Bird Droppings

M

marvin4239

New member
I keep my boat at the end of a 600' dock hanging in slings under a covered boat house. For years my neighbor (who has the same setup) and I have fought to keep the bird droppings off our boats. We've used those silly owls which are totally useless, monofilament line and several other techniques with no success. Tarps are just to much trouble to put on and off. The birds in our area are so bad in a week a boat would be completely covered with droppings if left unattended. My neighbor acquired 4 used shrimp nets. In our area all the shrimpers are being required to enlarge the size of their mesh so the old nets are readily available. We cut these nets into square sections and incased our boathouses with them. In my case I framed in two net doors on either side to get in and out of the boat and one in the entrance that raises and lowers with a rope and pulley. They work great no more bird droppings. We have a six foot tide here and the nets only go to about 2 feet from the high tide line but as of yet the birds haven't figured out how to fly under them. The netting really isn't noticeable from say 100' away. If I had to do it over again now that I know it works I'd buy commercial netting in a roll for the project. Several places on line sell it. The shrimp net not really being flat was pretty hard to work with. If you have a similiar problem try it it works!
 
We are new to the waterway and noticed bird droppings all over boat houses,docks and piers..When we built our boat house i rigged up a remote sirene that works off of a remote ,like the one you use on a vehicle..Which only works if you are at home ..But i work out of my house ,therfore i mash the remote from inside my house and the sirene scare them away..now the birds do not even land on our boat house as often as before.. They are trainable..The other trick we have used is a pump up air gun with no bullets ..The noise works..I guess they have been shot at and just recognize the sound..We have fun shooting at them with no bullets and just say pow..My wife wants to hang a sign on the gun barrel that reads bang....tucker]
 
Great to know what I had in mind should work to virtually eliminate the weekly rinses and monthly pressure washes. Lowe's or Home Depot garden depatment had something very inexpensive called Bird Block, a light but tough, maybe 5/16" mesh, made for protecting vegetable gardens and fruit trees.

By the way, surprise, my "plan" that waxing the superstructure would make clean-up easier...worked! It not only took off the existing stains, but virtually prevents new ones from getting a grip.
 
We found that the CO2 BB pistols cut down on repeat offenders, and the training effect had a much better residual, and the catfish really liked it. :mrgreen: And, to a point they are trainable...and will often just move to a less violent dock....say....about on the other side of the marina. But, the netting on the rolls does for sure sound like a nice idea and functional solution too. :thup

Anything to cut down on the maintenance hours....and increase the time out on the water hours.
 
Here's one on line source I found for netting http://americannetting.com/spec.htm I haven't done any business with them but they seem to have a pretty good product. As I said before my neighbor and I tried about everything. I even ran a 3/4 inch PVC water line down the center of the boat house on the roof rafters. I put tee's in it every 5 foot and sprinkler heads so it sprayed down on the boat. This was a terrible idea the birds came to drink from it. :embarrased
 
Crows are said to be clever and they have defeated anything my neighbors and I tried, BUT now, absolute, total victory. Maybe forty times a day for the last three days I've looked out to see not one crow on or near the boat. They just land on the boat house roof, stand around a while (looking puzzled?), then fly off.
I got two of those dumb plastic swirly things and hung one behind the "pilot house" and one ahead, both about roof height. A neighbor ordered them from a catalog and she's away, so I can't refer you, but anything like a wind sock or even a small bundle of 18"-long tapes, if at the end of an 18"-long string, ought to work. These are thin discs with spiral cuts that shake down into four spiral bands. They swing, swoop and spin in a manner apparently most alarming to birds.
Yes, if ithey or other critters get used to this, I'll fess up and maybe save you a few dollars and/or some effort. Now if the lake would actually put some water under the boat....
 
After about 6 months with my netting up it's till working great. As I said before I tried a lot of different things but this netting really has done the job. Don't waist your money on thoise silly owls the birds actually landed on them. Flags and swirling things worked to some degree but after the birds got use to them they came back.
 
When bird netting was first suggested, I got some, but we are not supposed to drape netting on our boat houses, lest it compromise people's views down the lake, and my neighbor was adament about that. It's the reason it took me so long to cure the problem with the dirty birds. She sent for the swirly things as a peace offering and I tried them as a peace offering. So far so good, and I promise to report again later.
 
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