- Joined
- Dec 28, 2003
- Messages
- 4,793
Just thought I'd share a kind of puzzling / funny thing that happened in my neighborhood. (I know my life is raw excitement, but this was kinda interesting from a people point of view. Sorry, it's late and so I was a bit long-winded.)
Many, many of the homes where I live are infested with pigeons. I'm talking serious flying rat colonies. Some home peaks and walkways and gutters are literally coated with poop, as are any cars in the driveways. Well, my neighbor got a nesting pair, and tried shooing them off with no luck. Then he hosed them down and they took off, but were soon back in a couple of hours. They built a pretty substantial nest under one set of eaves and settled in to raise a family. He wasn't interested in my advice, so I just sat back and watched.
His next move was to pay a guy to come out and glue up several dozen plastic spiky things that theoretically are supposed to prevent the pigeons from alighting. The guy was up there for a couple of hours, but this didn't work because these pigeons would just land on the main roof and walk down to the rain gutter, and then along the gutter out of sight until they got to their nest.
Next, he paid someone else to put up a 20' extension ladder, and tack chicken wire all along their access routes. Trouble, is, they're tile roofs, so most of the wire was bent in place and not nailed down. This worked pretty well for a few days, until the pigeons just pulled and pulled and tore a hole they could get through, and then from the inside pretty much removed the rest.
At this point my neighbor gave up for a while, and in the next few weeks he acquired a dozen or more birds, with several more setting up nests. His front yard and walkway look like one of those guano islands and he's washing his black car every other day.
Finally, after a few more weeks of frustration, he hires an exterminator (on top of all his other expenses), and baits everything, and wipes out a ton of the birds. I'm not sure how legal this is, but several of the businesses around here have done it, so I guess it's OK if done by a licensed exterminator. There are pigeons in various states of dying laying everywhere, and it takes him several days to get his house and gutters scrubbed clean and repainted. I would estimate his total cost for this ordeal was at least $500.
The next week, I get a nesting pair in the same spot on my eaves. I tried hosing them off several times that day with a jet nozzle and blasting away at their nest, but they kept coming back. On day 2 I go outside with my old trusty 5mm Sheridan Blue Streak pellet rifle, and shoot one of the pigeons. The other one takes off for parts unknown, never to return. Total cost, .01 cent for the pellet. I pick up the body, and while I'm hosing down the sidewalk where Mr. Pigeon made his final landing, my neighbor's wife comes out. "How inhumane!" "Did you have to kill that poor bird?" "Is that a rifle?" "Should you even be shooting that in the city limits?" !!! I half suspect she is going to call the cops. She seems horrified at the very sight of my beat up pellet rifle, and the idea that one of HER neighbors would even own such a thing.
When I point out to her that she and her husband just wiped out a whole pigeon city, I get "That's different!"
So who's the murderer? I guess we both are. What I think irritates the hell out of my neighbor and his dim-wit wife, is that I gave the birds a couple of chances and then acted, whereas they dawdled and hesitated and put up with it and did various half-assed measures until finally they had no choice but to act and in a major and expensive way. This is the same guy who says "if you can get to a gun, you can get to a phone", and is betting the lives of his wife and children on 911 sending police to his house in time, and brags that he would never keep a gun for defense.
I just shake my head and laugh; they are both highly paid "educators", and already had a pretty high opinion of themselves, and I suspect a fairly low one of me, but now I'm an inhumane murderer to boot!
They're kind of like folks who order their BBQ meat by the side for their freezer, but think that deer hunting is imhumane. Whatever, I can deal with it, especially as I'm ahead $499.99! AND as an added benefit, since this happened their cat doesn't crap at will in my yard anymore! I guess mama's afraid I'll add him to my trophy wall, now that she knows what kind of person I am! 
Regards,
Norm
Many, many of the homes where I live are infested with pigeons. I'm talking serious flying rat colonies. Some home peaks and walkways and gutters are literally coated with poop, as are any cars in the driveways. Well, my neighbor got a nesting pair, and tried shooing them off with no luck. Then he hosed them down and they took off, but were soon back in a couple of hours. They built a pretty substantial nest under one set of eaves and settled in to raise a family. He wasn't interested in my advice, so I just sat back and watched.
His next move was to pay a guy to come out and glue up several dozen plastic spiky things that theoretically are supposed to prevent the pigeons from alighting. The guy was up there for a couple of hours, but this didn't work because these pigeons would just land on the main roof and walk down to the rain gutter, and then along the gutter out of sight until they got to their nest.
Next, he paid someone else to put up a 20' extension ladder, and tack chicken wire all along their access routes. Trouble, is, they're tile roofs, so most of the wire was bent in place and not nailed down. This worked pretty well for a few days, until the pigeons just pulled and pulled and tore a hole they could get through, and then from the inside pretty much removed the rest.
At this point my neighbor gave up for a while, and in the next few weeks he acquired a dozen or more birds, with several more setting up nests. His front yard and walkway look like one of those guano islands and he's washing his black car every other day.
Finally, after a few more weeks of frustration, he hires an exterminator (on top of all his other expenses), and baits everything, and wipes out a ton of the birds. I'm not sure how legal this is, but several of the businesses around here have done it, so I guess it's OK if done by a licensed exterminator. There are pigeons in various states of dying laying everywhere, and it takes him several days to get his house and gutters scrubbed clean and repainted. I would estimate his total cost for this ordeal was at least $500.
The next week, I get a nesting pair in the same spot on my eaves. I tried hosing them off several times that day with a jet nozzle and blasting away at their nest, but they kept coming back. On day 2 I go outside with my old trusty 5mm Sheridan Blue Streak pellet rifle, and shoot one of the pigeons. The other one takes off for parts unknown, never to return. Total cost, .01 cent for the pellet. I pick up the body, and while I'm hosing down the sidewalk where Mr. Pigeon made his final landing, my neighbor's wife comes out. "How inhumane!" "Did you have to kill that poor bird?" "Is that a rifle?" "Should you even be shooting that in the city limits?" !!! I half suspect she is going to call the cops. She seems horrified at the very sight of my beat up pellet rifle, and the idea that one of HER neighbors would even own such a thing.
When I point out to her that she and her husband just wiped out a whole pigeon city, I get "That's different!"
So who's the murderer? I guess we both are. What I think irritates the hell out of my neighbor and his dim-wit wife, is that I gave the birds a couple of chances and then acted, whereas they dawdled and hesitated and put up with it and did various half-assed measures until finally they had no choice but to act and in a major and expensive way. This is the same guy who says "if you can get to a gun, you can get to a phone", and is betting the lives of his wife and children on 911 sending police to his house in time, and brags that he would never keep a gun for defense.
I just shake my head and laugh; they are both highly paid "educators", and already had a pretty high opinion of themselves, and I suspect a fairly low one of me, but now I'm an inhumane murderer to boot!
They're kind of like folks who order their BBQ meat by the side for their freezer, but think that deer hunting is imhumane. Whatever, I can deal with it, especially as I'm ahead $499.99! AND as an added benefit, since this happened their cat doesn't crap at will in my yard anymore! I guess mama's afraid I'll add him to my trophy wall, now that she knows what kind of person I am! Regards,
Norm
We then proceeded to "reeducate" the Italian student. In the end, he just shook his head and wandered off, muttering "Americans..." under his breath.
