Anyone have a covered boathouse? How do you keep the swallows from nesting inside?

[desmobob]

A friend of mine's parents have a nice covered boat dock on the lake.  She just got a new tri-toon boat but can't dock it under the boathouse until the swallow nested in the rafters finishes raising its young.  After that, we need to prevent further nesting.  My idea is to cover the exposed rafters with some kind of plastic netting or screen.

 

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of what might be the best material to use?  Or is this a bad idea?

[Fishingmickey]

Maybe put up some nesting boxes or like a Purple Martin house and give them a nicer place to nest?

 

 

FM

[Deleted account]

RWS 3500 in .177

[Choporoz]

Bird spike strips work great on horizontals.  I imagine they'd work well across the top of verticals

[slonezp]

34 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

RWS 3500 in .177

Bird shot and the proper choke and he should be able to get them all in 1 shot.

[Bird]

As kids we use to rid barns of pigeon infestation.

Problem was, by the time we shot all the pigeons, the barn roof looked like a minnow seine.

 

Magnetic netting is cheap and effective and would probably be the route I'd take to eliminate birds nesting in a boat house.

[TnRiver46]

I’ve got a covered boat house but luckily they don’t get into the rafters. This is a big problem though, that I deal with sometimes at work. Birds can sometimes be deterred visually with shiny and/or colorful things that move around. Boat dock swallows seem a tad more determined but it might be worth a try. Physically excluding them with a plywood ceiling nailed to the rafters might be better. Or sheets of tongue and groove vinyl screwed in maybe. The netting can be quite a pain to get just right, and also will hold debris that you can look up and see

 

what doesn’t work at all, but everyone does anyway, is mount a plastic owl somewhere. It beats all I’ve ever seen, buying plastic owls must be more addictive than buying cocaine 

[BigAngus752]

There are some who will tell you that plastic owls don't work.  That is not entirely true.  The trick is to hang them in a such a way that they will sway and twist in the wind.  We have barn swallows that try to nest on our covered porches every year.  We chase them away every year with a single owl that we move around.  If it sits still the birds will figure out that it's fake and will nest.  If it swings in the wind and you rehang it on a different spot every week it will work.  It only takes a few weeks before they stop trying for the year.  

[TnRiver46]

39 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

There are some who will tell you that plastic owls don't work.  That is not entirely true.  The trick is to hang them in a such a way that they will sway and twist in the wind.  We have barn swallows that try to nest on our covered porches every year.  We chase them away every year with a single owl that we move around.  If it sits still the birds will figure out that it's fake and will nest.  If it swings in the wind and you rehang it on a different spot every week it will work.  It only takes a few weeks before they stop trying for the year.  

Movement definitely helps! I’ve always seen them mounted to a roof, chimney, or just sitting on a picnic table 

[BigAngus752]

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Movement definitely helps! I’ve always seen them mounted to a roof, chimney, or just sitting on a picnic table 

We initially put one up with wire and it didn't move in the wind.  Worked for a few days and then I was spraying down that horrible smelling nest.  Hung it on some twine....never a nest again.  But it stays breezy here also.  

[desmobob]

3 hours ago, Deleted account said:

RWS 3500 in .177

That would be my kind of solution.   I have a collection of springer air rifles from .177 to .25 from RWS, Weirauch, Air Arms, Beeman, Hatsan, etc.  Unfortunately, it's not an option.  ?

[gim]

10 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

If it swings in the wind

The wind doesn't always blow though, and therefore the owl becomes useless.  It relies on mother nature to make it effective.  A lot of these docks with lifts and canopies are lake homes or cabins, so they are not occupied all the time.  People visit them on the weekend or during a major holiday and they sit unattended for days at a time until they return.

 

I see people up here in MN using netting if they really want to keep the birds out of their canopy/lift.  The netting goes all the way to the water.  It might be a pain in the rear to take down and put back up, but it works.

[Jig Man]

I’d be looking at a permanent solution like boxing in the ceiling and be done with it.  That’s what I had to do to keep robins from nesting in the curve of my down spouts.

[Darth-Baiter]

to prevent mud swallows on our bridges (prior to construction - retrofit stuff) we sometimes put in the contract that the first order of business is bird mitigation.  we have the contractor install these inexpensive plastic boards to cover all 90 degree corners, where they want to put their nests.  it was a commercial product, endorsed by our biologists.  

 

seemed to work.  I'll ask a biologist when I see her.

[Bolar]

29 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

to prevent mud swallows on our bridges (prior to construction - retrofit stuff) we sometimes put in the contract that the first order of business is bird mitigation.  we have the contractor install these inexpensive plastic boards to cover all 90 degree corners, where they want to put their nests.  it was a commercial product, endorsed by our biologists.  

 

seemed to work.  I'll ask a biologist when I see her.

 

This.  You need to block their nesting perch, and they can build a nest on almost nothing.  I've had luck with the bird spikes.  You can buy the plastic ones or custom your own with aluminum flashing and aluminum nails.  I've also had luck with Vicks Vaporub as a short term solution.

 

 

[Darth-Baiter]

like this:

 

it's super important to cover the ends of the barriers or they will get into the hole at the end.

 

https://birdbarrier.com/product-category/default-category/birdslide/

[desmobob]

Surprisingly, it seems the last few nests the swallows built were attached to vertical surfaces: the junction of the ridge rafter and roof rafters.  I'm thinking mesh screening or waferboard, etc. to close the bottom of the boathouse "attic" will be the only sure thing.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[TnRiver46]

I just saw something at a customers house that reminded me of this thread

I guess they gave up on the plastic owl 

[WRB]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:50 PM, desmobob said:

A friend of mine's parents have a nice covered boat dock on the lake.  She just got a new tri-toon boat but can't dock it under the boathouse until the swallow nested in the rafters finishes raising its young.  After that, we need to prevent further nesting.  My idea is to cover the exposed rafters with some kind of plastic netting or screen.

 

Anyone have any experience or knowledge of what might be the best material to use?  Or is this a bad idea?

Swallows make nest from mud making hundreds of trips building the nest. Swallows don’t land on rafters so rafter style spikes don’t work. 

the problem is keeping the boat house open allowing the Swallows easy flight path to build the nest.

Simple thing to do is knock down the nest before they finish building it.

Adding bright Mylar stringers from the door header will stop swallows entering the boat house or close the door.

Tom

[BassNJake]

I have about 6 or 7 of the plastic owls in my garage

Some people dont understand how wind works

so I run into a floating owl at least once a year

[newbiedmv]

 Big Plastic owl with the freaky glowing eyes has worked in my equipment barn for about 20 years now. Even keeps out groundhogs and squirrels.  Yes it's hanging and moved every spring. Scares the crap out if you at night with a flashlight.

[schplurg]

I'm with Tom, knock the nests down as they come. If you want to spend the money on prevention then there are solutions, I suppose. It's not like they build them all year.

 

This year there was a mud nest on the bottom of my Dad's pontoon boat, situated between the floor an the pontoon. Could see it on the lift.

 

As a kid, BB guns took too many shots to clear the nest, they are tough, and it may not be safe or legal depending on your location. And you may damage the thing boathouse.

 

Just spray them with a hose. If you want to allow the birds to finish nesting then feel free, but I probably wouldn't.