open window.  Once the pigeons were in, he slammed the window shut.  The pigeons didn’t seem to mind too much.  They just walked around on the window sill and cooed every now and then.

As soon as I realized what happened, I went to call the building supervisor so he could get pigeon control up to our apartment whenever he got around to it.  I knew Mom would have a fit if she came home from work tonight to find two pigeons in the house.  Already, there was an ugly stain on the wall under the window, and I swore I would not be the one to clean it up.  My brother was rushing around the kitchen looking for old bread and a bag of sunflower seeds he swore was in the cupboard, while I yelled at him that we had to let pigeon control take care of the problem.  He kept yelling back that the pigeons were not a problem, that they were his birthday pigeons, so I should just shut up.

When my brother’s got something in mind, he’s super stubborn, so I just sighed.  The guys who come up to do pigeon control can deal with my brother.  I did my part, I dunno who’s gonna clean up the mess, but it ain’t gonna be me.  I just laid back down on the couch with my book and waited for either pigeon control or Mom to come home, whichever came first.

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.