Birds roosting on overhead wires - deterrent?

mr chips

Have been having a bit of a problem with starlings etc roosting on wires that pass over the roof of the house and subsequently crapping on the roof, and on one section of the garden too. Some plastic discs were installed on the wires for a while and initially seemed to be effective, but most have fallen off by now and the birds are used to them in any case. Someone mentioned a plug-in device that emits a tone (inaudible to humans) that would deter them, but I don't know if such a thing really exists. Any suggestions?
PS if this should be in a different forum, feel free to move.

Eph1958

Hi, local place has a kite flying, shaped like a hawk. Seems to do a good job worrying the gulls but not easy to keep in the air. Haven't seen them for sale but shouldn't be too difficult to locate on the net. Good luck.

Eph.

mr chips

Thanks, as you say it might be difficult to keep a kite up there continuously enough to have an effect. I've done a bit of digging online but noise emitters seem to be pretty pricey so far. Might have to look into getting an mp3 of their distress call and hooking it up to some speakers.

seagull

You could try getting a plastic owl or hawk and putting it on the roof.

Eph1958

Hi, it's easy enough to generate ultra-sonic sound using Audacity, convert to MP3 and loop through a speaker that can output up to 30,000Hz.Getting the right sound might take some trial and error. It would be an interesting experiment to see if the ultrasonics actually worked and scared the birds off. The distress call is also an interesting angle. Maybe an intermittent predator sound would help.
Keep us posted if anything works and more importantly, the things that don't work. Good luck.

Ephraim.

looksee

You need one of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2PJ6T7U2eU

macraignil

If you could get up to the wire somehow you could fix purpose made bird deterrent spikes to keep them from roosting. Even just cable ties with the end cut at an angle to make a point should make it more difficult for them to find a place to perch.

bazbrady

In our factory where i work we had major issues with crows and other birds roosting nesting etc,we got a crowd in from cork i believe bird control or something.they set up a speaker system with a distress call from crows which is fairly loud so not sure if your neighbours would appreciate.it comes on and off but does need to still be used as they will come back,also there was alot of tweaking to get the sound right,they also put up hawk,eagle kites but most blew away in strong winds.the spikes work very well which you see all over the place,as suggested because its a cable maybe use cable ties and cut them at angles making them sharp.my local diy store has a crow killed hanging upside down at the entrance of sheds to stop crows magpies etc coming near,works very well not sure if starlings would be kept away aswell

red sean

macraignil wrote: »

If you could get up to the wire somehow you could fix purpose made bird deterrent spikes to keep them from roosting. Even just cable ties with the end cut at an angle to make a point should make it more difficult for them to find a place to perch.

NO.
It would appear from the op these are ESB lines.

mr chips

Hi folks, thanks for replies - been away for a bit so just catching up here. As indicated these are power lines, so not suitable for me to mess around with! Looks like I might have to try the distress call mp3 idea, so if anyone can suggest a small, low-cost (but crucially, weatherproof!) speaker I can mount to the wall of the house, I'll give it a shot.

macraignil

Didn't know they were power lines so my suggestion would be a bit more dangerous than I had thought. I did read as well on another forum that providing an alternative perch for the birds can help. Probably would need to be higher than the wires so might not be a very useful suggestion either.
Good luck!