Preventing historic feral pigeon issues for Welton, Bibby and Baron Ltd

Welton, Bibby and Baron Ltd, a major supplier of packaging to the UK’s leading retailers and brand owners contacted NBC Environment to help them advise and provide a solution to prevent historic issues reoccurring with feral pigeons. Pigeons had begun nesting, roosting, and defecating faeces (hazardous to human health) beneath the front loading canopy and waste product bailing canopy.

Project overview

The large canopies provide a perfect location for nesting and roosting pigeons. Pigeons are a community flocking bird and as such will gather within the canopy areas which provide the perfect harbourage for many feral pigeons, providing them with a safe nesting and roosting location.

If left unprotected there would have been a risk of an extreme build-up of feral pigeon faeces over the delivery/collection vehicles and products for onward transit to major supermarket retailers. Feral pigeon faeces are extremely acidic and if left untreated, even for a short period of time will result in unsightly staining and may cause costly returns from the major supermarket retailers.

Feral pigeon faeces carry several dangerous diseases, such as Histoplasmosis, Ornithosis, Campylobacterosis and Cryptococcosis. This is extremely dangerous as the bacterial spores are hazardous to human health as it can become airborne dust which carries micro-organisms and can be inhaled into the lungs leading to respiratory difficulties and other illnesses. This creates a risk not only to the staff on site but members of the general public who are using products that may be contaminated by feral pigeon faeces.

Our solution

NBC Environment installed 50mm feral pigeon netting systems with stainless steel fixtures and fittings to create a physical barrier in order to prevent feral pigeons from entering the areas beneath the canopies that offer them shelter. This in turn provided secure protection for the delivery/collection vehicles, staff working below and products leaving the business. This removed the risks of costly customer returns from the major retailers.

The client requested that these works would ideally take place over the weekends when the site was not as busy as during the week with numerous HGV vehicles constantly arriving and departing, this would provide a safe working environment whilst the installation takes place, so the project was completed two weekends.

More information on our pigeon control services