Anti-pigeon devices?
October 26, 2022 6:17 AM Subscribe
It is like a %*#! pigeon convention on my balcony recently and I wouldn't mind except the %*#! pigeons never SHUT UP. I can't sleep or focus with half a dozen pigeons making their %*#! pigeon noises all day long. What can I use to repel them?
My balcony is in a rental apartment, so I can't do anything that requires permanent attachment like netting the whole thing off. I don't really want to cover my whole balcony in pigeon spikes plus it is a large balcony and that would be many, many dollars worth of spikes.
I was thinking of one of these sonic repellers but I worry that they will agitate the neighbourhood dogs, of which there are many. I am on the 5th floor of a building so maybe the sound won't travel to ground level? Maybe if they are motion sensitive, so they only trigger when the pigeons are on my balcony that wouldn't be so bad for surrounding dogs?
I have read that pigeons are too smart for the fake owls, but what about shiny spinny things?
Anything else that works? (Aside from complaining to my landlord, which has not worked.)
My balcony is in a rental apartment, so I can't do anything that requires permanent attachment like netting the whole thing off. I don't really want to cover my whole balcony in pigeon spikes plus it is a large balcony and that would be many, many dollars worth of spikes.
I was thinking of one of these sonic repellers but I worry that they will agitate the neighbourhood dogs, of which there are many. I am on the 5th floor of a building so maybe the sound won't travel to ground level? Maybe if they are motion sensitive, so they only trigger when the pigeons are on my balcony that wouldn't be so bad for surrounding dogs?
I have read that pigeons are too smart for the fake owls, but what about shiny spinny things?
Anything else that works? (Aside from complaining to my landlord, which has not worked.)
They don't like strong smells, like cinnamon, so you could try spraying essential oil. I would also try using a box fan to cover the noise...that helped when I had annoying (human) neighbors.
posted by pinochiette at 6:40 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by pinochiette at 6:40 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Does your balcony get any sun? I have successfully used the reflective powers of old CDs on strings tied up to keep the birds away from my cherries. You can spend money for more "classy" options if you like a fancier aesthetic.
I would also seize this opportunity and immediately get an owl decoy but that's not because I know anything about whether owl decoys work but because I have always wanted a plastic owl with a fully rotational awesome Exorcist head.
Bonuses: these options don't involve anything that might be unpleasant or painful. The shiny things throw light around all whimsically. You will get many compliments from folks like me on your guard owl.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:47 AM on October 26, 2022 [5 favorites]
I would also seize this opportunity and immediately get an owl decoy but that's not because I know anything about whether owl decoys work but because I have always wanted a plastic owl with a fully rotational awesome Exorcist head.
Bonuses: these options don't involve anything that might be unpleasant or painful. The shiny things throw light around all whimsically. You will get many compliments from folks like me on your guard owl.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:47 AM on October 26, 2022 [5 favorites]
I worked at a building that had a seagull problem. They solved it by tightly stringing clear fishing line around. Apparently, the birds couldn't see it and thought it was ghosts?
posted by H21 at 7:50 AM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by H21 at 7:50 AM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't have an answer for you, but if it's any consolation, pigeon spikes wouldn't necessarily help even if you did want to use them. I used to live somewhere with a window that looked out onto an adjacent roof. It had pigeon spikes. I found the way the pigeons tucked themselves cosily in behind them very cute...
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:50 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:50 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have used strategically placed strips of inexpensive bird scare tape in my garden to protect my fruit tree. Works quite well. In addition to the flashing/reflective properties of the tape, the sound of the tape strips flapping in the breeze helps to scare them away.
posted by MyTwoCentsToo at 7:59 AM on October 26, 2022
posted by MyTwoCentsToo at 7:59 AM on October 26, 2022
People have covered the reflective and owl options but there's also these evil eye looking things.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:08 AM on October 26, 2022
posted by fiercekitten at 9:08 AM on October 26, 2022
As a youth, my family used to shoot pigeons with a super soaker (water gun). This wasn't super-effective as a deterrent, but if you're in an apartment, maybe it's enough to get them to move to another unit.
My parents got pigeon spikes, and now smaller birds nest in the eaves instead.
I work on a farm with a lot of berries, and neither the bird-scaring laser or the recording of predator bird noises works very well to scare our starlings, annoying birds is an unsolved problem.
posted by momus_window at 9:12 AM on October 26, 2022
My parents got pigeon spikes, and now smaller birds nest in the eaves instead.
I work on a farm with a lot of berries, and neither the bird-scaring laser or the recording of predator bird noises works very well to scare our starlings, annoying birds is an unsolved problem.
posted by momus_window at 9:12 AM on October 26, 2022
Fun fact: female pigeons need to hear themselves produce a special coo in order to ovulate, and that coo is triggered by the coo of her mate; this is one reason among many why pigeon nests are so hatefully loud.
That said, sonic repellers will not work effectively on birds anyway: almost all mammals, including humans, can hear at vastly higher frequencies than birds can. The sonic repellers work by screaming at frequencies higher than (it is assumed) most humans can hear. (Humans can usually hear up to about 20kHz.) That makes a certain amount of sense for rats and mice, who can and do communicate in the ultrasonic range that humans can't pick up; it makes zero sense for a bird whose auditory range tops out at 6kHz if you're lucky and is much more sensitive around 1kHz. You are actually more likely to annoy your neighbors using one of those things than so much as ruffle a pigeon's little feather. (Those things will also not annoy reptiles or most insects, for similar reasons: again, mammals are actually unusual in our ability to pick up high frequencies. Cats and dogs are attuned to a higher range than humans, but that's partly about finding prey. Speaking of, those things are great for pissing off cats, so personally I would be worrying if your neighbors have any indoor cats that might be driven up the wall by it...)
The thing about unwanted pigeon nesting is that they're feral birds and there's a limited supply of comfortable, safe places for them to nest in that don't run the risk of getting eaten or disturbed. Birds, as with all animals, are bright and they learn: most of the non-aversive deterrants are things a bird can get used to easily, and so over time some individuals will learn that if they just ignore the shiny lights or the toy owl or the pigeon spikes or the recorded predator calls, they have awesome access to a nesting site with no competition in it. Win! So to really keep pigeons off the balcony, you have to either make it really unpleasant to stay there (in some way that can't easily be ignored with a little learning) or totally block access to the balcony itself. If pigeon netting is not an option, that means routinely using the space and harassing any pigeons you find, multiple times a day, until they leave. If there are eggs or nests, evict them immediately.
I have netted off previous rented apartment buildings by hanging pigeon netting from small hooks which actually worked pretty well, but I had the advantage of having a partially enclosed balcony and also cats inside of the netted-off balcony to deter pigeon intrusion. The hooks were mostly already there, having been intended for hanging plants. If you are allowed to hang plants, you can probably install pigeon netting--especially because on the fifth floor, yours will probably be invisible from ground level.
Pigeon coos are also often pretty loud. If you do successfully deter them, are they nesting on your neighbors' balconies? Will that fix the sound problem? You don't need an answer to that off the bat, but it occurs to me as something that might shape how much effort I was willing to allocate to pigeon warfare.
posted by sciatrix at 9:32 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
That said, sonic repellers will not work effectively on birds anyway: almost all mammals, including humans, can hear at vastly higher frequencies than birds can. The sonic repellers work by screaming at frequencies higher than (it is assumed) most humans can hear. (Humans can usually hear up to about 20kHz.) That makes a certain amount of sense for rats and mice, who can and do communicate in the ultrasonic range that humans can't pick up; it makes zero sense for a bird whose auditory range tops out at 6kHz if you're lucky and is much more sensitive around 1kHz. You are actually more likely to annoy your neighbors using one of those things than so much as ruffle a pigeon's little feather. (Those things will also not annoy reptiles or most insects, for similar reasons: again, mammals are actually unusual in our ability to pick up high frequencies. Cats and dogs are attuned to a higher range than humans, but that's partly about finding prey. Speaking of, those things are great for pissing off cats, so personally I would be worrying if your neighbors have any indoor cats that might be driven up the wall by it...)
The thing about unwanted pigeon nesting is that they're feral birds and there's a limited supply of comfortable, safe places for them to nest in that don't run the risk of getting eaten or disturbed. Birds, as with all animals, are bright and they learn: most of the non-aversive deterrants are things a bird can get used to easily, and so over time some individuals will learn that if they just ignore the shiny lights or the toy owl or the pigeon spikes or the recorded predator calls, they have awesome access to a nesting site with no competition in it. Win! So to really keep pigeons off the balcony, you have to either make it really unpleasant to stay there (in some way that can't easily be ignored with a little learning) or totally block access to the balcony itself. If pigeon netting is not an option, that means routinely using the space and harassing any pigeons you find, multiple times a day, until they leave. If there are eggs or nests, evict them immediately.
I have netted off previous rented apartment buildings by hanging pigeon netting from small hooks which actually worked pretty well, but I had the advantage of having a partially enclosed balcony and also cats inside of the netted-off balcony to deter pigeon intrusion. The hooks were mostly already there, having been intended for hanging plants. If you are allowed to hang plants, you can probably install pigeon netting--especially because on the fifth floor, yours will probably be invisible from ground level.
Pigeon coos are also often pretty loud. If you do successfully deter them, are they nesting on your neighbors' balconies? Will that fix the sound problem? You don't need an answer to that off the bat, but it occurs to me as something that might shape how much effort I was willing to allocate to pigeon warfare.
posted by sciatrix at 9:32 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Would it make more sense to focus on the sonic part of your problem, rather than the actual fact of the pigeons? For a bunch of reasons explained upthread, permanent deterrents are going to be really tricky to manage. I'm assuming the birds don't bother you when you're actually out on the balcony, so is the problem just when you're NOT on the balcony? Is there a solid door to the balcony that you can close, and then install soundproofing on/around? There are a ton of cheap, semi-permanent soundproofing options for doors, and they're so much easier to buy and install than pigeon spikes/netting/whatever that it might make sense to start there.
posted by Mayor West at 10:20 AM on October 26, 2022
posted by Mayor West at 10:20 AM on October 26, 2022
A fake owl will usually work, but only for a while before the pigeons get wise. They're pretty easy to find in hardware stores and the $15-ish cost might be worth it as an intermediary step while you come up with a longer term plan.
So like, no: it won't work forever. But it's cheap, and it will work for now, starting today. Which isn't nothing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:43 AM on October 26, 2022
So like, no: it won't work forever. But it's cheap, and it will work for now, starting today. Which isn't nothing.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:43 AM on October 26, 2022
It didn't 100% work, but in a similar situation I used some cayenne pepper dissolved in vinegar to make a sort of paste that I put on the edge of my balcony.
posted by Superilla at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2022
posted by Superilla at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2022
Try sprinkling baking soda on flat surfaces where you/your family walk (put a doormat inside your home, in front of the balcony access), and slicking petroleum jelly anywhere the pigeons are trying to perch and make nests (ledges, crevices). Seconding box fans (outward-blowing).
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2022
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:30 PM on October 26, 2022
Oh man.... I feel your pain. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I also live in Toronto and have struggled with pigeons on my balcony for the past decade. Here is a list of things that I've tried that have either been completely useless, or only worked for ~24 hours:
fake owl
vinegar spray
cayenne pepper
aluminum foil
reflective tape that is supposed to scare birds
assorted statues to take up 90% of the space on the balcony
stuffed bear pressed up against the window to watch for birds
opening the window and screaming every time I hear a pigeon
The ONLY thing that has worked has been pigeon spikes, placed in several rows very close together so that there is not enough space for a pigeon to comfortably squeeze itself between any spikes.
At one point I had used the Bird-X plastic spikes from Home Depot, and they succeeded for about a year; but at a certain point one of the pieces came loose, and a pigeon found a corner in which to build a nest. Most recently, I've used a set of metal spikes I found on Amazon. Although they come with an adhesive, you can use Alien Tape to stick them to the balcony - it's much easier. Knock on wood, these seem to have finally kept them away.
Good luck.
posted by barnoley at 7:53 PM on October 26, 2022
The ONLY thing that has worked has been pigeon spikes, placed in several rows very close together so that there is not enough space for a pigeon to comfortably squeeze itself between any spikes.
At one point I had used the Bird-X plastic spikes from Home Depot, and they succeeded for about a year; but at a certain point one of the pieces came loose, and a pigeon found a corner in which to build a nest. Most recently, I've used a set of metal spikes I found on Amazon. Although they come with an adhesive, you can use Alien Tape to stick them to the balcony - it's much easier. Knock on wood, these seem to have finally kept them away.
Good luck.
posted by barnoley at 7:53 PM on October 26, 2022
Could you contact a raptor rehabilitation charity and ask if, in exchange for a generous donation, they would be willing to take a supervised hawk out onto the balcony?
Not to actually hurt the pigeons, just to make them feel that the balcony is not a safe environment to hang out
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 1:56 AM on October 27, 2022
Not to actually hurt the pigeons, just to make them feel that the balcony is not a safe environment to hang out
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 1:56 AM on October 27, 2022
If you go for a fake owl, you can extend its lifespan by moving it around the balcony from time to time.
posted by Jilder at 8:06 PM on October 27, 2022
posted by Jilder at 8:06 PM on October 27, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by clockwork at 6:34 AM on October 26, 2022 [5 favorites]