About Bird Control

The purpose of bird proofing is to make roosting and nesting sites inaccessible to pest birds. They can gain entry in a number of places in a building such as:

• under roof tiles
• in valleys (the meeting point of two section of roof and used as a drain into the gutter)
• under broken ridge-capping (cement "cap" which goes over the tile edges)
• drain pipe holes
• chimneys
• vents

- or any other gaps which birds can squeeze into. This gap can be as small as a hole where you barely insert three fingers!

BIRD CONTROL: The methods that may be used include bird wire, netting, pop riveting tin or aluminium plats, Avistrand (wire strung at a height just above roosting sites) and Bird-ex strips (plastic strips of one metre long and two centimetres wide with triangular points, usually glued to landing surfaces).

About Bird Mites

Bird lice, or more correctly, mites are commonly associated with the Pigeon, Sparrow and Starling. They are a blood-sucking parasite of these pest birds and become a problem with people when they are unable to get food, once they are separated from their host. The three most common mites (Order Acarina) are the Starling mite, the Tropical Fowl mite and the Red Poultry mite. They are 0.5mm to 1mm in length and a greyish/yellow colour except after a feed when they turn red.

The pest birds build nests typically in eaves, bringing with them the mites. When they leave their nests permanently, get trapped in the wall cavities or die, the mites leave the nest in search of a new host. Their route of travel is usually down wall cavities and through ventilators into bedrooms. They attack humans leaving an itchy rash when can become a secondary infection after scratching. They can only survive two to three weeks without a feed from their usual host.