Cheap Seagull Deterrents

[rideforever]

We have a 10 pot stack here and I am wondering what the best thing to do is.

The muck from the seagulls up there is ending up blocking guttering and causing a hell of lot of stress and money. I just pulled out about 5kg of straw and bird crud from between the stacks, they had quite a luxury bed setup there.

We have a quote for £400 for a cage over them.

I don't believe the owls work personally.

I wonder if I got a roll of steel mesh and laid it between the 2 rows of pots along the whole length, and secured it ..

Would that work? They wouldn't be able to nest on that roll, too curved.

They nest between the stacks because we are on the coast here and it can be windy.

And if they nested in the side areas, well when the chicks hatched they would fall straight off the stack, there would be zero access.

Would the seagulls then bugger off ?

What do you think.

It would cheap, simple, easy to tie to the pots. Wouldnt block any access, easy to remove.

 

[ree]

I have no experience here but i've noticed moving(bobbing heads etc) fake scare predators on roofs and in gardens - hopefully others will have had practical experience of fake scarers.

 

[terrypin]

About ten years ago I worked on the south coast and was having a chat with an old guy with an old boat in the harbour, he was trying to clean the carp off his boat.

He told me of the problem boat owners have with seagulls and he/they had tried every trick in the book, failing every time.

I am not sure there is a deterrent they won't overcome.

 

[rideforever]

The only things that work IMO are hard game changers, if you put a steel cage on the stacks - that certainly works - but costs money.

But also perhaps if you made the area so inconvenient and dangerous for the young that the parents would prefer somewhere else.

What I am thinking is 2 long galvanized mesh rolls, one on top of the other, laid between the 2 rows of pots.

Tied simply to the pots.

The only access would be to fly in from the side awkwardly, and you would have no wind shelter, only about 6" square to stand on with a steep drop off. Not a great place to make a nest.

I do like the seagulls actually but their nests ends up in the gutter and causing damp problems.

Besides, the neighbours have got a flash house with a gigantic chimney stack. This seagull couple pretty much rule the area, they own (in the seagull economy) both my stack and the neighbours' is their second home !!!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I live bang on the coast and seagulls here are terrible so I feel your pain, IMHO a physical barrier is the only really effective solution, the owls definitely do not work. You can get anti fire fire gel which apparently works well and whilst they're supposed to last a 2 years or so they do need to be replaced after they lose heir effectiveness so they have an an ongoing cost. I considered rigging up a cage above a flat roof, when you really start looking into it you realise it can actually get quite expensive just in parts. In the end I resorted to just going up every couple of days or so in the nesting season and removing the beginnings of their nests and to be fair it worked for me as they soon got the message but not sure if your problem is just them nesting up there or perching too.

 

[terrypin]

Get a catapult and fire bird seed or whatever on your neighbours roof every night for a few weeks that should get them in a routine and hopefully move your problem

 

[rideforever]

Get a catapult and fire bird seed or whatever on your neighbours roof every night for a few weeks that should get them in a routine and hopefully move your problem

I do, I have some dried peas here that make good ammo. Got pretty good too, 75% hit rate at 5 metres !!!

 

[rideforever]

Here are some photos of what I did (meshdirect GBP 42 for materials)

View media item 82939 View media item 82940 View media item 82941 View media item 82942 View media item 82943

 

[bobby spray]

high speed lead through the eye socket is the only permanent remedy.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

high speed lead through the eye socket is the only permanent remedy.

Not really, there are millions of seagulls to fill its place.

 

[gregers]

get a dead 1 and hang it from 1 of the pots.

i kid you not at work 1 got tangled up between 2 pots and couldnt get free,we all noticed that the playing field and surrounding grassland was not only seagull free but pigeon free aswell.
after about 2 weeks the fire brigade turned up and used this as training session to remove slightly rigamortised seagull using there turntable.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Why is then that when one of the chicks (I say chicks it was pretty much fully grown) died outside our bathroom window the seagull population remained as they were and couldn't give a toss? And the thing stank to high heaven.

 

[gregers]

absolutely no idea m8,but as the coast is only a stones throw away we all couldnt believe it ourselves,maybe it was the way the bird was hanging upside down swinging in the breeze have anything to do with it?