how to get rid of birds?

Gman

Gman

New Member
Oct 15, 2006
42
Austin, Texas
I have been told by my neighbors in our new marina that the birds in the spring will be really bad. That all the boats will be covered in droppings. These birds are supposedly particularly pesky. People have tried the plastic owls and that has not worked.

Do you have problems with birds in your area? What works to get rid of them?
 
I was noticing yesterday that the rag boat next to me was supposed to be red, or something, but it was bird-dropping white. I was hoping that his perch would be more attractive to the birds than mine.
 
Its wierd how some boats get bombed and some dont. I've seen the owls, big blow up "eyes" toy rubber snakes, distractions at the piling tops are a must(cone) cable tie arrangements) I watched a heron try to walk into the back of my boat. :smt021
 
It's probably not a battle work fighting, but you can try either those plastic owls placed close to your boat, or buy a couple of the rubber snakes and hang them from the metal framing. There are also noisy gadgets, but their annoying as heck!
 
As the owner of one crazy parrot, I will tell you birds are VERY intelligent. Very intelligent. They will not be fooled by anything that is plastic and doesn't move.

However, balloons or anything that flies in the air scare him to death so IMHO the only things to deter birds that may even have a chance of working would be things that move and fly around your boat like certain banners I see in my marina.

That being said, once the birds get used to them I would bet that doesn't work much at all. One of our marina mates told us that the only thing that works is to be moored next to sailboats and the birds hang out on those boats instead of yours!

Good luck!
 
Get rid of their food supply--spiders and keep the dock clean so they don't look at the area as a roosting area. They go away if there is nothing to eat. We spray our dock with bug sprays for fruit trees about twice a year and have no insects of any kind. Sea gulls respond to BB guns. You don't wound them but they are smart enough not to come back after being hit. Again a clean dock and no food helps.
 
Sparrows are a problem in my neck of the woods. They come by the hundreds and love to perch on the crossbar of the crossbar under the marina slip cover and fertilize the boats. I hung big windsock from the crossbar and that was enough to scare them away. It doubles as a tool for a quick wind check before we head out.
 
Sparrows like to eat spiders.
 
Yes spiders are a problem where we are but the marina is pretty good about spraying for them. When we put up the sock and the birds stayed away I didn't see any noticable increase in the bugs.
 
You can easily augment the marina spraying and it only takes 5 minutes. Garden stores sell sprays that connect to garden hoses. This type of sprayer has a range of 15-20 feet. Before washing your boat, spray the dock above and below and any overhead structures such as a sun screen or roof support. We use "Bug b Gone" which is for small insects including spiders, etc. It's rare that we see any bugs on our dock. The birds go next store where the owner does not spray.
 
We have a spider problem on Lake Michigan also.
Spoke with an exterminator last year and the only real known product to repel spiders is Borax Soap as in Twenty Mule Team
Sprinkle some on your carpets and work in, helps with odors also, then just vacuum up. We were also told to soak our dock lines in a soapy solution and then just let dry (keeps them varmits from coming aboard.
Something about they cannot digest the dust formula.
Worked great for us and alot of our dockmates last season.
 
We spray our dock lines with insecticide and the boat lockers and areas under the gunnels also get sprayed (with Home Defense). This comes in a small spray bottle and kills spiders on contact for the entire boating season. When crusing we spray it on transient docks if the marina has a bug problem.
 
SBW1 is right. Get rid of the food and the birds will go somewhere else. We use a cheap insect killer and not only spray our dock but the docks on all sides. We have swallows here and keeping them off of our bow rails is an issue. They also eat berries and they stain the white non skid. After every major rain, I spray the dock and the dock lines. I also spray the power station.

This process seems to work but it is not perfect.
 
I have a big time bird problem with these Purple Martins here in Virginia. My neighbor has these big bird condos on her dock and hundreds of these things live there in the spring/summer and then come over and rest on my rails during the day. The good news is that they eat their weight in mosquitos every day but the bad news is that they crap their weight in mosquitos minus some epsilon of energy they extract.... and it is on my boat. They also perch and crap on plastic owls and snakes... in fact... they perch and crap on anything that doesn't move for 5 minutes. If my dog fell asleep on the dock, I'm sure they would poop on it.

I did the 12 guage thing... made the neighbor very mad... didn't do that again.

The marina I go to in the winter ties up used CD's on string and dangles them on the rails of things and that seems to work. Have not tried that with the Poopin Martins yet and this year my boat will be IN THE BAHAMAS when they return so screw em.
 
Four Suns said:
I have a big time bird problem with these Purple Martins here in Virginia. My neighbor has these big bird condos on her dock and hundreds of these things live there in the spring/summer and then come over and rest on my rails during the day..
Click to expand...

Sounds like a late night mission with a hand saw :grin:
 
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