Pigeons nesting under my panels

So much yes Cardew - I've got 6 pigeons cohabiting under my panels.

Used a neighbours v. nice air rifle last year to scare them off, but they are persistent! Wasn't allowed to actually aim at the birds, the boss said so.
Bought a dirt cheap bb gun, which was a compromise with the the curent Mrs theboylard, but it's not powerful enough, and if I actually managed to hit a pigeon they just look like they are ready to rumble...



Also they make so much noise these flying rats - but I've read somewhere that it's illegal to shoot pigeons?

Holding off acquiring said pop gun until I know the full position!!

I have looked at the various bird proofing methods but it's not cheap, and again the boss won't let me up a ladder to do it cheaply!

(Maybe if a few of us have similar problems, we club together and get a rifle and just pass it around bewtween us??!!)

Throw a cat on your roof?.

My Mrs has been nagging at me for last 2 years or so re Pigeons and poop on the back patio. So after using the hose to scare them away, taking down 3 nests only for them to build another nest and put an egg init in under a week, it was time to sort something permanent.

I bought 4x 5.2metre gutter brushes for £36, wrapped these around the panels and thought that was it, done. Only to find 7 pigeons under the panels still within 2 days. Great!!!!! I caught them just walking through a part of the brushes where I'd bent them underneath the roof bars to keep them in place.

I then realised I had bought 100metres of 316L grade stainless wire for my vape coils off ebay. This was 620 micron thick and came out at too little ohms resistance for my liking so was a waste of £5.20 delivered I thought. Why didn't I think of this being sat there in the house a few weeks before spending £36 on brushes that didn't work???

So anyway, the wire is quite flimsy after taking off it's spool, so I ran 2.5metres length and back again to double it up and make it 1.2mm thick, got the Mrs to hold 1 end with some pliers and put the other end into a drill. Span it for a while which twists the wire together making it double thick, double strength and straight instead of flimsy. Then a trip up the ladder with a 'v' shape fishing rod rest inside a pole, bent the wire in half and used the V and the pole to take it over the 1.5 inch bar holding the panels up (ridge side). Remove the pole, make sure the wire covers top and bottom along all 4 roof bars down to me (gutter side) then used pliers to twist it secure and tight. This gives you a 1.5 inch gap with a rust proof twisted wire top and bottom that they can't get across and is almost invisible too from ground level, almost like installing the aluminium roof bars vertical closing the gap they create to hold up my double array. Considering I only used about 10 metres of wire to do both sides, it's cost me about 52p to do and an hour of my time and boy is it effective lol. It doesn't stop them getting under the top panel to the roof bar, or the bottom panel to that bar, but they won't nest as there not really under cover so to speak so my roof has been pigeon free for the last few days. They just land on the roof now and again, try to get in like they were doing, can't so give up and fly off:j:j:beer::beer::beer::beer:

Hope this helps.

My next thought if this didn't work was to buy some cheap 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch waste pipe or aluminium box section, complete with 90's to run around all the panels to stop them getting under any of them. Again cheap, rot proof and the stainless wire can tie them to the bars to stop the wind messing with them but this hasn't been needed so far.

Carl