How do I stop swallows from nesting

Dunno. But I have a couple of swifts that I would like to stop nesting on a certain house.

Well yes, that's old news.

Maybe some netting hanging down along the open ends,suspend it from poles so it just slides back when access required.

Please take a breath and a step backward. Try to realise how remarkable these little creatures are. For, little creatures is what they are. Living, alive and you have them living with you. I'm not a twitcher but have lived with swifts, swallows and martins all my life. Yes, they do crap on whatever is beneath. So do I, you and HM the Q.

You can cover your boat and it will be clean but only whilst you have that boat. You will change your boat. Consider yourself blessed that these little rascals have chosen to live with you. This time of year they will have probably scarpered anyway. I think there is no finer sight than watching the youngsters earning and getting theit wings. Wonderful sight late of a summers day. Preparing for a very long journey. Saddest thing for me is the sight of hatchlings that have fallen from the nest Always saddens me. Always.

Cherish them, or get a shotgun. If you already have one, use it. It appears from your post that you don't much care for wildlife.

Is this a diy matter.

You're both lucky buggers - send them over here - I'd love to see swallows flitting about in the dusk. But I appreciate that in the wrong place they are a pest.

-- Halmyre

Rick Hughes :

We must have at least a dozen swallows in our stables. The mess and the smell are a bit unpleasant but I love seeing them flying around so I put up with it. But I can see how others might not want to.

Knocking the nests off will do no good because they'll have made a new one before you know it.

I'm guessing that you have a pitched roof and they're nesting under it. I'd try putting a horizontal net across at eaves level, before they come back next spring. Make sure you don't leave any gaps of more than a couple of cm.

Contact

You might take a look here to see what you can and can't do within the law.

If I could just get them to move to the left a bit so that they did not s*it on you as you went through the door I would be happy:-)

Good advice.

Wildlife is fine in its place, on a plate.

Pulling the trigger is always diy.

While I am generally in favour of protecting birds. I think that it is wrong that where birds are causing a problem (for instance my parents had a nest directly above their front door and as well as the mess getting into the house, it was treacherously slippery on the step), that the occupier must "make an application", "show that other alternatives have been considered" and organise for an "authorised person" all at their cost, simply to get rid of an obvious hazard that is not of their making.

SteveW

"Rick Hughes" wrote: [snip]

Possibly the best that you can do is to catch the birds, skewer them and cook them over charcoal. Mind you I like swallows so I would leave them alone.

It's a dilemma that women are familiar with. Spit or swallow?

It usually isn't that difficult to persuade the birds to move a bit to the left (or right) and so maintain both a clear path and a nest for a bird which is in decline. Imagination is surely the one element which puts the best DIYer above the plodding apparachnik and something we should use to best effect.

You're both lucky buggers - send them over here - I'd love to see swallows flitting about in the dusk. But I appreciate that in the wrong place they are a pest.

I agree the 4 of them are very acrobatic, ... it's just they crap so much my nice new outbuilding is now a filthy health hazard.

Yes this is a diy matter .... I want to do something myself that will stop the sods returning. I appreciate your points above, and I have foxes, rabbits, frogs all visit my garden on regular basis ... and I'm happy to leave them alone.

For me this is a £30k boat & building investment... that is being seriously covered in crap by some wild birds .. that I do not want. I don't want to cover boat ... this was whole point in spending several thousand building my boat store .... so that I could leave covers off it, otherwise you trap in damp air and things go mouldy.

I don't want to kill the birds, although I have considered shooting them - after having to wash boat down before use ! I will let them be until they move off, but I sure as hell want to stop them coming back.

They are still there ... all 4 of them crapping everywhere today as normal .... maybe I should put a holiday program on radio to drop hint for them to migrate.

As to your point about the Queen ... I'm not English, and would feel just as peeved if the Queen was crapping on my boat.

I also like swallows but I've not tried them on a barbecue.

Which is basically what they did - blocking the entrance while they were both out. I think that that is technically illegal though.

SteveW

After having to clean out another load of bird crap ..... and it's Sept. and according to those that know they should have migrated in August.

If this carries on they are heading for a lead injection.

Yeah, but you're advocating swallow on a spit