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The little buggers made a nest above one of the neighbour's units, and there were oodles of these irritating birds all over the building. Apparently, pigeons are quite the rapid little breeders, doing it up to six times per year with two eggs in a clutch. One tenant contacted the landlord trying to get some pest control, but when I talked to her later she said the management-company basically said we could all get bent. So, no help there!
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That means I'm going to have to battle these little creatures on my own - or at least start a research project figuring out what to do about them. .
After all my beans were eaten last year, my brother-in-law told me he'd read that you can spray WD-40 on the railing to keep them away, since they don't like the smell. This is a fine suggestion, except that I use the railing to attach the beans to, and I don't think I want to be spraying a toxic substance like WD-40 all around my plants..
Wiki-How says that pigeons also don't like spices, so sprinkling some pepper, cayenne pepper or cinnamon where they like to roost will help to deter them. (Repeat applications after wet weather). This sounds much friendlier to my garden than the WD-40 idea..
I see further down the Wiki-How page, they also suggest using reflctors in tandem with other devices to try to scare them away - although it is a temporary solution, much like my fake owl; they work for a while, but after a time, the birds simply get used to the owl that never really moves or attacks them, and slowly on the pigeons show up on the balcony again. We knew this already last year, and what we should do is set up a second pole to set the scarecrow-owl on, so every few days we can change his position around..
I suspect that I will need to do more than sprinkle some spices around and put up a few reflectors though... so I'll keep researching the subject over the growing season, and chronicle my adventures in "The War of the Pigeons."
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