Pests (Swallows)

Back last year I posted that my out buildings were being coated in treetreetreetree due
to swallows nesting. While they are off sunning themselves in Africa ... I intend putting in a
barrier to stop them this year.

Unless someone has a better idea, the thought is that as the outbuilding is
trussed roof construction open at ceiling ... and they nest up in eaves ...

If I put anti-bird nets horizontal across the joists of the trusses, it will stop them without affecting light passage too much.
Probably use a woven 20 x 20mm polyethylene netting ...Now this is where I need help.

Outbuilding is in 2 bays separated by a wall. Would want to fit the netting such that I can still get up into 'roof' space occasionally, where I store materials etc;

So if we take aprox size of each bay as 3.5m x 8.5m ... trusses are right angles to long measurement. looking for suggestions as to how to fix the net, one that it is 'bird tight', so that means fairly taught across the underside of trusses.

Some initial thoughts are thread bamboo canes through the edges and find a way to fix canes (some form of cup hook ?) ... or use canes on ends and down one side, and thread bungee elastic cord down other, allow bungee to
hook over some clip at intervals, this would allow access, and 'should help
keep net taught.
Maybe even a couple of intermediate canes down centre ?

Anybody got any suggestions ? or better ideas

It only needs to be in place Mar to June I'm guessing ... after which they would have nested elsewhere.

I am not disturbing centuries old nesting sites .. this is a new out-building on a brownfield site, I need to stop them getting in, I can't afford the damage.

 

Not sure you'll get many replies to this. I've never known swallows/swifts/house martins as a pest. I have to clear up their mess every day during the Summer and am glad to do it as long as they are there. Lovely creatures.

 

Sargan, this is a difficult one to get round. Would it not be possible to staple the netting directly into the eaves with a staple gun, leaving you with permanent access to the area. I presume they are making solid nests from mud. This they wouldn't do with the netting there because it would give and be unstable.

 

How about those screw in hooks? With your bamboo idea threaded through the netting you could pull it tight and hook over the hooks maybe.........

 

I had swallows in my barn for years. Martins on the house as well. They were never a pest, I was pleased to have them.
A little mess yes, but a small price to pay for hosting such beautiful birds.

 

In my case a whole lot of mess .. and as they were seriously damaging my boat they had to go.

Nobody can complain of me destroying an age old habitat, the boat shed is new I built it for my boat. (not for them).
I let them have the season .. what I have done this year is fit anti bird netting fully across roof void ... really difficult for me as it makes access a real pain .... a couple of shots from my rifle would have been hundreds of times cheaper.

However don't want to kill them ... so just prevented them nesting this year .... and I have kept fully within the law by not interfering with Nesting swallows.

 

Just an update 100% success on this.
The swallows arrived this year and spent a few days dive bombing around the place, now they set up home in house opposite ... hell of a mess on his front door & porch ... but my boat shed now clean

I did this using woven netting, threaded para cord lengths on all 4 sides, with snap karbines (carabiners) at start and ends of each run ... screwed in stainless screw-eyes in the corners and hooks every 600mm ......... net kept taught to underside of joists, yet can be unclipped for access to stored items.

It did have a curved piece of cord between each hook ... so yo avoid swallow squeeze through .... I stapled in 6" dpc all way round so it is fixed to top of wall plate, and lies with about a 3" overlap on netting.


Lots of effort ... but now easy to put up & take down each year - and no harm done to the birds.

 

I'm glad to see you've solved the problem Sargan.