Good morning, Las Vegas. I hope the city is having an enjoyable spring so far. So, we’ve talked about the kinds of diseases that pigeons can spread. Let’s have a little brief info sheet on where pigeons most commonly nest and perch. After this you should be able to have a good idea where that cooing is coming from in the morning.
Alright, so first, about that cooing. The problem with trying to say positively knowing where the cooing is coming based off sound direction is that pigeon call tends to reverberate and echo off multiple surfaces. This creates an illusion that the sounds are coming from a particular direction when it’s coming from a different direction or, the sound creates the illusion of surround sound, making it even more difficult to pinpoint. So going off sound can be ineffective. Knowing where pigeons are going to be nesting can be more helpful. That information is much more valuable than a BB gun.
Let’s talk a little bit about building construction here. Some of us have a roof design that funnels a roof into a roof. It may be a gable end of the garage or the side of the house that meets the main roof or it may just be design qualities of the house. This feature is called a roof return, and it is, in my opinion, the most common place for a pigeon to make a nest. Another building feature that is common with bird problems is roof-installed HVAC units. Some of these units have their duct work and support post built together. Most new homes built don’t even have HVACs on the roof. Older homes, however, often have HVACs on the roof that have a shaded area underneath the unit which is often being supported by stainless bar steel. This provides the second most common pigeon nesting sites in my opinion but, there is more. Swamp coolers, sheds, window ledges, cracked roof tiles and on top of shaded objects like TVs and cabinets.
We’ve also got a big problem with pigeon nests on commercial building roofs. We have all seen the bird flocks outside of Walmarts or grocery stores, and we have also all seen the bird perching on the ledges above Targets, Best Buys, and any other strip mall ledges. What most people don’t know is that most of these commercial buildings have AC units or swamp coolers installed on the roof, usually propped up off the roof with wood beams or steel supports. This provides the perfect opportunity for birds to slip under these structures and build a nest. And what an expense this can end up being. Most commercial buildings have many units on their roofs and businesses usually don’t address the problem until the deep of summer.
Unfortunately, businesses don’t often address their pigeon problems, until a customer or even just a passer-by slips on droppings, injures themselves and sues the business, property manager or even the owner of the building. An effort to save thousands of dollars in costly pest control that a business or building owner may not see the value of can turn into an expense of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in court payouts or settlements in slip-n-fall cases.
At American Pest Control, we have been successfully controlling pigeons for over 50 years. We are happy to help you get your home back to a clean and pigeon-free environment. Give us a call at 702-382-6366 today to get your free estimate or check out our page on pigeon control.