For us here at BTP Enviro it’s all about the access when undertaking solutions for bird control work. It may be spikes on a hospital or a bird net in a car park, each situation is unique and requires some planning and a thoughtful approach. We need to comply with the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR) to keep all involved safe. This is achieved by any of us in control of working at height, must make sure work is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people. We have invested in working at height training, IPAF for MEWPS and PASMA training for Zip up towers.
A recent example of this was a project we had at a hospital where we had to install a large number of bird spikes to deter roosting Feral Pigeons (Columbia Livia) from fouling the walkways below. It was causing a public health and infection control hazard by getting it on visitors shoes and walking it through the hospital. It was also a direct slip hazard especially when wet. The other problem when dealing with pest birds is “displacement”. That is – if they are denied access to their favoured roost site, where will they go to next? It could be to another similar part of the building!
The access here was an issue as one area had a raised walkway, so we could not get a cherry picker in with a long enough reach as there was width and ground restrictions. We could not abseil it as there was no safe anchor points on a pitched roof, so we had to scaffold it. Scaffold allows safe access and all fouling can be removed removal effectively. Surfaces can then be prepared and bird spikes installed to keep the pigeons away.
Scaffold to install bird spikes
The next areas was to the left of this part of the building where it was intersected by another building. We could have scaffolded this but the cost was in excess of £5K and took it over budget. For a fraction of the cost we bought in a cherry picker and soon had the ledge cleaned and spiked. The most time consuming part of this work was preparing the access as some temporary wooden steps had to be removed and re-built (twice!) and spreader boards need to be used as one areas was grass.
MEWP used to install bird spikes
The last area was above the roof line and ran on for another 30 meters providing the pigeons with lots of roosting areas on old window cleaning rails, pipes and ledges. Here we used our rope access abseilers who rappelled down and soon had the surfaces clean of pigeon guano and installed new spikes to stop the pigeons from returning.
Here are the before and after pics of our work:
Before BTP put up bird spikes
After BTP Bird spikes
We will even clean your gutters as we have access to the area!
If you need help with your bird issues on site then please call us on 01525 863 951 for help, advice is always free!
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