Pooping BIRDS!!

[btokash]

Split from BIRDS ! Zea3

So my pool is only a year old. Last year, I never had this problem, but I wonder if it's because it wasn't open this early last year. Bird poop all around the rail, all inside the pool, and in two places, large piles of it on the ground at the base of the pool. So, every day, vacuuming 1-2 times, every day I backwash the filter to try to keep as much bacteria away as possible. Every day, it's back. Blackbirds, so I know the problem now. Trees aren't on my property, so I can't do anything about the nests, so I need to just find something to keep them away from the pool. I put clamp-on tiki torches all the way around, thinking they might act as sort-of scarecrows, and that helped a little, but I suspect after a week, they'll be used to it and ignore them. So I hung fishing line over the pool (quite low-just high enough to not be in your way when you are in the pool, but low enough that we couldn't play with a ball in the pool at all), because I don't have anything high to attach it to) in 4 runs. I swear, within minutes of hanging it, I watched 2 birds fly under it and drop their gifts into my pool. If I run the line from the utility pole to my house and tree, it will span 100 feet to get from one to another, and I'm willing to do that, if this is going to work. But if they're already flying under it at 3 feet above water level, are they going to care if I put it 10-15 feet above water level? Also, I'm concerned that if the line breaks and falls into the pool, it will end up in my skimmer and pump Any thoughts?

 

[ping]

I had a problem with birds and the pool and guess what worked..., a plastic owl. I set the owl next to where the birds liked the most, the raised spa, and very little poo since and it has been there for a year now. You might try making a platform for it to sit on somewhere just above the pool.

 

[CavLancer]

You can take the hottest red chilis you can find, mash them and mix with water, set in glass jars in the sun for a few days then using a garden sprayer hose off the places the birds like to hang out. This worked for us, birds came back a year later and we're getting ready to do it again. Birds like to congregate on the gutter edge which here is wide enough to be a perch. So we hosed off the back of the gutters, edge of the roof... I would have thought it would wash away quickly but it lasted.

 

[Texas Splash]

I did the owl thing as well. I got the kind that allows the owl head to bobble and swivel. Just seemed a little more realistic when the wind would move it. It has slowed the birds down a bit. Picked it up at Wal-Mart.

 

[chiefwej]

If you do use an owl decoy, it's a good idea to move it around once in a while.

 

[mrich1974]

Another thing to try if that doesn't work is pennants, like the kind car dealerships use. We had the same problem and tried everything and this worked. We strung them around the pool and in a matter of days they wouldn't even come near the yard.

 

[bdex]

A good barn cat will keep them at bay in my experience. We live next to a field and have all kinds of mice and black birds and grackles. And the good old outdoor Tom cat earns his keep. Sometimes he brings us feathers or fur but that is just part of the deal I guess.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wjr75]

On my last pool we used a blow up snake and let it float in the pool. We also had a large green alligator float that we kept in the pool sometimes.

 

[kevinz]

I have Black Starlings just like gackos they nest in my evergreens and bring the fecal sack from nesting chicks to my pool, when my solar cover is on its a disaster and instead of reeling it up I have to drag it out onto my deck and hose it off everyday and then put it back on to get pooped on again. I shoot birds and take out nests but others in the area like my pool too. The owl doesn't work and gets pooped on too. I haven't had luck with floaters like alligators and beach balls either. Tuesday I tried stringing twine from make shift poles and then tying dollar store blow up balloons to the twine and have had a lot of success, one or two poops from birds dropping it from above the last few days but they wont go near my pool since I put them up and my solar cover can stay on. I use twine because it doesn't tangle and when we go swimming its easy to roll up even with balloons still attached takes 5 minutes tops. Cost less then $10 and is temporary because in a week or two the birds fly off till next year. Good Luck!

 

[dave42]

We had a terrible problem with bird droppings for over a decade. We tried fake owls and snakes, only to be laughed at by birds I now assume are Grackles.

Last year I went on the offensive and put up a bird shield over the pool using 1/2" PVC pipe, wire ties, 50-pound fishing line, Scotch tape and Iridescent Bird Repellent Tape. I put it up in mid-April and removed it all just before the 4th of July. There is also fishing line just above the fence to make it difficult to land. We had virtually no poop on the deck or in the pool.

At first we thought maybe it was just a good year, until a neighbor 2-doors down complained that she had a record number of bird droppings around her pool!

This year the weather is running about a month earlier, so I put up the deterrents last weekend. I'll have to take them down to open the pool, but that's a small price to pay. I think it's important to make the neighborhood unpleasant for the birds before they make their nests.

 

[borjis]

I have flocks of Canada Geese that fly over every week, I'm PRAYING they never see my oasis and decide to do their business.

 

[Pooldoctor]

If you have grackles you are in for a treat LOL. These imported European birds used to live on cliffs and when having babies in their nests it's inborn in them to roll the feces up in a ball and remove it from their nests so foraging animals don't smell it. Yep, you guessed, as their ancestors used to drop it in the oceans, they find our pools very ocean like. Disgusting little habit and they are known to have babies twice a season.

 

[MarkTX]

I have used the plastic owls for a garden before, and it was very effective, almost uncanny, for keeping the wild rabbits and other critters out. What surprised me, was when one day I realized I had not seen a bird for weeks!

On a side note, if you have power lines over your back yard, even so high a trampoline jumper could never jump that high, DO NOT put a trampoline under the power lines. A recipe for poop disaster. Trust me.