Simple Property Modifications That'll Keep Pigeons Away

There are three very important facts that you'll need to know about pigeons before you decide on a course of removal action.

Firstly — these birds have the best memory. They will remember where your house is (their roost), and even if you were to manage to get rid of them for a brief period of time, without sealing that building up, those birds are free to come back the next year, and for many years after that.

Secondly -- pigeons will roost close to a source of food, so by taking away that source of food, you will also be taking away one of the main attractants of your property.

Thirdly -- you can't trap and release pigeons. They migrate and travel for hundreds and thousands of miles per day. You couldn't release the bird(s) far enough away that they wouldn't come back (probably before you even made it home) to cause problems again.

When you take all of this into consideration, you're left with one very simple solution. In order to get rid of pigeons, you must take away what they need to survive on your property.

Food sources are relatively easy to start with. Bird feeders should be removed and taken inside for a while until the pigeon problem has gone away. Garbage bags shouldn't be left strewn all over the back yard, and where possible, should be kept either inside where birds can't get to them, or within a metal garbage can that can't be knocked over by passing scavengers.

Taking care of the garden itself can be tough, especially if you have a vegetable patch or fruit trees. These can serve as food for pigeons and are much harder to protect than other areas of the back yard. In order to solve this part of the problem, it makes sense to look at the simple property modifications you can put in place to make life 'difficult' for the pigeons.

You'll soon see where the birds like to sit. They like an up-high vantage point, letting them see all the food or potential food sources in the local area. IF this high vantage point is right on top of your roof or on your TV aerial, bird spike strips could be installed in less than a few hours. Bird spike strips are humane strips of spikes (like the name suggests, really) that stop the birds from landing there at all. When they can't land there, they can't roost there. They'll need to find another place.

There are some areas that bird spike strips won't help, and that's awkward nooks and crannies that don't have a flat enough surface to mount the strips on. Wire-lines can be used in these instances, and you could also look at bird netting if you had a larger surface area to cover. There are actually quite a few simple property modifications you could make in the space of a weekend that will prevent your home from becoming the centre attraction of a mass pigeon party.

Above all else, of course, you must make sure that the pigeons are unable to get inside your property. The attic offers up a perfect roosting spot for these birds, and because the attic isn't really that visited by the members of your household, wild animals can live up there quite happily for sometime before you try and turf them out. Having a good memory means that even when you scare them all out of the roost and use repellents to stop them from enjoying their time there, they'll come back as soon as those repellents are no longer being used or are no longer effective. If you didn't use the repellents the following year, for example, the pigeons would be back. If you haven't sealed up your property, they'll get in, in no time at all.