Pigeons are eating our house away!

[15C Mike]

We have a Grade II listed timber framed 15C house that is being eaten away by pigeons. Every morning about 7 of them cling onto the wall pecking away at the mortar and timbers. They have now made large holes in the mortar and some of the flints/bricks are loose. The timbers are also being destroyed.
They are only attacking one wall which is mainly a flint infill below timbers.
This wall is on ground level, below a window and is directly on the pavement.
I do not think that it would not be possible to put off the bird by netting as they could simply peck through it (even by walking on the pavement)
We also have the issue that this is a listed building in a conservation area. Any netting/covering etc would look terrible and only this narrow pavement would probably not stay in place long.
I've considered some form of visible deterent such as a fake bird of prey but again there is nowhere to place it and I understand that pigeons learn after a short while not to be scared of such things.
I feel that the only solution would be to cull the birds.
Do you agree? If so how can this be done?

 

[MdB]

Speak to your CO. They may have ideas and won't want to see your building destroyed anymore than you do.

Any idea why the pigeons are taking interest?

 

[15C Mike]

Unfortunately the CO has only suggested putting in some now lime mortar and he does not recommend that I do anything with the timbers.

I don't know why the birds are doing it - there is certainly nothing there to eat.

I did wonder if they we getting some kind of mineral supplement but now I think that they a just doing it to annoy me!

 

[Flyfisher]

Pigeons, in common with many birds, need to ingest grit into their gizzard in order to grind up their food. It's quite common to see them doing this on the edges of roads and paths in the early morning and early afternoon.

Having said that, I'd be surprised if there was a shortage of accessible grit on the ground, unless your pavements are particularly pristine. Perhaps scattering some grit on the pavement might tempt them enough to ignore the wall?

Very odd though. Have they been doing this for a long time or only started just recently?

 

[Penners]

Sounds like a job for a 16-bore.

 

[Flyfisher]

Or a cat perhaps?

 

[Pford75]

Have tried sonic deterrents which are rubbish. Spikes work well (but obviously only if they are not visible - they are really ugly). Screwfix sell the spikes on plastic strips.

An air rifle works pretty well - once you have got a few, they tend not to come back for a while

Alternatively, is there anything which you could put on the timber to make it smell? Perhaps a coat of linseed oil?

 

[biffvernon]

Birds and mice like linseed oil. It would need to be something that smells bad. Diesel?

 

[Ian Bond]

Linseed oil - just a warning. Birds have been known to peck new putty out of window frames, so that might not be a good idea.

 

[Ian Bond]

Found this on a Google book search:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cu...ig=eKAJl-n-GcTCMUYeCJf-pBDY_XI#PRA1-PA1049,M1

A use of lime that I hadn't considered before!

It's the paragraph at the foot of page 1049, continuing over the page.

 

[Ian Bond]

Quote from An Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, 1825.

Pigeons being fond of salt, what is called a pigeon-cat
is placed in the midst of the pigeon-house, or in the open air
near it. It seems these birds are fond of salt and hot
substances, and constantly swallow small stones to promote
digestion.

The salt-cat is thus composed; gravel or drift sand, unctuous
loam, the rubbish of an old wall (or 15th century listed
building - ian), or lime, a gallon of each; should lime
be substituted for rubbish, a less quantity of the former will
suffice; one pound of cummin-seed, one handful of bay-salt;
mix with stale urine (oh dear - that's taking the p*ss!).


Inclose (sic) this in jars, corked or stopped, holes being
punched in the sides, to admit the beaks of pigeons. This may
be placed abroad (good idea, I'd want it as far away as
possible too, it's going to whiff).

They are very fond of this mixture, and it prevents them from
pecking the mortar from the roofs of their houses, which they
are otherwise very apt to do.


Published 1825, John Claudius Loudon. So it seems this has
been a problem for some time. The pigeons were obviously
wrecking their own houses, and you can understand from the
above description why they are doing it. The solution seems to
be to give them something else to peck at, that's less valulable
than the building. That is if you're not going to shoot them,
which may bring other problems given your proximity to the
road.

Have you tried asking the RSPB for advice?

I looked into the putty problem some time ago. Also had trouble
with birds coming down my chimneys, and causing a lot of
damage. It seems that birds form habits, and if you can break
the habit you'll stop the behaviour for a while.

Must be worrying/annoying for you, so I hope you can resolve it.

 

[Cloudscape]

I've watched small birds excavating walls, actively pecking away at lime mortar. Some of the excavations are large enough for small birds to nest in the wall. Sometimes, a small hole attracts insects that the birds then come and eat. I've got some quite extensive areas of repointing needed, because of bird activity.

In the area where my city house is, magpies do most of the damage. They peck at mortar, tug at aerial cables, pick at flaking paint and generally wreck everything.

Pigeons are persistent, lazy and stupid (the only birds I really dislike), but you might be able to scare them off (try a high-powered water pistol). Pigeons sit on an elderflower bush at the bottom of my city garden, when the berries are available. The twigs won't support their weight and the pigeons have to work hard not to keep falling off, but they won't give up on an easy meal.

I wouldn't use an attractant to divert their attention. Otherwise, they'll stick around - and you might end up with more pigeons. They've become fixated with your bit of wall (probably initially because of the grit). I would have thought that you find something that smells or tastes bad, to impregnate that bit of wall? But all the searches I have done lead to physical deterrents (or pigeon mind games, like this hilarious thing: http://www.bird-x.com/products/terror.html)

 

[biffvernon]

There's always birdlime :wink:

 

[DaveBrigg]

A few handfuls of corn in the neighbour's garden each morning should do the trick.

 

[biffvernon]

They need the grit in their crops to grind the corn you feed them next door.

 

[Cloudscape]

I'm just trying to imagine the aftermath of using birdlime, with pigeons stuck face-first to the front of 15C Mike's house. :?

 

[middi]

I Agree with Penners, shoot the b******s. If they want to eat your house, you make a meal out of them.

 

[middi]

.....or build a fake Nelson column next to it.

 

[middi]

On a more serious note, you could try a 4lb ( o.14/o.16 mm) clear fishing line stretched across the facade of the building at about 6in away from the surface and approx 1 foot apart.

A criss cross pattern would be more effective.

The CO ( or anybodyelse) would have difficulty in seeing it. Just remove it once the pigeons have gone.

 

[biffvernon]

Yeah, 4lb line should do, but watch out for herons and eagles. They are heavier.