Advantages & Disadvantages of DIY Pigeon Removal

Pigeon removal isn't always the cheapest job, especially when you have quite a large and well-established flock of them to remove from your property. In large-scale cases, the costs can rise quickly, soon verging into the thousands of dollars, but this only really applies to commercial businesses and large patches of land, such as agricultural land.

Smaller buildings and residential homes are often quickly and cheaply pigeon-proofed using the professionals, but the entire process can still cost a fair bit of your hard earned cash. Unfortunately, when you don't sort out a pigeon problem as soon as you see it, letting it carry on and grow, cheap pigeon removal is no longer possible.

There are advantages to attempting DIY pigeon removal, and one of the biggest and most appealing to property owners is the fact that it is cheaper. If you get it right the first time, the process probably will be cheaper, but very few home and property owners get this right the first time. The process is a long, laborious, and extensive one, requiring a thorough investigation of the property, effective sealing and repairing of damage and holes that allows the pigeons to get inside your building (if they did), as well as noting any roosting and perch ledges or sills that can easily be sorted out. Bird strip spikes can help, but this only works on flat and stable surfaces, and when the correct strips have been used in the correct way.

Using repellents and deterrents can be an expensive process, and that's another method that many homeowners usually resort to when they notice pigeons are hanging around in the backyard. Various items have been put forward for this — bad tasting or smelling foods, plants and foods with a strong scent, hot and spicy foods, and even mothballs, ammonia-soaked rags, and plastic dummies or decoys. These methods can work, but are actually rarely effective at removing that pigeon problem. Repeated and long-term use of the items means the cost mount even further still, and the pigeons are left to defecate at will, wherever they feel like it, causing more and more damage to the building and surrounding property or structures.

When you use a professional to remove a pigeon problem from your property, you're getting the job done quickly and properly. The investigation is done, the birds are removed, using a combination of methods and tools in some cases, and then those areas on which they once roosted are protected to ensure they can't land there again. Pigeons have a great memory and they will remember the places they roosted before. Even if they move on now, there's no guarantee that they won't come back. That's another reason why repellents are such a bad idea — they just don't do the job long-term.

We always recommend using a professional when you come up against a pest animal interloper, not only to protect yourself from any potential disease threats, but also to ensure that the cost is kept down. The more your approach DOESN'T work, the more money you'll end up spending.