Pest management professionals in Western states have long dreamed of an easy and attractive solution to mud swallows, the protected birds that migrate back and forth between North and South America. The most common solution is netting angled at 45-degrees blocking access to the desirable corner.
A large Marriott Hotel complex in Reno, Nev., had been infested year after year according to Mary Salse, the hotel’s manager. “It was literally a nightmare,” she said. “It was messy, noisy and we got all sorts of customer complaints.”
Mike Gelder of Nationwide Bird Control of Tracy, Calif., has lots of experience with swallows. “We usually install netting on jobs like this,” said Gelder, “but in this case the windows came right up to the soffits, so netting would have partially covered them.” Mike already had great success with Bird Barrier’s Flex-Track on horizontal surfaces, so decided to give it a try.
Bird-Shock Flex-Track was discreetly secured to the wall where it meets the soffit overhang.
“Mike called and asked if we thought our Flex-Track would work,” said Cameron Riddell, Bird Barrier’s president. “We thought it had a good chance, but didn’t want to guarantee his success. Based on what happened, we’re sure glad he stuck with his plan.”
A large hotel comprimising of three buildings had a swallow problem that recurred every year
In a nutshell, the Flex-Track was installed on the vertical wall at the very top where the wall met up with the horizontal overhang. “We glued it up with Bird Barrier Bond, and drove small finishing nails through the track to hold it up while the bond dried,” explained Gelder. “We drove the nail heads just below the surface of the track so they would not conduct electricity from the hot to the ground.” Riddell agreed this sounds like a smart way to tackle the problem.
Mud swallows would build messy nests every spring. The birds and the nests are protected
The results were beyond incredible according to Salse, the hotel manager. “Luckily the job was done before the birds showed up,” she said. “A few birds showed up, like scouts or something. They hovered up near the corner and it looked like they got a shock; amazingly they just took off.” Even more amazing that was the last she ever saw of any birds. Gelder surmises the scout birds took a message back to the other birds that their home was off limits. “I’m very impressed,” said Gelder. “It’s been two seasons now and there hasn’t been one bird. I look like a hero to these guys.”
Check out other Bird Barrier projects at www.birdbarrier.com/projects
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