I live on the top floor of a moderate high-rise apartment just for the sake of avoiding pests. To me, a ground floor apartment equals easy access to cockroaches, rats, and even the occasional snake or monkey!
That said, I am still being haunted by another category of pests – the feathered variety. Pigeons to be more precise.
It all started a couple of months back when a pair of pigeons took refuge in our balcony from the pouring rains. At the time, I hadn’t the heart to drive them out in the rain, and it appears that I am now paying for my foolishness. They have accepted my strictly temporary invitation and now made the balcony their home + lavatory. Gross, I know!
The mother-in-law suggested that tying a black cloth on the railing would scare away the birds. I tried it, and well…all I can say is that my belief in one more old wives’ tale goes down the drain.
The only thing that works so far is letting the snubnose loose in the balcony while she acts like a human pigeon-crow. She loves the task no doubt, and she is pretty effective – making tons of noise going up and down in her tricyle, but of course, this is just a temporary measure :(.
Last night was the final straw. The husband went to the balcony in the dark only to surprise the pigeons who were fast asleep sitting on his pajamas drying on the clothes-line. I don’t know who got a bigger scare – him or the pigeons!
Correction, they came back to roost almost immediately after he came indoors, so I doubt he scared them at all!
Now, he is extremely angry, and I know I can’t waffle over this pigeon issue any longer. The thing is…I have absolutely no idea what to do.
Opening up the comments for suggestions. I am pretty desperate here, and am willing to try out anything (only as long as it is non-violent) thank you!
Resolving PIGEON MENACE Aesthetically : The Only Durable Solution
http://www.zeegreen.com/BPN.jpg
http://www.zeegreen.com/BPN1.jpg
provide a permanent place of your convenience–as you can beat them let them join you–they are too inspiring.
It seems pigeons are inspiring a lot of bloggers. Even I wrote a post on the pigeon menace a few months back.
How about training them and starting your very own P-Mail?
@Purba: Will definitely have to check out your post. Thanks for visiting and commenting 🙂
They need a ‘Home’, your home. You can just sing the song- ‘Kabootar ja…ja…ja!
thanks
How about putting up a mesh door (window) on the balcony? I had the same problem in the house I lived in earlier, the amounts the pigeons shat had to be seen to be believed.
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Hi Nish, I thought your balcony was virtually free of pigeons and other birds. We have pigeons, crows and even squirrels coming in and we keep the drawing room doors closed permanently otherwise the squirrels will be making mincemeat of our collection of books. A black cloth is of no use and, if you ask me, you need to shoo them away every now and then and after some time they might even forget your balcony.
The “wikihow” always helps! 😛
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Pigeons
We suffer from the same problem ; what has worked for me with different degrees of success : 1) Tie a balloon to the railing ; cover it with a clock; or draw eyes /nose etc on it; it worked in my case.
2) The more difficult option is to keep shooing them away at regular intervals; they usually forget about about the resting place in a couple of days