Do not wait for the waste and pigeons to multiply. Do some of the work yourself, like cleaning. Ask your contractor if there are any discounts. Ask for referral bonuses. Offer the services of your company. Offer a high-exposure signage opportunity. Do little bits of work at a time and be very patient with the results.

You must establish an ongoing relationship with the person who will be taking over your pigeon problems. Therefore, service, knowledge, and experience are extremely important. We recommend dealing with a licensed, bonded, and insured company who deals only with pigeons.

Qualify everyone by seeing if they can offer free treatment of future nests. Many contractors only guarantee the spots they treat. Do not accept the comment, “You never know where they’ll nest.” Compare apples for apples when comparing quotes. Beware someone who gives you a quote and does not get on your roof.

You should expect the contractor to at the least mend broken tiles using an industrial adhesive. Some will fix previously broken tiles. Check your contract.

In general, your roofer cannot even access tiles covered by waste. We can contact the roofing contractor and coordinate scheduling. We can schedule cleaning immediately before the roofing work, and our applications will be done shortly after completion of roofing work.

Nesting, nesting, nesting. Cleaning, perching and trapping are only temporary solutions if there are still opportunities for reproducing.

Once the whole roof has proven nest-proofed, you will have to wait for one of two things. Either the flock finds a new home in the area, or each pair of pigeons gets pregnant and has to take their eggs elsewhere. This can take as little as one week or as much as 3 months. Perching and trapping seriously expedite these results.

There are many options for treatments and products, but the most important thing is installation. This site provides a great deal of information regarding proper methods to achieve great results.

Spikes are very popular. Unfortunately, they are sometimes used for nesting. Pigeons use all types of spikes to anchor their nests. If you do not mind the grotesque prison-like appearance (home owners associations do), they do work on some perching applications. We have documented pigeons perching and nesting on all types of spikes applied in many ways. If you must use spikes, make sure you have a results guarantee for nesting and perching. Inexpensive gels other than Hot Foot are not as effective and should be avoided. This is a popular product for perching applications; it should not be counted on for nesting applications. This product is sticky by nature. Therefore, many things stick to it including twigs, waste and other nesting materials. Dust also adheres creating a muddy residue that severely stains tiles and stucco. In the summer this residue melts off houses creating a worse appearance and lasting much longer than the pigeon waste. As you can imagine this product does dry up after about 8 months inviting activity to return unless reapplied. Professional installation dramatically reduces the negative aesthetics associated with the use of this product.

Pigeon waste is comprised of moisture and protein. These two components make an ideal breeding ground for bacterial, parasitic, fungal and viral diseases. It has also been known to attract ants, roaches and scorpions. According to the State of Arizona, there has never been a documented case of pigeon-related illness in the state.  Many symptoms people complain of could very well be misdiagnosed.

Pigeon Lung is a debilitating flu-like disease that is most often associated with pigeon fanciers who deal regularly with fecal waste. The challenge is when the dust from pigeon feces is inhaled.

The Pigeon Guy highly recommends that people dealing with large amounts of waste take every precaution possible to prevent physical contamination. Some ideas:

In addition to the physical concerns, there is property damage which can result from being exposed to the fecal and uric acid waste from pigeons.  The solid fecal waste causes severe blockage of water drainage on rooftops.  The waste clogs the runoff spots, which in turn causes the water to back up underneath tiles.  The water then seeps through the roofing materials and ends up saturating drywall ceilings and more.  In addition, the uric acid breaks down roofing cloth and asphalt shingles, compromising their barrier-like qualities. The uric acid deposited by pigeons is strong enough to take the paint off automobiles as well as stucco.

In general pigeons are large birds that re-populate quickly. As a result of their size and numbers, they generate massive amounts of waste.  This by-product is the reason for most people’s distress.  It is not uncommon to see fifty to one hundred pounds of waste on one residence.

There are over sixty bacterial diseases, viruses, funguses and parasites associated with pigeons.  The most problematic for humans would be Histoplasmosis and Cryptococcus.  In addition there are: Trichomonisasis, Encephalitis, Meningitis, Pasteurellosis, Blastomycosis, Sarcosporidiosias, Toxoplasmosis, Candidiasis, Lisreiosis, Vibriosis, Salmonella and Paratyphoid.  The National Institute of Health has reported a potentially blinding eye condition that probably results from the fungus. In some areas such as parts of Illinois, up to 80% of the population is reported to have been infected at some point.