MEDINA: Solving the pigeon problem

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October 4, 2007

By Miranda Vagg/vaggm@gnnewspaper.com The Journal-Register Thu Oct 04, 2007, 08:47 PM EDT

In downtown Medina it’s common to hear birds while they are nesting or see bird droppings along the sidewalk, particularly pigeon feces.

According to Medina Mayor Clayton Ehrenreich, the village has tried to address the issue of the abundant pigeon population in the area and come up with solutions to no avail due to liabilities from such methods as poisoning and shooting the birds.

“We thought about using some chemical deterrent and there was a liability issue there,” Ehrenreich said. “We looked at the possibility of shooting them and there was a liability there as well because it’s in the downtown residential area.”

If property owners or the village used chemicals to decrease the population and a domestic animal retrieved the carcass and became ill or died from ingesting poisons in the bird, a lawsuit could occur, he said. However, there are some more humane methods that were examined that Ehrenreich and local business owners believe have worked thus far.

“We got somebody to come in and put up bird spikes,” said Sue Phillips, owner of The Book Shoppe on Main Street.

Phillips said she and two other business owners put the spikes out and they appear to have alleviated the problem of the bird roosting on the rooftops for their section of the business block.

“I think the pigeons must migrate from building to building,” she said.

Other ways to be rid of the pigeon problem include sealing the top floors of buildings so the birds cannot make an empty space into a temporary aviary during the winter months and putting a statue of an owl on the rooftops “because apparently they’re scared of owls,” Ehrenreich said.

With the pigeons gone, Phillips thought the problem of droppings in front of the store would fly away as well. But when the wind or rain blows a certain way she finds the fecal matter once again on the stoop.

“The pigeons do roost (in an adjoining building) and there are open spots where they crawl inside and when it rains or the wind blows I do find particles in front of our store and that upsets me because we took care of our problem,” Phillips said.

Though Phillips said she doesn’t’ think there are many health concerns in regard to the bird feces, it depends on how much waste a person is coming in contact with.

Public Health Sanitarian Todd Shervin of the Orleans County Health Department said there are a few diseases that pigeons carry such as bird lice, Psittacosis — a rare infectious disease — and Histoplasmosis — a disease caused by fungus which grows in pigeon droppings — but it is unlikely people would become ill from cleaning up small amounts of droppings.

“Unless you’re actually spending a lot of time with them ... they’re not really going to bother you. But if you’re up on the roof and have to clean up after them, then it could be a potential problem,” Shervin said. “A few droppings is not likely to make anyone sick.”

When large amounts of fecal material accumulate, like in an abandoned building, is more likely to cause potential problems or health risks, he said.

According to Ehrenreich, pigeons have been a problem in the area for as long as he can remember and for a period of time they were gone and have since returned.

“One of the things with them is there’s so much food around this time of year and they fly out to the countryside and eat corn,” Ehrenreich said. “It would be OK if they stayed out there, but they come back here to roost.”

More information on the potential health risks and bird diseases can be found on the Center for Disease Control Web site at www.cdc.gov.

Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.

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