How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

[astuckey]

Hello, I have a 1988 Four Winns 205 Sundowner. I often leave it on the mooring on our river and put the cover on, which is black. This is the cover that goes from the windshield to the transom, covering all of the cockpit. My problem is that I live inland on a river with many small birds, and they like to sit on the boat cover. This would not bother me, except they crap on it. I find white bird crap on it almost every time I go out. My question is, is there any way to keep them off of the cover? Is there some kind of coating that can be sprayed on the cover? Does anyone else have this problem?

Thanks a ton!

 

[batman99]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

As a suggestion, visit your local home hardware store and buy/install a hawk or owl on a pole. If wondering, we used to get lots of birds on our kid's Play Centre. Bird droppings all over its top surface as well. After we installed our owl, we now get much less bird droppings. Most weeks, NO droppings at all.

For picture, surf: http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/Misc Pictures/Owl-3.jpg

Tip: Mount the owl/hawk with 1 x screw up its centre position. Every week, simply turn the owl/hawk a few inches. Thus, the local birds will think the item is moving (and is alive). If wondering, we have one over our pool area as well. This seems to scare most of the birds away from our home's pool area as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[pckeen]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Hi,

Is the boat stored in a particular place that is attractive to the birds (no idea what that would be there) - by a food source, under some trees they are used for nesting - in the shade on a hot day....Moving it might work. What you can do is, after cleaning the cover, spray it with some waterproofing material - that might make it easier to clean.

 

[astuckey]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Hmmm, sounds like that might work!

Thanks

 

[batman99]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

.

If one goes with the fake owl, here's a few other clips to keep in mind.

gethen:
I know guys who have used the fake owls to attempt to keep starlings from, er, crapping in their cattle's feed bins and people who have tried placing owls on the tops of their pontoon boats to keeps gulls from, er, crapping on their boats. Both say the same thing. The owls work for a little while, and then the birds notice they don't move and return to their original disgusting habits. So I guess you'd say they work, but one needs to keep moving them to different positions.

the foolish fox:
The owl statue trick worked for us... for a while anyway. You have to keep moving the owl every few hours or they will catch on. I got tired of moving it and the birds wised up.
6 years ago

Hope this helps as well...

 

[gm280]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Yes those birds are not as dumb as we think. BUT, you can install your fake Owl or Hawk or even a Snake on a Lazy-Susan type device and problem is solved. The wind will make it move around and those birds will notice it moving and stay away... I used a fake Snake one time to keep the birds from eating our strawberries...worked too...

 

[Expidia]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Some ideas:

Amazon.com: Bird-X OWL Prowler Owl with Moving Wings: Patio, Lawn & Garden

BIRD B GONE Solar-Powered Bird Repeller at West Marine

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-X-T-EYES-Terror-Eyes-Inflatable-Chaser/dp/B0019F35WA

 

[Campylobacter]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

I've heard these work, they use long "whiskers", not strong enough for the birds to land on, but big enough to interfere with landing and taking off.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Chuck Norris...:lol:

 

[frantically relaxing]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

We have billions of swallows around our harbor, and they're a royal pain in the butt on our SkipperLiner. They build mud nests right on vertical walls- over the sliding doors mostly. Our Party top was a perch haven for the buggers---

This is what we found after a 2-weekend hiatus--

And we've ALWAYS had an owl hanging. Birds could care less. I've put up pinwheels (there's a couple in the pic below)-- they help, but not much. Putting pinwheels on the rails DOES help keep them off the rails, but not anywhere else.

This is what I did to fix the "perch" problem-- $20 worth of Harbor Freight tarps and cheap blue rope to cover the framework:

--but it STILL doesn't keep them from perching on the tables or building nests on insides of the canopy valance...

I have a motion activated rainbird. Would work great except for the only water supply is either lake (end up with algae growing) or the well (which is full of iron from Geneva Steel, and turns everything orange), and also, it would spray boaters who drove by--

I made a "flailing arm tube man" out of a Stanley blower and a tube the wife sewed up. Had it on a timer. That actually worked, until it rained. Once the tube gets wet, it won't work until you air it out. Also didn't care for something electric having to run--

One thing I've heard that works but haven't tried yet is an electronic screeching machine that mimics birds of prey to scare off small birds.

Short answer to the question 'how do I keep birds off my cover?' - Not a dam clue!

 

[MAXXIE]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

I was in the Pest control biz. for over 10 years. Best I can tell you is the fake owl, or whatever is a complete waste of time & money. The 2 things we used were just plain old bird spikes, you can find anywhere,& a product called "Hot FOOT". It's like a caulk type product & you apply it where they sit. Just a few ideas, good luck.

 

[sktn77a]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

I was in the Pest control biz. for over 10 years. Best I can tell you is the fake owl, or whatever is a complete waste of time & money.

That's been my experience, too. We have two owls on the PVC lift guides in our covered dock - no effect at all. You need something that moves or makes a noise.

 

[flycaster]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

google "BIRD NETTING"
It is an open weave netting which supported up over the area, will keep the birds from roosting, as they can't get by the netting and the netting will not interfere with sun/wind.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

BB gun.

"Daisy: Keeping kids off the lawn for 75 years"

 

[theBrownskull]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Bird netting is the way to go. Just use "zip ties" to hold it up.

 

[Lone Duck]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Bottom line, BOAT HOUSE.

 

[slowleak]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

The only deterrent that will work is one that prevents a bird from landing in the first place.
The become complacent to plastic owls and other moving objects. The Bird B Gone solar thing works but its only good for a small area.
Bird spikes, netting, and maybe a few chemical deterrents are your best bet. If you take away safe landing areas, they will look elsewhere.
On land, birds even get accustomed to bird cannons in the fields, they only work for so long.
A buddy used to use a homemade pepper spray on his bimini top, but it did nothing for the rest of the boat. You could only spray areas you weren't going to handle as well.
Maybe an onboard cat? Pet Falcon? Big snake?

 

[ajax5240]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

BB gun.

"Daisy: Keeping kids off the lawn for 75 years"

Dammit, beat me to it!

 

[kungpaoshizi]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

Just tie a cat to the boat... be sure it gets food and water, it'll keep the birds away!

 

[hostage]

Re: How do I keep birds off my boat cover?

I store my boat on land across the street from the Marina. I pick up my boat, ready it, launch it, and I am in the water while the person that has their boat slipped is cleaning all the crap off the boat. When you have your boat on the trailer you can quickly load it up instead of loading up the cards then wheeling it all the way to your boat. I will get the occasional bird dropping, though it is about as much as I get on my car, so long as I don't park under a tree with a flock of birds in it. Every time I go by the boats that are in the marina, they look disgusting. They are caked in bird crap, swim platform is loaded with duck/geese poop, their bottoms are covered with growth, and they get a lot of spiders in the boats. I also don't have to worry about the bilge pump or battery dieing. It is hard to sink a boat when it is on land.

That said, when I was younger my parents had a couple large ponds with Koi fish. They had bird problems and they tried using the owl and it didn't seem to work at all as we still had problems, they even purchased snakes which didn't work either. They were great for scaring girls, when they came over. What seemed to work the best was fishing line put randomly above where peoples head were and having large nets that were held tight by copper pipe frame and zip ties that a friend and I built. As you are a mooring I don't know how much that could help with the above solutions.

Lastly I do remember watching a documentary on OWL robots. They tested owls that would make movements such as flapping wings and turning heads. They found those to be way more effective than the statue types. I did see one on Amazon for ~$52 that has a moving solar powered head. It got fairly good reviews: Amazon.com: Dalen Gardeneer SRHO-4 Solar Rotating Head Owl: Patio, Lawn & Garden

Good luck,

Hostage