Pest Control .co.uk

Two companies have decided to use very traditional pest control solutions to deal with their pigeon problems.  In Newbury, a car company wants them kept away from their car park, while in the East Midlands airports want pigeons and other birds out of the airways so that the way is clear for planes to land at the airports.  The answer that both have come to is hawks.

A hawk, patrolling the skies above a car park in Newbury

Although actually the skies in East Midlands will be kept free of real birds, for the mechanical birds, by an eagle owl (called Elliot) who will help to keep pigeons as well as all other kinds of birds grounded.  Our title question is of course not entirely serious, but you might be wondering why sending another bird into the environment is going to keep the air free of birds.  After all, it can’t be everywhere at once.

The answer to this can be seen more clearly on a smaller scale.  With the car park in Newbury, that is exactly what we have.  Pigeons perching in trees overhanging the car park, you can imagine the mess that is often made on the cars, not to mention the walkways.  You can see why they would want to get rid of them.  Pigeons are difficult to deal with, however, because they operate over such a wide expanse.  Usually the best pest control technique is to control the environment so that favourable conditions do not arise.  When it is a public space, however, that is very difficult.  You can’t really prevent scraps of food being dropped places.  You also can’t get rid of places to perch.  One way you can control the environment though, is not by taking favourable things away, but by adding unfavourable elements.   That’s right, this is where the hawk comes in.

Now, to illustrate the somewhat counter-intuitive point that was being made about how the addition of an owl can keep airways clear of birds when it can’t get all of them, it is quite obvious that fear is going to be a factor.  The hawk patrolling the car park is not going to kill all the pigeons.  But it might get a couple, or at least chase them.  Now, are they going to stay perching in the car park, or go next door or into the woods?  They’re going to leave, most likely.  Of course one owl is not going to get all the birds to leave the East Midlands, which would of course not be a good thing anyway.  But by having it operate close to the airports, birds will become more cautious around the airport.  Perhaps air traffic control will have one eagle owl to navigate around rather than a multitude of other birds.

When it comes to pest control, natural methods are often the best.  Controlling the environment is the way to keep anything in or out of it.  Of course when a problem becomes severe, chemical or other extreme methods of pest control become necessary.  The problem will quickly return if the environment is still ripe for it however.  In most cases this means maintaining high standards of cleanliness, however when that is not possible or effective, introducing predators is also a good way to deal with a pest problem.

Tags: airspace, car park, hawks, natural pest control, owls, pest control, pest control news, pigeons, predators

Written by Paul Simmons

Paul has been working in the pest control field for 6 years and enjoys writing about contemporary events relating to pest problems and solutions in the UK