Help! How to get rid of pidgeons on the roof

Just put some bird food out somewhere you don't mind them sitting - hanging off a tree branch over grass, or whatever. They'll go there instead and fertilise your grass so you don't need to worry about clover in the lawn.

Buy a big pump-up long range water pistol!!
They cost around £15 and can shoot a water jet 20 metres (or 60 feet in old money).
I used to keep one by the backdoor at my old house to spray at the neighbour's many cats that came to mess in my garden. I have also used a water gun effectively on deterring the Starlings and other feathered friends from nesting under my roof eaves.

There is a product called Flock Off which is very good - www.flockoff.co.uk/our-products.html. It is easily fitted where the birds perch and makes it difficult for them to settle, but it's flexible and won't hurt them. It's not unsightly either. My son has fitted it on lots of buildings with great effect.

One pigeon says to another, 'How dreadful our life is now. Those awful humans, they have concreted over so much of the countryside and we have nowhere to nest or even perch without hearing constant complaints and they have ruined the planet with their pollution and noise as well as the extinction of so many of our fellow creatures. One day will come an enormous flood just like the stories we have heard from our ancestors and we will be able to fly to the highest mountains and sit it out until the waters subside but let's make sure we peck a big hole in that boat this time!'

Having a model of a hawk or owl on the roof might work - www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/html/reviews/anti-perching-plastic-owls.html

Quizqueen.... I agree with your sentiment (although not the Noah's ark bit).

I love to see and hear the birds. I feed them, as I feed the squirrels and hedgehog that visit my garden too. Humans have destroyed so much habitat of birds and animals - so what if it takes a few minutes of cleaning the damned path of bird droppings?!

grannysue05 - you could:

nail a stuffed cat to the roof
have a loudspeaker set up, which you could screech into
get a bird of prey
fly a kite right near to the roof
hang out of the window with a hosepipe
live in a block of flats (top floor, obviously)
have the path all dug up, and replaced with a moat

I hang old cd’s outside the bedroom windows, they shine and reflect the sun. Seems to deter them.

If you put up wire netting, rather than string netting, birds are less likely to be killed by getting stuck in it.

Metal or plastic spikes where the birds perch ought to deter them.

Borrow a cat for a day or so, or just some used cat litter! We have only ever been bothered by pigeons in the interval between the death of one cat and the arrival of its successor.

A cut out cardboard cat, hawk or owl stuck to your window might deter them too.

Thank you all so much for the helpful advice...even the amusing ones.
I am going to look into the plastic spikes and the fake owl for the roofline.

these sort of plastic spikes do a great job

www.birdspikesonline.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImd7lwJXE2wIViRrTCh3MtAN8EAAYASAAEgL8EfD_BwE

Could you put a roof over the walkway?
Very attractive wooden addition to the garden?

grannysue05 Yes, it's horrible and very slimy to clear up. It is good for the garden though! If you can collect it! If possible, put down newspaper and compost the paper with it. However the rain can spoil this cunning plan. Any dry leaves, the leaves off the rhubarb - which spread over the patio will brighten it up - or even some stuff you can buy at the garden centre, which you can roll up and unroll at night-time.

The above are a bit of a chore, but so is all that path washing. I wish you lots of luck!

* LynnB59*
have the path all dug up, and replaced with a moat
I love that! Please can I have one?

We run a food shop in a building which had been neglected . The pigeons were so bad along with their poop we were told by environmental health to remove them. A pest control person left a big net in the old building they roosted in and gathered them up and drove them away.
Unfortunately he mustn't have taken them far enough before releasing them and they flew straight back!

However that was a year ago and by demolishing the building they roosted in, there are far fewer now.

I'd go for the plastic kestrel. Love it!

We have house martins besting in our eves every year. They make a terrible mess on the window and path below but I love to see the parents bringin g food to the babies .

A lot of places near me have got the bird scaring kites.
www.scarem.co.uk/

Big old fat wood pigeons here learned to body slam feeder meant for little birds. Seed then scattered on patio. They gobbled it up and then left the biggest bird poos. Couldn’t cope with clearing it up. So sadly stopped with the bird feeder. Also had grey squirrel doing ridiculous antics to get at seed. They are mental.

We have many pigeons in our area and they provide much comic fun as they cannot land in a tree for toffee. They flap dementedly and crash land. It never seems to do them any harm or deter them from doing it again. They also fly into our windows, again with no harm done, and leave a greasy bird shape marked on the pane.

They sit on our chimney pots and their cooing is amplified down the flue providing the sound of summer.

I can see, however, that bird poo is not so amusing and I would go for the bird spikes if I were the OP.

A few years ago we had a housemartin problem they built 12 nests along the front of the bungalow, we ended up netting part of the eaves especially over the windows and allowed 3 nests to remain.
Don't worry about removing nuisance nests on your house the council are not going to fine you for that, spikes are the answer for pigeons but are expensive to install.

Why were the housemartin nests a problem?

Feel for you we had wood pigeons nesting under our solar panels last year and were unable to go out and sit on our patio.. for dead babies,eggs, piles of poo etc.. One Day I counted 27 on the roof opposite ..The only way we managed to get rid of them is by paying for very expensive netting to go around the panels... it took a while but they have mostly gone although as we have trees behind our garden we'll always have some around... ggrr I hate them ( P>S Love other birds, but cannot feed them as it encourages the pigeons)

I am in the same situation. I live in a bungalow and so the roof isn’t as upright as a house so the pigeons are on it all the time. The neighbour next door feeds them bread and yesterday I counted 28 pigeons. It’s been going on for five or so years and you wouldn’t believe the mess. Spikes wouldn’t help as they sit on the roof. I have no idea how to approach the subject with the neighbour but wish I had nipped it in the bud. Also we have rats literally one came on the back step at the French doors last week because she feeds the pigeons. The problem is the smaller birds don’t get to eat anything because of the pigeons. I don’t want to get into an argument with her life is too short but I consider it to be so thoughtless and selfish of someone else’s property. Also the noise they make all flying up when you go in the garden is awful. So I sympathise so much x

We live in a flat with a balcony, a couple of years ago a pair of wood pigeons nested in a large flower pot. I thought it was quite amusing at first but then came the eggs followed by the baby birds. We were literally stuck indoors until they all flew off one June evening. They left the most indescribable mess behind as they used to hang their backsides over the edge of the flower pot and poop straight onto the balcony. Now every spring I go to the Poundshop and buy plastic “windmills” to put in the flower pots. The pigeons still come to check out the possibility of nesting with us but thankfully the whirring windmills have so far proved to be an excellent deterrent. Don’t think they would be much used on a roof though.