Birds nesting and perching in unwanted areas can catapult into serious problems for commercial businesses and landowners. From feeding on crops like seeds and fruits to leaving excess droppings that can carry transmittable diseases, birds can cause considerable damage. As a serious threat to commercial property owners and farmers, maintaining bird control is vital to prevent severe and costly damage.
So, today, we will explore the importance of commercial bird control and recommend the best products for prevention.
The Importance of Commercial Bird Control
In many cases, birds may appear harmless, as their majestic, beautiful demeanor is something to be admired. Unfortunately, when it comes to commercial properties, birds often cause more harm than good. Birds cause:
Crop Damage: Birds feed on seeds, fruit, and plant life, hindering the growth of valuable croplands.
Contamination: Birds feast on different types of seeds and carry them back to their nest. In the process, birds drop seeds into other crop patches, contaminating existing growth.
Health hazards: Birds can carry harmful transmittable diseases in their droppings, like Salmonellosis, Avian Influenza, Chlamydiosis, and much more.
Property damage: Bird droppings are inherently acidic, with the ability to break down essential building components like wood, steel, and paint if they are not consistently cleaned. Perching can also dismantle roof tiles, gutters, and window sills.
Common commercial areas where birds perch and nest are airports, farmlands, and vineyards. Birds threaten production costs, maintenance efforts, and public safety with their nesting and gathering habits. To safeguard large commercial areas from damage, investing in effective commercial bird control products is essential to mitigate health risks and prevent defacement of properties.
Commercial Bird Control Products: How to Safely Deter and Prevent
Bird species like European starlings, Waxwings, sparrows, and crows are the most significant nuisance to airports, farms, and commercial vineyards each year, costing owners millions of dollars in damages alone. Maintenance and preventative methods play an essential role in this cost, leaving owners to look for cost-efficient and practical solutions to prevent such significant damage.
Below, we’ll explore the top three commercial properties most affected by birds and highlight effective commercial bird control products to help manage them.
Airports and Large Commercial Properties: The Problem
Airports are a likely place to find large groups of birds congregating. The open areas and vast amounts of space are inviting to birds. Not only can they view a predator approaching from afar, but they also may gravitate toward grassy regions that line the property to feast on seeds and small insects. Further, airports often have poor waste disposal systems, leaving excess food and water available to birds and other creatures.
While birds gathering in open areas of airports may seem like a minimal problem, it’s actually quite the opposite. Bird strikes can pose a serious threat to aircraft safety. Recent reports found an estimated 15,556 bird strikes in the United States in 2021 alone. Bird strikes can damage aircrafts, engines, and other vital components for air travel.
To mitigate safety risks for pilots and passengers and reduce repair costs, it’s crucial to implement effective bird control measures to discourage our feathery friends from not only potentially causing damage to airport equipment but also to prevent them from harming themselves.
The Solution
While simple bird prevention techniques like bird spikes and visual deterrents like scarecrows may work for small-scale properties, you need a robust solution to deter birds from large commercial buildings and airports. Laser systems are one way to prevent birds from resting too long in open areas like runways or aircraft parking spaces. Lasers emit beams in specific increments, acting as a bird security system. The blinding lights scare birds, preventing them from gathering in one area too long. However, the lights could distract pilots, risking severe safety hazards.
An alternative method is propane cannons. Propane cannons are powered by propane tanks and can cover miles of property by emitting a large, booming sound periodically to scare away birds. The sound resembles that of a gunshot, preventing birds from even flying onto the property out of fear.
Vineyards and Farmlands: The Problem
Bird damage to fruit crops is the most concerning to farmers. Birds target fruits like blueberries, raspberries, and Honeycrisp apples. The pecking of fruit deems them unusable for resale. Since birds are mobile, they can access various croplands and fruit trees with minimal effort. Further, birds are attracted to delectable sweet treats like cherries and grapes. These fruits are vital to the production of wine, posing birds as a serious risk to vineyards.
In addition to fruit contamination and damage, birds are also known to disperse seeds across vast areas. While revegetation can be beneficial, it can also be harmful due to cross-contamination with other growth patches.
Lastly, bird droppings can contaminate plants and fruits, deeming them unusable. Ensuring supply and demand is essential in maintaining high profit margins. Product costs alone are considerably challenging to make up if a business falls behind.
The Solution
Harmful poisons and traps are hazardous and toxic to birds. In fact, using these products is considered illegal in certain jurisdictions, as many states have wildlife protection laws forbidding harm to birds and other animals.
To safeguard your wine and crop production, consider bird netting for your fruit trees. Bird netting offers a cost-efficient and effective solution for preventing birds from reaching your valuable fruit, but this product has many pros and cons. For example, bird netting is lightweight and easy to maneuver over plants and trees. However, if not draped correctly, it could allow smaller birds to enter the netting underneath or get tangled in the lining, resulting in injury or death. Bird netting can also be a high-cost investment, but worth the cost if managed and stored properly to prevent tangles.
Hazing systems are another notable product that helps to cover vast amounts of land from large flocks of birds. Bird hazing or fogging systems emit a water-based, non-lethal haze that prevents birds and other wildlife from feasting on croplands. The haze impairs the visions of birds and disorients them once they enter the haze. However, this method may not work for all species, and aviation sprays could affect crop growth or cause fruit discoloration.
Propane Cannons are also ideal for extensive commercial farmlands and vineyards, as the blaring sound can be heard for many acres, scaring away birds and other wildlife across an entire farmland or vineyard, depending on the size.
Partner With Good Life: Safe, Humane, and Eco-Friendly Commercial Bird Control Products
As beautiful creatures that provide value to our ecosystem, it’s important to ensure their safety and protection. Utilizing humane and safe bird control products helps mitigate overpopulation and damage to commercial spaces while also protecting feathered creatures from harm. That’s where Good Life comes in.
With over 20 years of experience, we understand the value of protecting large commercial properties and farmlands from birds and other wildlife pests. We offer a diverse range of pest control products perfect for preventing birds from gathering in airports, farmlands, and vineyards.
As discussed above, a propane cannon is one of the best products to repel birds effectively in large commercial spaces. While there are many bird control products on the market, our G5 bird and wildlife propane cannon is one to consider. Our cannon emits loud and explosive sounds at regular intervals, harmlessly scaring away birds and other pests from your property. Our cannon has a sound intensity of 110-120 decibels and can cover 7-10 acres of land. The setup is easy, taking only minutes, with up to 17,000 blasts with a 20lb propane tank.
Maintaining bird control on large properties is challenging, but when you work with Good Life, you can achieve effective commercial bird control and prevention using eco-friendly and humane products in the process.
If you’re ready to take the next step in commercial bird control and prevention, or if you are a retailer interested in our wholesale program, contact us today.
