The Birds and the Bees may provide us with all the joys and delights of spring, but birds nesting in roof spaces can easily lead to sleepless nights (and not in a good way)! Problems like scratching, chirping and making a mess of your money saving loft insulation is common. As Pest Controllers we love birds and if you can live with nature of any kind that’s great. In fact, we encourage the installation of bird boxes where ever possible.
However, when the guano (bird poo) left outside your front door from House Martins nesting above gets too much, help is at hand! The best time to deal with birds nesting is during spring, long before the sound of chirping chicks arrives. Remember, most birds are protected once nesting under UK law, so proofing work needs to be done before this happens. If you would like to talk through any bird issues you may have, get in touch with Pure Pest Solutions today for FREE fantastic advice from awarding wining experts.
Here are our top 4 birds that like to nest in your house….
1. House Martins
House Martins love building their nests underneath eaves on the outside of buildings. The nests look great apart from the stain they can leave when removed, not to mention the nasty bacteria left inside nests. Finally, they don’t build toilets inside the nest (how uncouth), so much like in ancient London when buckets of faeces were chucked out of windows, the birds leave most of their droppings on the path or open windows below, causing a delightful obstacle for you to avoid.
The trick to stopping this unfortunate mess is to apply some simple proofing to the building, using equipment like a ‘nest stop’. The idea is that the mud which the House Martins use to build their nest doesn’t stick to the area with the proofing, so they can’t start a nest. They then move onto somewhere else completely unharmed to start nesting.
2. Starlings
Starlings are a fantastic bird and look amazing as they fly around in huge numbers. The fun might stop there though when they are coming and going from the soffit and fascia areas of your house. They can be very noisy throughout the night as you try to sleep. It’s important to not harm starlings while active nesting is taking place so prevention is the key. By proofing potential entry points using mesh, the problem can be resolved and starlings looking for nesting areas simply find other places to nest suitable for their needs.
3. Swifts
It’s fairly unlikely that you would be lucky enough to have swifts nesting in your house, unless you live quite high up. Places that generally get swifts nesting are taller buildings such as churches, although we do tend to find that some noises in roofs on townhouses or blocks of flats (especially newbuilds) can turn out to be Swifts. Amazingly Swifts never land on the ground. They must be exhausted…
4. Pigeons
The humble pigeon has never really had a good reputation in the United Kingdom, best known for foraging on anything that goes. Growing in numbers in towns and cities across the land, they are famous for being quite a nuisance. However, as with all birds they are protected whilst actively nesting. In order to prevent this, areas can be netted off to stop and spikes applied to stop them perching. Once in an area the numbers can grow very quickly as they breed all year round.
When it comes to bird control, Pigeon proofing is a vast area. If you do have any problems with pigeons then do you get in touch with Pure Pest Solutions, your pest control experts. We undertake anything from small basic clearances, solar panel proofing and spiking jobs all the way to large projects such as football stadiums all in the name of stopping birds dropping nastiness on football fans enjoying their game. Have a great summer and keep an eye out for these amazing birds, but do let us know if they become a little too much.