# How to get rid of Starlings nesting in roof?



## Old Mission

Starlings nest in every nook possible in my roof and its in a area we cannot get to or we'd remove them. I started trying to shoot them with bird shot and got a couple but I'd have to sit there for a month to get rid of them all and I am not fond of shooting the gun since we have so many of our own animals around, kids, bikers, runners and neighbors, ect. I will shoot it when I have a easy target away from everything but the birds have to land in 'just' the right spot and I have to sit and wait for hours.
They drive me crazy and crap all over my patio, deck, grill, roof, herb garden, ect. I cannot even enjoy my patio or herb garden cause its covered in crap!:flame:
and they skwack a horrible sound all day long so I cannot open my windows and they come back every single year and more and more each year, what was originally one nest has turned into so many and in all the outbuildings and barns now too. I dont put out any bird seed and we do have cats, I am about to throw the cats on the roof ;-)

Any suggestions, I am ready to just hire someone to get on the roof and 
remove them and replace all the roof vents and fix all the spots they are getting in but I am a avid DYIer and would like to figure this out myself if I can. The part they are nesting in is too steep and high part of the roof for us to get to with the tallest ladder, we already rented one and tried.

Stephanie


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## RiverPines

Sounds like they have themselves at a safe distance. They are stubborn little coots for sure.
We had them too and they even went as far as trying to nest in the stove pipe on top the roof! They're a little wacked in the head if you ask me. The only way we got rid of them was to get to the entrances along the roof edge and cover it all. We only had to get 2 stories up and our extension ladder worked for that.

Since we covered every opening we havent seen a starling in 2 years any where around here and the native finches and sparrows are back!! 
The native birds are now the dominate species here. When the starlings where here we rarely saw native birds.


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## tamsam

You might try some fake owls. We have one that my wifes ssister made and we have to keep it away from the house or no birds come around. Might be worth a try. Sam


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## RiverPines

We have real owls and it doesn't help.

They know they are safe in those nest and once they have a home, they dont evict easily. At first, before we had the materials to cover the eaves and openings, we ripped their nest out and they came right back as soon as DH was down off the ladder. With us watching they commenced to rebuilding their nest!!

Inside our second story porch room they were in the ceiling and I banged on it and yelled and they didnt budge. The ceiling is soft fiber board so I even could push up and shake it and they didnt care.
They were loud in that ceiling too. I hated sitting in my porch room with the noise of those birds and the nasty calls of their babies which dont sound pretty like a sparrow or finch baby. The parents comings and goings sounded like rats up there too. They just creeped me out.

Starlings dont take 'get out' very well.


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## barnyardgal

I have heard rubber snakes keeps birds from unwanted places...my aunt had one of those carports installed & a bird tried building a nest under it & she put a rubber snake up there & the birds left & no more birds even try to land under it now...

Good luck...


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## poorboy

Catch a black kingsnake and put 'im up there..:shrug:


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## Smokesignals

Wasp & Hornet spray


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## Old Mission

Thanks for the tips! 
Well I shot 3 today so its a start, they wont land and hold still if they see you but I discovered when I put the cat up on the roof they stayed still in the trees skwaking at the cat so I had a easier time but once I'd shoot one the others would not come back for a couple hours and it got dark
and I got the cat down. They are stubborn crazy birds, like flying psycho rats that scream all day! You can hear them in the wall in my sons room and it sounds like a whole family of rats are in the wall. When we moved in there were no spots they could squeeze in but they bent the eaves, ect and made spaces. last year they kept nesting in my grill that was right against my sliding glass door with us inside, they did not even care. I kicked them out of the grill so many times and they just kept rebuilding the nest in there, I finally had to clog all the holes in the grill everytime I cook! I was so ready to torch them! Its so nasty!
I'll try the wasp spray too, I thought about that since I cannot safely reach them
but that stuff sprays far. We also tried BB gun and sling shot to no avail. I have
a feeling we will be repeating this year after year, they are relentless and they never were in the barn ect till this year and now they are everywhere and there are no barn swallows now!

Stephanie


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## RiverPines

If you can hit the nest areas with wasp spray, you can get to them to block them off using a ladder. You may have to buy an extension ladder but Starlings are hell till you take their nest sites away.
They also rip apart insulation and mess it up, if there is any, not to mention the gallons of poo they leave behind.


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## Pops2

google ladder trap scale down the design to fit the starling wingspan. the design is used by USDA guys i know for removing pigeons around hangars. then use a pellet gun to kill EVERYONE. they are a nonnative invasive species, every one you kill is a chance for a native bird to propagate.


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## Old Mission

Well we picked off about 11 of them this weekend with a gun/bird shot. They wont land if they see you around unless your messing with their nest, so one of us would try to bother the nest while the other had the gun. I got a really long extending paint pole and put a hook at the end to try and pull birds out of the nest, it scared all the babies out of one nest that were about ready to fly.
I cannot get to 2 nests in the barn, they are deep 
behind beams, but I did spray wasp spray in those but not sure if it did anything yet.
Its SO much quieter here already!!!! And so much less bird poop all over my patio already!

Stephanie


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## Sully

I posted this on another starling thread, but try this.
Mix dog food with bread crumbs and WHITE corn meal in an old trash can lid where only they can get to. After they are eating it up, mix in a good portion of plaster of Paris. They don't seem to notice the taste. Plaster makes them real thirsty and then sets up in their crops and kills them quick. Nothing poisonous.

Keep pan in a dry place. good luck.


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