PROBLEM: Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls nesting and fouling on main roof. Birdteq were requested to install a gull deterrent system to areas of flat roof on the main building to deter Herring gulls from nesting and dive bombing residents during the gull breeding season (May-July).  Also to deter  gulls from perching to reduce the amounts of bird mess around the site.  The main criteria, that it had to be totally discreet. This provided us with a challenge as anti bird net installations are the usual way to proof large areas of flat roof but we could understand our client not wanting netting. Maintenance access was required on the roof, a bird net would have to be raised with stanchions to 2m in height and such visual netting was certainly not in keeping with the aesthetics of this building. Other bird deterrents such as gull spiking, bird deterrent gel or bird wire were not feasible for large flat roofs.  We could of deployed bird scarers such as hawk kites, sound devices or bird tape but in our experience these deterrents have proofed unsuccessful, especially against gulls that are intelligent birds with phenomenal eyesight.

The use of hawks would of been another option but our client did not want this option and besides, this is not a preferred type of bird deterrent that Birdteq would choose to deploy in this scenario.

SOLUTION: Electric bird scaring system installed to perimeters roof areas. There was only one viable bird deterrent left in our armoury, the electric bird deterrent.  Generally this is a product to be used on ledges, sills and parapet walls, it was never meant to be an installation to protect flat roofs.  However, we wanted to find our client a solution to their gull problems.  We took a calculated decision to try an electric bird deterrent, as our options were exhausted.  We calculated that so long as the system was installed with the right spacings between the electric tracks the installation would successfully deter the gulls but should it not work, that Birdteq would give a  refund or strive to find a solution at no extra cost.

Our installation was a total success.  No more gulls were going on the roofs.  They’d landed on the electric bird deterrent system and were deterred enough not to go any where near  the roofs again.  We pushed the boundaries and provided a solution that worked.