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After my pigeon-related shenanigans the other day, something which was quite important to do was find a way to prevent the building we'd cleared promptly filling up with crap-producing birds again.
The best way to do this is with bird netting, just to stop them getting back in again and so I looked on the internet and asked someone to come down, take a look, and give me a quote. When he arrived, it turned out that he not only did bird netting but lots of other avian pest control work including what's known as 'natural pest control'; that is, using birds of prey to hunt down and scare away pigeons and he had several in the back of his van.
Which I how come I got this handsome chap and several of his friends sitting round in the garden getting some sun whilst the contractor went and measured for the netting:
Birds of prey are astonishingly cool and I was filled with glee to have a man with a Harris Hawk on his arm wandering about the yard; I was very impressed with his degree of trust in the bird as well, letting it go off for a fly and a bit of a crack at the pigeons whilst he worked and just knowing it'd come back to him when called (which it did, first time).
Humanity has used animals for this 'natural pest control' since the dawn of civilisation; getting cats in to keep rats and mice away from early granaries helped cities first begin to grow, 9000 years ago. Since then, terriers have been used on rats, ladybirds have been bred and released to stem aphid populations and so on and these are often paid for by government agencies. The ecological and environmenal benefits of such methods are indisputable; poisons are indiscriminate and shooting is random and demonstrably more likely to injure and main rather than to kill. An eagle dropping on a pigeon is about as effective a method known, and you can sell tickets as well as everyone loves watching big raptors.
This got me thinking about an article I read lately about how the UK fox population has risen sharply in recent years and they're becoming an active pest in many areas, especially suburban ones. It stuck me that the government should look into natural pest control methods to tackle this. Obviously some sort of publically-finded commission should be set up to find the best animal to predate upon foxes (probably dogs, but it's best to be sure), and the agency charged with pursuing this pest control would be subject to strict health and safety legislation - required to wear protective headgear and possibly brightly-coloured jackets to identify them. They'd also need some way to keep up with fast-moving animals. Probably horses or 4x4s would be best.
Do any of my readers have any suggestions on the format such an organisation might take?
The best way to do this is with bird netting, just to stop them getting back in again and so I looked on the internet and asked someone to come down, take a look, and give me a quote. When he arrived, it turned out that he not only did bird netting but lots of other avian pest control work including what's known as 'natural pest control'; that is, using birds of prey to hunt down and scare away pigeons and he had several in the back of his van.
Which I how come I got this handsome chap and several of his friends sitting round in the garden getting some sun whilst the contractor went and measured for the netting:
Birds of prey are astonishingly cool and I was filled with glee to have a man with a Harris Hawk on his arm wandering about the yard; I was very impressed with his degree of trust in the bird as well, letting it go off for a fly and a bit of a crack at the pigeons whilst he worked and just knowing it'd come back to him when called (which it did, first time).
Humanity has used animals for this 'natural pest control' since the dawn of civilisation; getting cats in to keep rats and mice away from early granaries helped cities first begin to grow, 9000 years ago. Since then, terriers have been used on rats, ladybirds have been bred and released to stem aphid populations and so on and these are often paid for by government agencies. The ecological and environmenal benefits of such methods are indisputable; poisons are indiscriminate and shooting is random and demonstrably more likely to injure and main rather than to kill. An eagle dropping on a pigeon is about as effective a method known, and you can sell tickets as well as everyone loves watching big raptors.
This got me thinking about an article I read lately about how the UK fox population has risen sharply in recent years and they're becoming an active pest in many areas, especially suburban ones. It stuck me that the government should look into natural pest control methods to tackle this. Obviously some sort of publically-finded commission should be set up to find the best animal to predate upon foxes (probably dogs, but it's best to be sure), and the agency charged with pursuing this pest control would be subject to strict health and safety legislation - required to wear protective headgear and possibly brightly-coloured jackets to identify them. They'd also need some way to keep up with fast-moving animals. Probably horses or 4x4s would be best.
Do any of my readers have any suggestions on the format such an organisation might take?
