Warehouses & Loading Docks: Safe Havens for Cold Birds

When temperatures drop, pigeons, sparrows, starlings, and other pest birds flock to warehouses, loading docks, parking garages, and other spacious buildings to hunker down and survive the winter. The structures’ roofs provide shelter and relative warmth, and their many beams, ledges, lights, and pipes look, to birds, like the perfect place to perch.

When birds congregate in these buildings to wait out the cold, they can quickly become a nuisance to workers, pedestrians, and building managers.

Why Birds & Building Interiors Shouldn’t Mix

Perching birds leave trails of droppings – and unsightly messes – in their wake. Droppings run down beams, walls, and windows, and eventually accumulate on the ground.

But bird waste isn’t just an aesthetic issue, it’s a public health risk as well. Bird droppings can harbor diseases including salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and bird flu. And, when waste pools in high traffic areas, people may slip and fall.

How to Keep Birds Out

Luckily, there are proven-effective ways to evict birds from buildings – and keep them out for good. Four of the most common solutions include:

Netting

Netting is a versatile exclusion tool that completely blocks off access to structures that birds commonly perch on. Netting is custom fit to problem areas and denies birds the protection and safety they’re used to, forcing them to seek shelter elsewhere.

Bird Spikes

Bird spikes are more of a visual deterrent than a physical one, but are effective, nonetheless. Instead of making direct contact with birds, the spikes merely occupy the spaces birds would normally perch on. When birds try to land on a ledge and the surface is fitted with spikes, they are forced to fly away.

Netting keeps birds from perching on pipes, beams, lights, and more

Bird spikes occupy the structures birds typically perch on

Custom Metal Exclusions

Metal exclusions are slanted pieces of metal installed on ledges and narrow, flat surfaces where birds tend to perch. The angle of the metal makes it impossible for birds to land and rest comfortably, so they must travel on.

Lasers

Lasers, and automatic lasers, in particular, can effectively deter birds from nesting and perching inside structures. Birds perceive laser beams as threats and will avoid any space where beams sweep. Automatic lasers sweep targeted areas continuously and in random patters that birds cannot habituate to. They eventually learn to avoid the area altogether.

Your Partner in Bird Control

It is always easiest to deter birds before they settle in. With cooler temperatures on the horizon, the time to act is now – especially if your warehouse, loading dock, or parking garage has struggled to control birds in the past.

With over 25 years of experience evicting nuisance birds from industrial sites, warehouses, office buildings, and more, the Wild Goose Chase team can help you devise the right bird control solution for your needs.

For more information, or to schedule a site evaluation, contact us today.

Contact us to learn about bird control solutions