Bird Repellent- WhirlyBirdRepeller - Recommendations anyone?

JamesG161 · Nov 20, 2019

If you don't want the CD dangles try this...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N6970MN/ref=psdc_3737951_t3_B000PUDZKW

They even show some on a boat.
Jim...

Ralph Johnstone · Nov 20, 2019

Now that, @JamesG161, is worth trying. I've got nothing to lose with the 100% money back guarantee and probably not even the $7.42 shipping as I've returned items to Amazon before and been returned the cost of shipping as well. I'm all over it.

jssailem · Nov 21, 2019

I think the pin wheels might add a festive look to a boat. Carnival celebration and Bird deterrent all in one.

rpludwig · Nov 21, 2019

some of our members have deployed James' hanging spiral things (look like Xmas tree ornaments) with success, another swears by thin aluminum cheap pie pans hanging here & there, one still runs an electronic audio deterrent on his boat...all fwiw...

we normally don't have a gull problem here, but the Dorian surge apparently blew in schools of menhaden, the gulls (literally 1000's) followed and took over our docks, lasted about a month, now they're gone, thankfully!

CarlN · Nov 25, 2019

The worst poop comes from Cormorants. They just laugh at the tape and CD's.

Most of the poop comes from birds sitting on the spreaders or the top of the mast for hours. Even worse, when they dismember a fish up there and drop the bloody parts on the deck.

Try stringing a single thin stainless wire about 4" above the spreaders (put a screw in the mast and then wrap it tightly on the shroud) with a bit of tape, 5200 or even epoxy to keep it from sliding. It will be almost invisible. Birds won't land.

If the birds land on your mast, get some stainless 3" spikes plates that are sold for roofs and just 5200 it to the top.

Gdindy · Mar 18, 2020

Rich Stidger said:
I have noticed that a few owners at my marina have strung the reflective ribbons, but I did not get a chance to talk to them to learn how well they worked. It seems that so far nobody on this board has offered any direct experience with the whirly bird repeller.

But I do appreciate the other suggestions. If I can devise a method to deploy and retrieve reflective ribbons I think I may try them. I can install spikes on top of my radar dome and the spreaders, but the top of my bimini and dodger are large areas and harder to protect.

Please keep the ideas coming- maybe I can use a combination of ideas to rid my boat of fish guts and waste.

These clips work great to keep them off your lifelines, K-BOB Loop, attach them to your stanchions, push them up over your lifelines and then simply run some monofilament line from clip to clip, it puts a loop across the top of your lifelines that birds will not land. Almost invisible and you can leave them on underway or dockside. Just be prepared your neighbors will not like you if you're in a marina, all the birds go next door.

RoyS · Mar 19, 2020

Why I left the yacht club moorings for a slip in a busy marina. As long as the power boaters are all sitting on their boats in the marina drinking and telling sea stories the birds are elsewhere.

jssailem · Mar 19, 2020

RoyS said:
boaters are all sitting on their boats in the marina

I experience the birds while at the marina doing fix-up. Ducks and sea gulls visiting the dock to snatch a sundowner cracker or nibblet left out. As soon as the work is complete we head out. And the birds are gone.

Birds are at the marina because there are easy to find food sources (my opinion).

ToddS · Mar 19, 2020

Some good suggestions here already. I've done battle with several species of bird on my boat.

Cormorants
Ospreys
Gulls
Starlings
Blue Heron
Swallows

If you want to take your war against the birds seriously... and find a solution that stops (or at least reduces) their visits to your boat, you need to first identify which species of bird is causing your problems... each has very different habits. I have spikes at my masthead for stopping ospreys (90% reduction in visits after deploying)... 2 rows of stainless wire strung above each spreader stops the ospreys... I don't have a "regular" problem with gulls on my current boat, so nothing currently deployed... Starlings only visit when I'm tied at the dock at the marina where I haul on the very last day of my season... so I keep my stay there as short as possible before hauling (1 day)... A Blue Heron used to visit my bimini, but now I leave it furled and covered with a boot and have two stainless wires above the bimini boot strung between my 2 backstays... and I have covered the opening at the aft end of my boom, where swallows used to nest. Each solution is very specifically targeted to the "offender", so I'd say start by identifying what you're up against, and where it lands... Your boat doesn't have to be perfectly good at blocking/scaring them, it only has to be better than the other boats nearby...

Captain Larry-DH · Mar 19, 2020

RoyS said:
As long as the power boaters are all sitting on their boats in the marina drinking and telling sea stories the birds are elsewhere.

You must have some wimpy birds up there.

Here in CT they sit on the spreaders and poop whether we're on the boat or not. The only thing that seems to matter is flash tape or spikes.

Bird Repellent- WhirlyBirdRepeller - Recommendations anyone?

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