BIRD SPIKES
Every
morning and often times during the day, starlings come, sit on my window
sill, and screech their clamorous discontent at the world. They peck on
the window. They peck on the frame and pull bugs from it. They annoy the
ever-living crap out of me. Over the years, I've spent inordinate time
and energy to convince them to move elsewhere. I'm pretty sure most of
my "methods" have been illegal, and they certainly violate my
lease, as does this method, but at this point, I don't care. The birds
are gone.
As my windows open, they only clear the edge of the windowsill by about an inch an a half. Consequently, anything I put to out there to frighten the birds needs to be shorter than that. Well, carpet tack-strip only gives them a perch out of the snow. Broken glass, no matter how well glued, falls off and blows down (and is prone to damage brand new Volkswagen Jettas). A sickle bar with nails welded to it just won't fit. They don't seem interested in poison. And, tin foil inside the window loses its effectiveness after about a week.
Now,
how about a little cost analysis of this quest:
- $ 15 - Tack-strip
- $ 9 - Bird Seed
- $ 1 - D-Con
- $ 0 - Broken Glass(wine bottles)
- $ 7 - Liquid Nails
- $ 350 - Repaint/Un-dent a Jetta
- $ 21 - Bird Spikes
- $ 19 - Hinges
- $ 9 - Epoxy
Grand Total: $431
Basically, I spent a month's rent. But, the outcome was successful (read on), and they are tightly tethered to my window, so no more re-painting of Volkswagens. At least I didn't kill someone.
The secret was to get honest-to-God, bird-frustrating spikes, actually designed for that purpose. These are about five inches high, but when epoxied to hinges, which are then Liquid-Nails-ed to the windowsill, are pushed down by the opening window and then pulled back upright by strings, they work exceedingly well. Below are pictures of my achievement. Keep scrolling...
All of the pictures contained on this page and in the resulting popup windows are Copyright © 2004. Scott Rieker. All Rights Reserved.
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