Pigeon Control in Hospitals and Health Care Facilities

Bird control is as important as mitigating insects and rodents from infesting in hospitals and health care facilities. Because of the need of such places to be always clean and safe from any possible source of diseases, feral pigeons which are notorious for leaving behind huge amounts of droppings which harbors a lot of harmful bacteria and viruses are also treated the same and equal as rats, mice, mosquitoes and flies. However, it is not uncommon for the maintenance managers of these facilities to act late when it comes to pigeon eradication. The thing pigeons and other pest birds like sparrows and starlings is that they can make their presence undetectable for some time until the amount of damage that they have already made will reveal their presence. That is, in most cases maintenance managers would only realize that pigeons have already been infesting in the roof void of their facility when signs of their habituation already becomes obvious. This is problematic because at this time, it is possible that the droppings that have been accumulated in the roof void or in the other areas in these facilities may have been enough to cause infectious diseases to the weak patients in the facility.

Nonetheless, this kind of situation can be readily avoided by regular and thorough inspection. Large hospitals and other treatment facilities are actually very keen about such happenings that most of them have already invested on pigeon control methods and at the same time, hire personnel whose main job is to make sure that no pigeon will ever enter the vicinity of the hospital or the health facility. This is a big job actually, considering that feral pigeons are very prevalent in cities and other urban areas. Taking note that a single flock of pigeons which is composed of about 100 birds can leave behind wastes which can amount to about 4,800 pound a year and that there are hundreds if not thousands of pigeon flocks in the metropolis. All these droppings contain organic compounds which do not only corrode structural materials but also carry different kinds of pathogens, microorganisms and parasites which can greatly compromise human health. This is the reason why bird control is such a big deal in the context of hospitals and health facilities.

As a side note, these birds carry and transmit histoplasmosis which may not cause serious problems when confined only in the lungs of the patient but is dangerously fatal when it infects the parts of the body. This disease is often caught in caves and other places where the droppings of bats and other birds have greatly accumulated over time. The infection becomes airborne in these places so victims do not really realize that they have already inhaled harmful pathogens not until they would experience the symptoms associated to the disease. Now, many people underrate just how much droppings pigeons can leave behind that they do not consider that these birds can cause histoplasmosis until it is already too late. Just imagine just how much insult it brings on to a hospital whose patients have caught such kinds of diseases inside their premises. IT actually defeats the entire purpose of the health facility itself.

Programs and Methods of Control

Putting the interest of the hospital in line, maintenance manages resort to bird control programs and methods which have been proven to be effective. However, since health care facilities also need to secure the other interests of their patients they can only choose from a limited list of bird control measures. For example, they cannot use devices that emit noise which are known to be effective in scaring away pigeons. Other control methods that hospitals cannot utilize are the use of fireworks, guns and poisons. The last one is highly discouraged because of the nature of the facilities and at the same time, many pest control operator would also agree that poisoning is one of the most useless bird control methods ever used in history. The methods that the hospital can use are:

1. Bird Removal

The name of this method already gives away what it does. Basically, the goal of this method is to remove the birds from the facility. Because of certain factors, this method is only limited to trapping pigeons alive. That means that the most that the maintenance manager can do is set up traps and use bait foods to lure the birds into these traps. Now, since pigeons cannot be relocated because of their strong homing traits (that means that if you release them elsewhere, they will still find their way back into the place where you took them), the only way to deal with the birds is too euthanized then elsewhere. The most common methods of bird euthanasia is gassing and drowning. However, the problem with this method, apart from catching the ire of PETA for massive pigeon killing, it also requires a lot of effort from the maintenance manager or to the bird control personnel in-charged. The traps have to be checked on a daily basis and the food baits have to be replaced as soon as they are consumed. Nevertheless, since hospitals do not have that much of a choice, this method is still extensively used.

2. Bird Exclusion

No matter what the prime bird control method the maintenance manager has chosen, it is almost imperative that it should include this method to some extent. It is already a given fact that hospitals and health facilities have large geographical scopes and some areas just have to be secured from the birds by exclusion techniques. Examples of exclusion devices are spikes, sloping landing, netting and electric shock strips. There are other exclusion devices but these four are amongst the most popular ones. These devices are generally used to secure certain surfaces, ledges and other architectural features from the birds. However, the real problem with this strategy is that it does not really stop the birds from destroying properties and threatening health. All it does is that it "pushes" the birds to go elsewhere, simply say, to damage other properties and compromise the health of the other people outside the vicinity of the health facility. In a communal sense, this method is self-defeating.