Starlings: the bird you want removed
When starlings have made a home in your home, the first thing we do is remove the nest. Then we block up the entrance.
The most important thing is to have it done as soon as you hear the birds in your roof.
Why the timing matters
Remove the nest before the eggs are laid and you take away any chance of the chicks hatching and running around your roof. If you wait until after that, you can end up with a chick falling down a cavity wall, dying there, and leaving you with the smell.
The other thing that happens is that the bird lice now have multiple hosts. That is how you end up with a heavy bird lice infestation that needs proper intervention.
Exclusion is the real solution
Prevention is better than cure, and with birds that means exclusion. Keep the access points to your roof blocked up and you keep starlings and everything else out of the roof space. It saves a lot of headaches later, and it keeps the rats out as well.
The last step is the lice
Once the birds and the nest debris are out, there is one thing left to do, and that is treat for the bird lice.
We take a two-pronged approach. A ULV fogger puts a specially formulated pesticide through the roof cavity to kill the lice. We often use it inside the building too, where quick relief is needed. Then we spray the cornices and the ceiling with a residual insecticide to block the path of the lice moving from the roof into the rest of the house. That deals with the starlings and the bird lice together.
Need someone to come and look?
Tell us what you’re seeing and where. A photo helps more than you’d think.
Or phone 061 905 0514 if you’d rather talk to a person.