pigeons

[norseman]

Neighbour of mine is being driven mad by pigeons constantly landing & tramping about on her roof.
Other than the obvious solution, which is not considered PC these days, any ideas for deterring the buggers. The problem may seem trivial against all the current world problems, but not to someone who is suffering sleep-deprivation as a result.

Thanks for reading folks.

 

[ellal]

Reflective scare tape.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Put a statue in the garden.
There might be some going cheap soon.

 

[conny]

Neighbour of mine is being driven mad by pigeons constantly landing & tramping about on her roof.
Other than the obvious solution, which is not considered PC these days, any ideas for deterring the buggers. The problem may seem trivial against all the current world problems, but not to someone who is suffering sleep-deprivation as a result.

Thanks for reading folks.

We have been having pigeon problems on the back lawn since they started building a new housing estate about half a mile away.
Tried all sorts of deterrents including reflective owls in the trees, (moderate results), swinging in the wind falcons, (absolute rubbish) and netting raised on small stakes about 4" off the lawn. The last one, besides being impractical for using/mowing the lawn was also a total failure because they landed on it and it simply dipped down to touch the grass.
However, standing at the back door 2 nights ago having a fag with my wife, this last attempt started a spark in our brains. We both decided that maybe raising the netting might be the answer. So we thought, in for a penny in for a pound. We bought 8 rolls of jute twine and made our own netting 7' above lawn level.
Rather than have big stakes sticking up all over the place I strung a line of twine around the garden edges, tied to the house wall and then carried it around the garden attaching at strategic points. We then ran a central line down from the house to the bottom fence. From the side runs we then tied form one side, across the central line and tied off at the other side. We repeated these cross lines every 12" the full length of the garden. Then to add more support we ran more lines parallel to the central line, also at 12" spacings, to create a net.
After watching throughout the day to day we have observed no pigeons landing but actually pulling back up as the start to swoop down. Our hope is they will eventually find somewhere else to feed/roost and we will be able to take it down but for now, for the first time in weeks, we now have a poo free lawn. After spending £60-£70 on commercial remedies which are rubbish it cost us £12 for the twine from Wilko and a few hours putting it up in glorious sunshine.

Maybe your neighbour can get someone to rig up some form of netting from the apex of the roof coming off horizontally and then dropping down to the gutters on some form of frame work? I know some of the buildings in the centre of town near me have netting covers suspended over their rooves on metal tubing frameworks but not sure if you could do it to a domestic property.

In reality it doesn't look half as bad as it does in the photo and still lets in the sunshine.
Note the pigeon sitting on the electric cable? Usually there are about a dozen of them cooing and crapping away throughout the day.

 

[Deleted2797112]

Lovely garden conny.

 

[Bodd]

Lovely garden conny.

Its a smashing garden

 

[Trazor]

Neighbour of mine is being driven mad by pigeons constantly landing & tramping about on her roof.
Other than the obvious solution, which is not considered PC these days, any ideas for deterring the buggers. The problem may seem trivial against all the current world problems, but not to someone who is suffering sleep-deprivation as a result.

Thanks for reading folks.

I presume she works at night, so needs to sleep in the day ?

How about some soft ear plugs.

 

[fillyboy]

We have been having pigeon problems on the back lawn since they started building a new housing estate about half a mile away.
Tried all sorts of deterrents including reflective owls in the trees,

I quite like pigeons, I find that cooing noise very soothing, we only get a few round here. Seagulls are our problem although since an elderly neighbour who used to feed them passed about five years ago, the numbers are decreasing.
I chuckled about your 'owl', at the bottom of our road a bungalow has a plastic owl perched on the edge of the roof, one morning driving down I saw a seagull perched right next to the owl.

 

[conny]

Thank you for the comments. That's only part of it, we have another big section over the gravel path. When we moved in nearly 5 years ago it was a shambles with the grass knee high, those conifers at the back were so dense and drooping that the bottom didn't get any rain and the grass had all died in that area, the plants where stunted and intertwined etc it was a mess! After we had cut the grass down a bit about 2/3 of the way down the garden, there were two mounds one each side, that looked like burial mounds! Managed to get the one on the right flattened but the one on the left is where the stop cock for the incoming water supply is! Water board said we can't lower the ground level because the pipe would then be above the frost line. All the roses and half the plants in the back are what we put in. They've really bloomed this year so very pleased with all our efforts.

 

[durhamplumber]

I quite like pigeons, I find that cooing noise very soothing, we only get a few round here. Seagulls are our problem although since an elderly neighbour who used to feed them passed about five years ago, the numbers are decreasing.
I chuckled about your 'owl', at the bottom of our road a bungalow has a plastic owl perched on the edge of the roof, one morning driving down I saw a seagull perched right next to the owl.

Was watching 3 seagulls and 3 crows yesterday..Crows digging up worms,then the gulls would chase them off and eat the worm.Would not dig their own worms..Repeat..Repeat..was quite amusing!..Lol..Life in lockdown.

 

[durhamplumber]

Neighbour of mine is being driven mad by pigeons constantly landing & tramping about on her roof.
Other than the obvious solution, which is not considered PC these days, any ideas for deterring the buggers. The problem may seem trivial against all the current world problems, but not to someone who is suffering sleep-deprivation as a result.

Thanks for reading folks.

Fake hawk on end of flexi pole.

 

[conny]

Fake hawk on end of flexi pole.

Doesn't work. Pigeons took no notice of it even though it was swirling in the breeze and it was the type that the wings moved up and down on occasion.

 

[durhamplumber]

Doesn't work. Pigeons took no notice of it even though it was swirling in the breeze and it was the type that the wings moved up and down on occasion.

Jeez..Must be rock hard pidgeons down your way!

 

[conny]

We often get sparrow hawks over the meadow next to us and the birds keep flying around and tweeting their individual calls to each other.
The only thing that stops them doing either is when a buzzard comes circling around with it's distinctive tweet sort of call. Can't see or hear a bird when they come calling. LOL

 

[Bodd]

I quite like pigeons, I find that cooing noise very soothing,

. I was telling Conny I think. They sing lovley