Birds can leave a long-lasting impression from possibly causing damage to aesthetics, soiling merchandise, or creating liabilities from slip and fall hazards. Birds are wonderful creatures, but we must help them to respect our boundaries.
Spring abounds! Rain showers quench the earth to awake the winter slumber of our beautiful landscapes. Bursting with color, flowers begin releasing subtle fragrances masking the stale air of the past season. Songbirds singing in the trees, perching on window ledges, and feeding on scattered seeds. As much as we enjoy watching our feathery friends, they can also be quite messy in urban environments. In fact, birds can leave a long-lasting impression from possibly causing damage to aesthetics, soiling merchandise, or creating liabilities from slip and fall hazards. Birds are wonderful creatures, but we must help them to respect our boundaries.
Image courtesy of Terminix Commercial - A Bird loafing in a retail store
Encouraging Birds to Loaf with Doors Propped Open
Propping doors open to let the cool breeze in can be opportunistic for our feathery friends. This encourages a known bird behavior called loafing. Loafing is a bird's innate ability to exploit flat surfaces in and around urban environments. This can be in the form of a window ledge, store signage, a gutter, powerlines, fences, a bench, etc. that provide a surface to land. Land? Why not rest? Resting can be viewed as an innocent behavior by the casual bird lover, however, not so much by a bird control professional.
Why Birds Loaf?
Loafing is not considered a leisure activity for birds. Birds exploit these areas for protection from the elements such as wind and rain or from predators. They may also use these areas in search of resources such as food and water or nesting sites. Businesses that have awnings to protect window displays can further encourage this behavior as birds will loaf in these structures defecating on sidewalks, windows, and even the avid window shopper. Droppings can lead to slip and fall hazards. In many cases, awnings are positioned below building signs that can be subjected to other bird behaviors as well.
Image courtesy of Terminix Commercial - Bird droppings on a sidewalk
Reduce Bird Loafing Around Storefronts
Reducing loafing opportunities around storefronts may include relocating trash receptacles away from doorways, reducing landscape features near entrances such as shrubs and ornamental trees as well as reconsidering sitting areas. Water features can also be problematic. Fountains will draw our feathery friends in to bathe and much larger water features may draw larger pest bird species such as ducks and geese. Keep in mind that clothing racks, pallet displays, plant displays, and outdoor equipment can pose similar opportunities for birds to exploit especially underneath covered walkways.
Image courtesy of Terminix Commercial - Birds Loafing under an awning
Storage Practices can Attract Birds
We have been discussing the store front up to this point, so what about the back of the store? Storage practices can attract many types of pest bird species. Stacking pallets behind your store can attract a variety of birds that prefer narrow cavities for nesting. Waste management is another concern in which dumpster pads and corrals should be maintained for many reasons besides birds. In some instances, however, a flock of birds may find your open dumpster as an opportunity to feed on the trash. They may damage bags and pull trash out onto the ground. Engineering inputs around structures designed for dust control such as hedgerows or security measures such as privacy fences can also be quite attractive. In addition, let's not forget that opportunities may exist on the roof as well.
Why Retail Stores Need Professional Bird Control
Professional bird control solutions are designed to help create boundaries to keep birds safe so that we can still enjoy them at a distance. When birds violate these boundaries, they can impact our health and safety in many ways. If your customers are noticing bird issues within your place of business, it is time to act. Ignoring these feathery friends can cause patrons to do business with your competitors. Let us provide you with a bird control solution that benefits your business before it's too late.
