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help with pigeons!!
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Posted by Claudia_Akers z7 VA (My Page) on Mon, Jul 14, 03 at 12:34
| I had several beautiful petunia hanging baskets and window boxes on my balcony. Unfortunately, I have been battling pigeons all spring/ and summer. They have taken a liking to my hanging baskets and are intent on destroying my flowers. I have tried hanging a "decoy" (empty) basket for them to nest in, but they seem to only want the ones with flowers in them. I am getting desperate as I am now down to only one surviving hanging basket, and it would break my heart to see that one die, as well. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of the pigeons?
Thank you!!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| I thought I would see if I could find something for your problem and I thought this idea would be good. When you get to the page, just scroll down near the bottom. Good Luck! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Pigeons in My Garden
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| I was in a hardware store and saw this contraption with little plastic spikes sticking up. It was sold in 1 foot lengths and designed for us city dwellers who have pidgeons hanging out on the windowsills, it prevents them from being able to roost on the sill (they don't have any where to put their feet I guess). Perhaps check out a hardware store for something like this and see if you can put it around where your baskets are hanging so the birds have no where to land? A few apartments ago I had that problem - I had a window right by my bed and the cooing and flapping would wake me up. (I would scream and bang on the window). |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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Hello
you could try to build a "fort" by sticking wooden skewers (like oversized tooth picks) into the pots. The remaining ends should be at least 4 better 6 inches long, and you should arange those skewers so close that a bird cant land between them. This technic guarded tiny seedlings against pigeons on my balcony in Berlin. And I would avoid to offer them any kind of "housing" like an empty basket. If you're frequently on your balcony you can try to anoy them permanently by squirting water jets at them. Good luck |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| My mother and her boyfriend enjoy nailing 'em with water pistols! Requires persistance but they learn not to go to that balcony after awhile :-p |
RE: More help with pigeons!!
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| Balcony gardening is wonderful, but there is a tremedous problem with pidgeons. A plethora of toothpicks detract from the beauty of the plants, although they work. Please, does anyone know a deterent that works. The biggest suggestion is mothballs, but they don't work. One person had a pidgeon nesting on a mothball and trying to hatch it. They are dirty, horrible creatures and once they've taken up residence you have them forever. |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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- Posted by PVick z6B NYC (My Page) on
Sun, May 30, 04 at 14:26
| I'm in a constant battle with them. Have tried shiny streamers, plastic windmills, owl figures of all kinds, anything that would shimmy and shake in the wind, vaseline on the railings - nothing works. I'd like to try the plastic spikes, but it would cost a small fortune to put them out there - they'd have to be on top of the railing as well as on the ledge at the bottom of the baclony. My biggest problem with them (two in particular) is that they are forever trying to make babies on my terrace. Four eggs already this spring (picked up and destroyed, so now I can feel like a murderer). This particular couple has been around for years and I simply cannot get rid of them! My garden this year looks like crap, what with all the various protections I've got over my pots to give the plants a chance to grow - aside from pigeons, this year I got a ton of those pesky little starlings eating my plants. The bamboo skewers in the pots were pretty effective against the pigeons, but those starlings just swooped into the pot from the top and ripped up/out quite s few small plants. A BB gun might work - but I don't want to kill or injure them, just keep them away from my terrace. Sigh. PV |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| How ironic that this thread was dug up from last year. A couple days ago, I noticed 1 coming back and forth to my balcony and I have a feeling it was one of the babies that had hatched here a couple years ago. It (I'm thinking it was a she), as I found out yesterday, was gathering nesting material (as if I were some hi-rise version of Home Depot), and flying off with it. Well... I guess the fact that she was flying off with it to somewhere else meant the nest wasn't being built here. As it was, earlier this year I had to chase two off who were about to mate out there and they haven't returned. |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| I think i will try this toothpick (skewer) thing. we have pigeons (not as bad as the last place) but we have a small forest across in the back, so i have caught them three times on the balcony. Not to mention it torments my cats to see such a lovely prey that they can't have, I have worried about them messing with my seedlings. As it is we have had such a horrible spring that I don't want to loose any more to dumb birds. I would do the BB Guns (also for the stupid crows...who knew that the crows have now settled in Munich?) but I think that is against the law here and would just reconfirm German opinions of Americans running around shooting things... Cheers,
tasha |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| Haven't tried the BB gun but sounds like it might scare them away. Have you tried aluminum foil yet? I tried stakes (of various materials), and a variety of other things, but nothing worked. They kept coming back and laying eggs and in the process destroying my plants. Then someone suggested aluminum foil... a long sheet of it, and attaching it to the hanging baskets, or a tall stake in one of the pots (like a flag). Apparently, the noise of the foil scares them away. Anyway, amazingly, I have not had any pigeon nesting problems this year!! (knock on wood). They still lurk and hover... but have not tried to nest. They did eat all my windowbox sweetpeas while they were still seedlings (a loss that I still haven't gotten over) but other than that, problem free. Good luck... I really hope this works for you all! |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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- Posted by Cena S CA 10A (My Page) on
Wed, Jun 2, 04 at 3:30
| I know they will flock to any source of food. If your cats have food out there, it is only a further attractant for them to nest, build, stay for the rest of their lives. I was so startled coming home early from work one day. There was a whole flock out there, clearing up the rest of the cat food. I kept wondering why my cats weren't putting on weight with all the food they were putting away? Pigeons are the Lord's stupidest animals anyway. Why, oh why, would any one raise them??? Well, I guess I can ask my mother when she gets here in two weeks. She RAISES pigeons, doves, chickens, quail, geese. It might be a Bird Thing, but PIGEONS!???? |
RE: help with pigeons!!
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| this might work for you... Tanglefoot Bird Repellent
Non-drying compound. Adheres to all surfaces and retains soft, sticky elasticity. Repels birds for period exceeding a year under average conditions. Completely non-poisonous. Used according to directions won't injure birds. Birds will not roost where applied. Roosting places, window sills, ridge lines of roofs, gutter edges, top of signs, ornamental copings, cornices and ledges. Contains no toxic chemicals. 10 oz. caulking gun cartridge. Fits any standard caulking gun. good luck! |
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