While St. Louis is home to a number of birdwatching groups like the Audubon Society and Missouri River Bird Observatory, there seems to be a general consensus that birdwatching is best kept at a distance. When the winged creatures start spending too much time around your home or business, they can destroy plants, douse your property in feces, create a horrible odor, and even spread disease.
The Department of Conservation lists blackbirds, pigeons, and starlings as nuisance species. Blackbirds and starlings, the Department warns, can sweep through in flocks of over a million birds that all travel and feed together, creating mindbogglingly loud cawing groups. Since the birds munch on crops like corn, sunflower, strawberries, and blueberries, if you'd hoped to have any of those in your backyard garden, you are absolutely out of luck; and if you farm those crops for a living, a flock can destroy your livelihood. And all that food has to come out somewhere, doesn't it? Unfortunately, those species' droppings aren't just gross and smelly, they're also acidic and can corrode buildings.
Between those birds, the droppings aren't only dangerous for buildings, the white goo is also unsafe for humans to be around, carrying as many as 60 different diseases. Birds in Missouri can spread diseases like cryptococcosis, which has symptoms like pneumonia and can lead to meningitis; a similar infection called histoplasmosis, which you can get just by breathing in the microscopic fungus in the droppings; and psittacosis, which you contract by breathing in dust from droppings, and can give you fever, chills, muscle aches, and difficulty breathing.
The problem with getting rid of birds is that in Missouri, many of them are under government protection as part of the Missouri Bird Conservation Plan. And although Missouri takes exception to some of its rules when wildlife is causing damage, the federal government has regulations for almost all bird species nationwide. We're not exaggerating! You need special permission from the government before you take any action that could potentially harm a bird, its nest, or its eggs. If you aren't an expert, you probably won't be able to tell for sure what type of bird has nested around or in your home; and even if you do, you may not be able to get rid of the birds successfully and humanely.
Eliminating those birds isn't as simple as shooing them loudly and waving a broom through the air. Our licensed wildlife control technicians can evaluate your home or business, work to trap the birds and handle them appropriately under state law, clean up the mess they left, and then make sure they never come back. Veteran's Pride Wildlife Control is run by a family of veterans in your community. We live here, and we deal with the same stuff you are, and we are on call 24 hours a day. Contact us today for an inspection and the most effective, reliable, and honest bird control and prevention in the St. Louis and Metro East areas.