swallows

RichieRich

hi guys, i know that this is probably the wrong place for this thread, but does anyone know if there's any way of stopping swallows building their nests on my house, i kept knocking the nests down before they had them completed last year and i presumed they wouldn't try to build agein this year, but there i was again tonight trying to knock down half built nests- (yes plural nest-S there are 3 of them) with a lenght of 2" waste pipe,

any suggestions?:(:confused

endasmail

ah let them build!
wrong section

fodda

Yep leave em alone they do nothing but good by eating tons of bloody flies, ok they ****e a little but it soon goes, besides you may have House Martins not swallows............tis wrong section though:D

Sam Kade

I had the same problem a few years ago. I just left them stay then one year we got a couple of cats and the swallows never built their nests on the house since. They didn't even build on the far gable end of the house even though the cats never stay at that side of the house.

IRLConor

Bounced to Animals & Pet Issues.

RichieRich

fodda wrote: »

Yep leave em alone they do nothing but good by eating tons of bloody flies, ok they ****e a little but it soon goes, besides you may have House Martins not swallows............tis wrong section though:D

leave em alone????????? they ****e a little????? they are swallows, if they were house martins i'd have said they were house martins, ah forget about it -i won't get into it any futher


tree huggers:rolleyes:

PinkTulips

they build on all our neighbours house but not ours.. when the house was being built the builder knocked the nest off ours when they started as it was sold to our landlady and he wasn't sure if she'd want it there.

i've been trying to encourage them back since but they won't come

swallows and house martins are so beautiful, it always makes me smile to see them come back in spring, if we don't allow them space to nest and breed we'll be losing out on the beauty of them swooping and chirping across the sky all summer long.

<<<< polishes tree hugger badge >>>>>

Sigma Force

Oh for heavens sake leave the poor birds alone, stick some plastic on the ground under the nest and pop some rocks on it to weigh it down that will catch all the poop over the next while.

Swallows travel huge distances to get here, and are finding it harder to find places to nest. Do your bit and leave the birds there, they liven up the place and also really do cut down the number of midges in summer.

Ours haven't returned this year for the first time ever, the neighbours ones did but no sighn of our ones, very dissapointing.

It's only a bit of bird poop just get the hose out now and then and stop being so house proud.

jwshooter

there is less of them about this year so far or is it just me.

i love them on my house there more than welcome .

i have a blue tit and a wag tail also ,the wag tail almost eats with the dogs ,
im sure there playing a waiting game with him .

sorella

We have them here; the main room door ( old Irish cottage) opens to the world and they fly in and out.

Lovely creatures. Worth any mess.

I lived once in a place where we were "forbidden" to feed the birds because of the mess the seagulls made. Really!

~Thalia~

Would consider myself a tree hugger too but these little feckers break my heart. Honestly we have had them in our front porch for the last three years and the amount of ****e after them in just disgusting. Lovely to watch them and the hatchlings but the final straw came when the dog came in after trying to 'mask' her own smell by rubbing her face and neck in the piles of ****e left after 2 adult birds and five hatchlings every day.

Knocked every nest they tried to build down this year,

kerash

OMG! Please dont knock the nests down, they only stay for a short while, and I'm always amazed and delighted to see them return every year.
Yeah they shít on stuff, but so do the cats I'm overrun with (not mine) wanting to kill them. Even when the cats destroy the nest and eat the eggs the swallows persevere and rebuild.
Maybe I should kill the kitties to save the birdies? then kill the birdies to save stuff getting shít upon......

Mr. Presentable

RichieRich wrote: »

leave em alone????????? they ****e a little????? they are swallows, if they were house martins i'd have said they were house martins, ah forget about it -i won't get into it any futher


tree huggers:rolleyes:

They're house martins. Swallows don't build on house walls. But it's a common mistake so don't worry

Getting rid of swallows would be easy, but martins are a bit more persistent. You need to make the nest site unattractive to them. Tying some plastic under the eave/soffit will stop them from placing their mud, but may not aesthetically improve your home.

RichieRich

nipplenuts wrote: »

They're house martins. Swallows don't build on house walls. But it's a common mistake so don't worry

Getting rid of swallows would be easy, but martins are a bit more persistent. You need to make the nest site unattractive to them. Tying some plastic under the eave/soffit will stop them from placing their mud, but may not aesthetically improve your home.

thank you for the first helpful reply, house martins eh?:o:o:o silly me?

Sam Kade

Richie the first helpful reply was the one that I told you to get a cat or cats.

PinkTulips

Sam Kade wrote: »

Richie the first helpful reply was the one that I told you to get a cat or cats.

pmsl... i have 3 adult cats, we've had at least one cat since we've moved in, our neighbours have a cat too..... but the martins build in the eave of the house, absolutely no way for a cat to get there unless it developes spidercat abilities every house but ours has at least one nest if not more

i agree about the dangling plastic, that's how the builder deterred them from building again.... damn near broke my neck hanging out the window with a hook on a broom handle trying to yank it off!

yes the **** is annoying but it's hardly job of the century to sweep up under the nest every few days is it? it does brush off the ground easily enough

mosesgun

Hanging some plastic bags under the eaves seems to be working to an extent for me at the moment. We are inundated with them. They are extremely persistent. Hanging a dead bird like a pigeon or magpie where they want to nest worked for us for a while until they copped on that it was no threat to them. I think knocking down the nests as soon as they start building is the only solution. Martins or swallows - I'm confused. The martins whose nests in the eaves I knock down then proceed to try to nest in a shed we have so does that make them martins or swallows?
To be honest, I'd shoot the lot of them (only joking - kind of)

igglou

You can borrow one of my dogs, she operates a no fly zone around our house! Seriously, all the neighbours are pestered by them but we never had them thanks to her.

On the otherhand, we foolishly put fancy pots on our chimney and decided not to out the crow hobblers up. Big mistake. We have jackdaws nesting in there now every since but for the last 2 years it's been awful.

One of the young birds dies and falls down the chimney, flies lay eggs and then the maggots turned into bluebottles and come down the chimney into the sitting room! The first year this happened, 2007, I only came home form hospital with my new baby.

I absolutely hate flies/bluebottles so imagine the scene, you open the door into your living room and see something from a horror film, thousands of bluebottles crawling all over the furniture and so many on the windows that you can't out of them!

We have tried to get up to the chimneys since, but because of the roof shape and the slates its prooving impossible. I think we will need a crane at this rate!

Dusty87

igglou wrote: »

We have tried to get up to the chimneys since, but because of the roof shape and the slates its prooving impossible. I think we will need a crane at this rate!

Did you try a roof ladder:D Should make it a lot handier.
They are heartbreaking. Did you try cone of them cone shaped Crow gaurds?

Sam Kade

PinkTulips wrote: »

pmsl... i have 3 adult cats, we've had at least one cat since we've moved in, our neighbours have a cat too..... but the martins build in the eave of the house, absolutely no way for a cat to get there unless it developes spidercat abilities every house but ours has at least one nest if not more

When I got the cats the birds stopped building nests on the house which is a single storey. They don't have to climb up the walls to frighten the birds away.

Morganna

just enjoy them

cyborg

Morganna wrote: »

just enjoy them

....with some fava beans and a nice chianti !

Just kidding let them be, it's only a bit of sh!t on the path, they don't do any real damage.

Morganna

Lol Cyborg

GrumPy

Thread title misleading tbh.


Disappointing!!

IrishHomer

I think there should be a sticky at the top of the nature forum and on this section about the fact that its completely against the Law to interfere with a wild birds nest, and "all wild birds are protected under the Wildlife Acts 1976 & 2000" :mad:

sofia11

We have swallows building in the garden shed and we are leaving the door open so that they can finish building their nest. It's great to see them return every spring. Its only for a few weeks. Hopefully they will keep the fly/midge population down a bit.

staker

I put up a mirror on the wall where they had nested last year.
Has worked so far,they're building on the opposite gable now,but that's ok.
Love to see and hear them,always bring a smile.

emma-fly

I have a similar problem but i wanna know how do i stop them actually coming into the house???
They zoom past when we open the door...
They come in nearly every day and try to nest!!

Mailman

Let them nest this year. They have come too far and invested too much time in building their nest now for you to ruin their chance to have offspring.
In the autumn when they go you can put up wire mesh under the eaves and they won't nest next year.
That's what my Father did after I gave out to him for messing around with them during the breeding season.
Personally I would have preferred for the nests to remain as the view of a dozen swallows darting around the garden, soaring in to the sky and diving to the ground at home was something truly spectacular.

DeeColl

Aww I love my swallows We just built a new house so they built in our porch last year before we moved in, I used to shout "Hello" up to the nest on my way in only to be met with 4 chirping chicks! The same ones are back this year and we happily let them build - poor things are after travelling thousands of miles, we have 2 cats but the cats cant climb up to where they are. Isnt it illegal to destroy the nests?.

grellan1

Ours haven't returned this year for the first time ever, the neighbours ones did but no sighn of our ones, very dissapointi[/QUOTE]

Ours haven't nested this year - started to repair their nest last month, then the bad weather and a neighbourhood cat, result no swallows nest.
They are still around but we will really miss the young ones .
I agree that they fly such long distances to return and nest in EXACTLY ths same spot each year, which is wonderful for such a small bird and great to watch.