Bird Control News
Geese
Certainly their numbers are increasing due to very successful conservation projects well coordinated throughout most of the northern hemisphere. Helikites are almost embarrassingly good at controlling migratory geese. Our stated 30 to 50 acres is often vastly exceeded. Geese certainly need not be shot to be controlled as they can always be moved if required.
Silage clamps and Crows
Far more damage this year than last due to the new varieties encouraging more farmers to have the highly attractive maize silage. Helikites have particular success with this problem compared to other birdscarers. There have been the usual tales of birds sitting on flashing scarers etc. Helikites keep crows or rooks about 150 yards away, permanently.
Helikites granted US patent
The US Dept of Agriculture has just published the results of their latest bird control trials. Helikites proved exceptionally good at scaring gulls on landfill sites and rooftops. The summary is self explanatory and reproduced below.
Successful Trial of Allsopp Helikites as a bird Scaring Device by USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) carried out experiments regarding bird harassment / exclusion and recently published the initial evaluation of Allsopp Helikites as a bird scaring device against gulls at loafing and nesting areas.
So far two trials have been conducted. A ten day trial at a landfill site in the Erie County, Ohio, U.S.A. and a two week trial on the rooftop of the Tru-Serv Corporation in Westlake, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Two treatment ponds at the landfill site were selected as study sites and it was observed that at the pond with the Helikite the mean number of gulls decreased from an average 356.5 gulls before deployment of the Helikite to 0.1 after deployment. At the same time, the number of gulls at the pond without the Helikite increased from an average of 104.2 gulls to a mean number of 433.7 gulls. The Helikite appeared to move the gulls very successfully.
Similar results were achieved at rooftops. The nest density under the Helikite decreased from 41 herring gulls/ha to 18/ha within 7 days of deployment. In areas not covered by Helikites the nest density increased from 23/ha to 42/ha within 14 days of deployment. Thus a significant reduction in nesting density was achieved by deploying the Allsopp Helikite.
These were very good results, apparently better than had been achieved with any other bird scarers and currently, further tests are being carried out to determine long term habituation and also the response of other bird species to the Allsopp Helikites.
