by Bryan Donoho

With the lazy days of summer coming to a close, the fall and winter months are quickly approaching.  This means people are hanging up the swimming trunks, putting the beach wear away, and storing the boats for the long winter ahead.  Unfortunately, we are not the only ones preparing for the fall and winter months.  Resident pest bird populations prepare for the cold weather by finding a place to roost and what better place than inside the warm confines of a boat in storage.  Not only do these birds cause a potentially expensive mess, they also leave behind disease carrying bacteria that can land an unsuspecting boater in the hospital or worse.  With the economy in the trenches, Americans are doing everything possible to stretch every dollar, and with the amount of money damage pest birds can cause a boater, it seems irresponsible not to bird proof your boats or watercraft.

In order to properly bird proof your boat for winter storage one has to understand the habits and tendencies of nuisance birds both on and off the water.  Birds, like any other organism, require three basic elements for survival; food, shelter, and water.  Since birds are able to travel quite easily, close proximity to food and water are not as important as a safe haven for roosting.  This is where the problems arise with boats in storage.  Once a pest bird has begun nest construction it is very difficult to get rid of them, this is why it is best to solve the problem before it even begins.

One of the most common places to store boats and small watercraft is inside of a storage warehouse or boathouse.  Unfortunately, birds love to nest inside these shelters and their feces and nesting material can destroy the paint jobs on boats, stain the canvas covers, lock up engines, and leave behind disease carrying bacteria.  A common resident to storage warehouses is the barn swallow.  The barn swallow possesses the capability to cause catastrophic damage because of its nesting habits.  Inside of a warehouse it will build a mud nest just about anywhere, including over boats and once in place, it will drop fecal matter and nesting material all around its nesting site because they are just naturally messy nesters.  To prevent this one would want to install bird netting on the ceiling to take away their nesting structure.  Bird netting is a safe, humane, cost efficient and extremely effective way to rid a warehouse of pest birds.  It generally comes in rolls and can easily be attached to most any kind of structure.  However if the hanging net proves too difficult for the average boat owner, one could always call their local pest control company.

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