Controlling Pigeons

beer enigma

Is there a way of legally controlling pigeons in the garden ??

I have a fairly large garden in Cork City & the end 60ft is turned over to a kitchen garden. Despite netting all of the beds, the pigeons have savaged my cabbages, brussels - in fact most things green !

To make matters worse, there's a guy backing onto us with a pigeon coop & he must have in excess of 30 birds in there.

Anything I can do to control them ??

Victor

Cat.

Hawk.

Huge electro magnet.

loyatemu

airgun?

CJhaughey

Rat poison. lots of rat poison.

meditraitor

The best suggestion is the cat!

Huge electro magnet.

lol Classic, but im sure it would eat juice, ESB would love ye..

Airguns are Illegal.

Hawks cost a fortune to keep.

Rat poisin- oops (dodgy at the best of times)

pauln

meditraitor wrote:

Airguns are Illegal.

No there not :rolleyes: ! You can obtain a firearms licence for airguns In this country, plenty of people have them.

The common wood pigeon is not a protected wild animal under the wildlife act so can be controlled if a nuisance. I'm not sure what the story is though if these are some guys homing pigeons, I doubt he would be happy.

meditraitor

pauln wrote:

No there not :rolleyes: ! You can obtain a firearms licence for airguns In this country, plenty of people have them.
.

What I meant was, you cant just walk into a shop and buy one, If you go to the guards for a license and they ask why you want one(not sure how it works, but I presume this is one of the questions). You reply " to shoot the next door neighbours pidgeons, the little cunts are eating my cabbage", I dont think they will issue you a license..

pauln

Ha ha, I'd love to try though .

rooferPete

Hi Andip,

You could try the almost invisible spikes that prevent birds landing on your wall and raise the netting or maybe a scarecrow ?

I have never been interested in racing pidgeons but I doubt very much that your neighbours pidgeons are the problem.

The last thing he wants is homing pidgeons landing in your garden for a feed after a long flight home, that would mean he couldn't clock the birds in when they arrive home and cause him to lose races.

Many moons ago when racing pidgeons and large TV aerials were common in the Dublin area it was not unheard of that aerials would fall by some freak occurance during the night, the pidgeons were known to land on the aerials costing races and sometimes big money

.

beer enigma

rooferPete wrote:

Hi Andip,

You could try the almost invisible spikes that prevent birds landing on your wall and raise the netting or maybe a scarecrow ?

I have never been interested in racing pidgeons but I doubt very much that your neighbours pidgeons are the problem.

The last thing he wants is homing pidgeons landing in your garden for a feed after a long flight home, that would mean he couldn't clock the birds in when they arrive home and cause him to lose races.

Many moons ago when racing pidgeons and large TV aerials were common in the Dublin area it was not unheard of that aerials would fall by some freak occurance during the night, the pidgeons were known to land on the aerials costing races and sometimes big money

.

Sadly the nbeighbours pigeons are the main problem - he's just bought another dozen light brown birds & they are wreaking havoc ! - none of his pigeons have rings, so I think he just keeps them as pets rather than racing.

My kitchen garden area is about 60ft sq, so fairly large to 'spike' & as I say the netting isnt providing a safeguard either. As for scarecorw - tried it - they perch on him ! Came home today to find that a row of pigeons had settled onto my runner bean frame & collapsed it - so it looks a bit like the Somme at the moment - I'm not happy !!! :mad:

rooferPete

Hi Andip,

I wasn't trying to make light of the problem and after reading your post I am annoyed at me for not asking you about the rings first.

I think if you have a word with your local authority you may find keeping that number of birds in a built up area is covered under environmental health laws.

From your description it's about equal to keeping 40 dogs and allowing them to run wild, only for you it's worse because at least the wall would keep the dogs out.

.

pauln

Did a quick search around and came up with a few options:

1.) A model Owl. Seems like a good idea, most birds are scared of Owls.
2.) Strong smelling chemicals spread around, amommia, moth balls or WD40 have all been mentioned. Apparently they have a sensitive sense of smell.
3.) Anything that moves or shines, wine bottles on there side or CD's hung from some string so they spin in the wind and reflect the light.

I like the sound of 1. and 3., 2. might get a bit tedious having to do it again after rain and alike.

zippo22

pauln wrote:

Did a quick search around and came up with a few options:

1.) A model Owl. Seems like a good idea, most birds are scared of Owls.

Couple of model owls or woollen cats should do the trick. A pub here near me was pestered for years with scores of pigeons perching on the ridge and destroying the slates and guttering with their mess. A plastic owl and a woollen cat on either end of the ridge shifted them overnight.

zippo22

rooferPete wrote:

I think if you have a word with your local authority you may find keeping that number of birds in a built up area is covered under environmental health laws.

From your description it's about equal to keeping 40 dogs and allowing them to run wild, only for you it's worse because at least the wall would keep the dogs out.

.

I agree with you Pete. I think it's more akin to keepin' swarms of rats though than dogs.

beer enigma

rooferPete wrote:

Hi Andip,

I wasn't trying to make light of the problem and after reading your post I am annoyed at me for not asking you about the rings first.

I think if you have a word with your local authority you may find keeping that number of birds in a built up area is covered under environmental health laws.

From your description it's about equal to keeping 40 dogs and allowing them to run wild, only for you it's worse because at least the wall would keep the dogs out.

.

Hey no worries - appreciate your input....

I might give Cork Co. Council a call - hadn't thought of that route

beer enigma

pauln wrote:

Did a quick search around and came up with a few options:

1.) A model Owl. Seems like a good idea, most birds are scared of Owls.
2.) Strong smelling chemicals spread around, amommia, moth balls or WD40 have all been mentioned. Apparently they have a sensitive sense of smell.
3.) Anything that moves or shines, wine bottles on there side or CD's hung from some string so they spin in the wind and reflect the light.

I like the sound of 1. and 3., 2. might get a bit tedious having to do it again after rain and alike.

Maybe I have SAS pigeons !!! - we have two cats regularly patrolling the garden - neither are mine, but one sits on the compost heap most of the day & the pigeons dont see to be bothered by him. I also have strings of old cd's & again, no great imporvement.

I might try the owl.....anyone know where I can get a model owl from ??

zippo22

Garden centre ???

LegacyUser

There must be a way .. theres a guy in the house opposite to me with two really big coops (spelling??) and I've only had a couple of craps on my car in the last year or so.