End bird droppngs

[Capt.Fred]

How about a low voltage electric fence set up through all the rigging, not to hurt, but only a discouraging tingle. Any suggestions, besides forcing me to walk the plank?

[zeehag]

i dont have any because i have an excellent cat.
and a nocturnal raccoon-like kind of visitor on occasion...dont know if it is raccoon or coatimundi...both thrive here...
no, i have not seen it, only heard it and watched as bubba got verrry interested....

[cheoah]

Birds sit on my very hot electric fences all the time. Does not phase them because they do not complete the circuit, no connection to ground.

Good luck.

[MANLEYONE]

In the Midwest, Farmers hang plastic Owl's in their Barns to keep Swallow's out. Don't know if work's with water fowl.

[kthoennes]

We have severe bird problems here in South Dakota, especially when thousands of starlings come through (or barn swallows, something, I'm no ornithologist). Some boat owners use those plastic owls, but never seemed to make much difference to me. It's odd, some boats attract 1,000 tons of bird poop, others attract very little. Not sure why. My dock neighbor is a 36 Carver Mariner. They love his bow pulpit. He's tried a million things, owl, spikes like they use on ledges of high rise buildings, foil pinwheels - still tons of poop. We're a 32 Carver aft four feet away. No bird droppings, but then we attract wasps through the engine vent louvers. He sprays my wasps when we're gone, I hose off his bird droppings. Nature, go figure.

[Tripod]

Originally Posted by MANLEYONE

In the Midwest, Farmers hang plastic Owl's in their Barns to keep Swallow's out. Don't know if work's with water fowl.

We had one of these for a while . . . they crapped on it. Now we have Bird Be Gone spikes. I think Amazon had the best price. No affiliation, just a happy (and cleaner) customer.

[Capt.Fred]

Thanks everyone. Cheoah, I hadn't thought of a ground. I'm going to think about how to overcome that detail. I wonder if I can strip the outside of a two wire cable, except where it is supported. At the supports, I might loop it or something. These birds are small, mostly mocking birds, wrens and such, so I have to be very careful. I'll talk to my Vet. My deck and lines are a mess. The fake owl sounds good also.

[gts1544]

Bird Droppings, As a young lad in the airplane business (a line person / fueler / cleaner), we used to have that problem in our hangars, with birds sitting up in the rafters. Some 2-3' long rubber snakes from the local 5 & 10 placed into the rafters worked wonders. So did the old single shot .22 cal. loaded with birdshot and was a lot more fun. Suspect that it wouldn't be too popular around the marina! gts1544

[Tantalus]

When I was in my teens I worked part time at a grocery store with high ceilings. the store manager used to borrow my BB gun and load it with those little silver balls used for cake decorating. Worked pretty good.

[hellosailor]

Fred, it has all been tried before. Either you keep a couple of hungry cats onboard, or you shoot a few birds (if that's legal in your area) and leave the corpses in plain sight. Dead friends and cats are about the only thing that will discourage them for more than 48 hours.

[RTB]

In the Bahamas, the marinas run fishing line (monofilament) from the top of each piling to the next. No birds crapping on the boats there. I never have seen that here in the states. Here in Brunswick, Georgia, there are these black birds that prefer masts and rigging over the nearby trees. WTF? I've thought of running some fishing line from the forestay to the mast, and back to the bimini. Unfortunately, I need to buy some fising line, or I'd have tried it already to see if it works.

Ralph
| sailing away with R & B

[BoomBrake]

It usually depends on what species of bird as to their behaviour and best method to eradicate. We have Seagulls and Cormerants (Shags) here . I tried "bird wire" (hums in the wind, not much else), plastic owl (they just pooped on it and pecked the eyes out), snakes (pooped on again) all to no avail. Depending on the species and time of year, typically they are nesting. The thing is once they establish a "nest" (or fishing spot) they are difficult to move on.

I found the best and most effective for these birds is first to not let them think your boat is a nice quiet nesting spot. That means regular visits, move things around and keep her clean. Yup, good old fashioned elbow grease!

I was away for a year and half overseas, so the cement truck like (size and composition) deposits were abysmal. It took about 5 scrubs to get all the stuff off. Then every week, same again they would redo their nasty work. Now that I go to the boat at least every 2nd or 3rd day, hardly a single poop. I always give them a yell or bark like a dog at them when I see them nearby too. I think they understand to stay away now and use the neighbours boat...

[Dulcesuenos]

We use 4 rubber snakes really works well

[Johnathon123]

I have used this stuff http:// https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=9027&search123=humming+li ne&intAbsolutePage=1 with good results.

I did find it needed to be stretched quite tight and being quiet delicate I often found it broke. It is also a bit of a pain to wind up each time you use the boat BUT it did work. (I have no affiliation whatsoever, just sharing)

[kthoennes]

Originally Posted by BoomBrake

...I tried "bird wire" (hums in the wind, not much else), plastic owl (they just pooped on it and pecked the eyes out), snakes (pooped on again) all to no avail.

Now that's funny. So true. It's like they're purposely mocking your efforts, like those French soldiers on the castle wall in the Monty Python movie. Take that! Splat!

I do think that they like bow pulpits over the water more than transoms. We park bow-in, neighbor with the poop problem parks aft-in. You'd think they would like our aft rail and the Magma grill just as much as they like his windlass motor housing but nope, they leave us alone.