Solving Turkey Vulture Problems on Your Building or Structure- using bird deterrents

 

 

Solving Turkey Vulture Problems on Your Building or Structure

 Turkey Vultures are a heavy, aggressive bird that can cause a lot more damage than one might think. They love to roost on areas where they can overlook food sources so rooftops, high ledges and power poles or towers are all locations they might hang out. 

Turkey Vultures can cause a lot of problems for homeowners and other building owners.

Problems and Damage Caused by Turkey Vultures and other Vultures

These pest birds can cause extensive damage to homes and commercial buildings. They often attack roof shingles, caulking and other exterior surfaces like vent seals, rubber liners, protective covers on equipment and pools and more.

Turkey vultures have been known to damage landscaping, digging up lawns and gardens in search of food (rodents that would be attracted to these areas). 

They are noisy birds, especially in a group or when fighting for food which can be very annoying for people in the vicinity.  

Their droppings and regurgitation (vomit) when near homes or drinking water sources can be especially concerning as they have a foul odor and the bacterial, fungal agents and parasites in them can carry a host of serious diseases, including histoplasmosis, encephalitis, salmonella, meningitis, toxoplasmosis and more. 

Because these birds are scavengers and they feed on carcasses, they often leave bones and some animal remains in the area they are roosting in as well, which is an unpleasant surprise for the building or homeowner and can attract other scavengers like raccoons and coyotes to the area. 

In addition, being very large birds, turkey vultures make a huge mess with their considerable droppings and this creates a slip and fall hazard, plus creates an unclean, dirty image for your business. Trying to manage this by simply cleaning up after these birds can become expensive very quickly.

 

Farmers are never happy to see turkey vultures (or black vultures) when babies are being born.  The vultures love to hang out in the area because they target the afterbirth and stillborn animals.  Black vultures will even go after a still living animal if they sense it is sickly.  As vulture populations increase, livestock producers are seeing an uptick in the death of lambs, kid goats, free-range chickens and turkeys and even larger livestock in many areas. (NY Times, September 6, 2021)

And finally, turkey vultures are very large birds that look scary with their bald, red heads and their intimidating wingspan which can reach up to 6-1/2 feet. This can be especially concerning to homeowners with small children and pets.   

So how do you get rid of these large, aggressive flocking pest birds?

Solutions to Turkey Vulture Problems

Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures are both federally protected birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  This means any bird control solutions for vultures must be humane. 

The size of these birds presents issues where some bird deterrents like bird spikes will not work because the birds are too heavy and will bend the spikes (or snap the plastic).  If there are food sources nearby, the vultures are going to be very determined to remain in the area, so we recommend combining a physical bird deterrent like Bird Shock Flex Track with several audio/visual/taste repellents.

The most effective vulture control products is electrified bird track (Bird Shock Flex track).  This bird deterrent is very low profile at only ¼” in height, and it should be installed along the roof edge where the vultures hang out, along with another row or two if they hang out all over the roof.  When the vulture makes contact with the track it receives a small electric shock, similar to a static electric shock for us, which the birds don’t like, and it encourages them to find another location. 

You can use a GridWire system installed from a center point every 3 feet to end points around a rooftop or install a horizontal Bird Net to prevent the vultures from landing on a flat roof.

Any of these physical deterrents should be reinforced with audio visual products to create the illusion that a predator is in the area in addition to their favorite hangouts not being desirable anymore. 

If the turkey vultures have just started hanging out, you may be able to simply use a combination of audio/visual/taste products to move them from the area by convincing them a predator is nearby.  Get a copy of the Vulture Deterrent CD which includes shotgun blasts, dogs barking, cats, predator calls and more. Get the Gull-Cat Bird Deterrent which is a life-like crouching and moving cat that scares birds to think a real predator is present. Also grab the Coyote
Predator Deterrent which is a menacing predator replica in a predator stance which has some lifelike movement to it. Place it in an area where the birds can see it. Then hang Dead Vulture Decoy visual bird scarers upside down near and around the problem area. The vultures will think these predators just killed one of their flock.  Move the Dead Vulture Decoys, the Coyote Deterrent and the Gull-Cat once every day or two to a new location after you play the CD so it looks like ‘fresh kills’ are occurring, convincing the vultures live predators are in the area so they skedaddle out of there!  You can also place Bird Free Bird Repellent Gel dishes around the area.  This new gel deterrent looks like flames to the birds and they don’t like the smell either.

So don’t despair, there are plenty of products to get rid of those aggressive, annoying vulture problems at your place.  For more information on any of these products, or if you need a professional installer referral for the Flex Track or Bird Net, feel free to contact us at mark@birdsgottago.com or call us at 855-741-3222.