Birds love warehouses and shipping depots. High ceilings, wide open spaces, plenty of places to hide and big inviting bay doors that are almost always open – what could be better? What could possibly convince any bird to vacate such a paradise? For one Oklahoma United Parcel Services building, the answer was a bit fruity … Concord grapes. Or their odor, to be exact.
Tom Chism of Arrow Exterminators recalls the UPS building infestation as one of his most challenging cases. The facility in question was a typical shipping depot with high ceilings, wide open spaces, and an open bay door. Birds particularly appreciated the building’s insulated ceiling, which they could easily tear into for making nests and comfortable perches. Besides damaging the actual building, the birds and the many diseases they potentially carried posed a health hazard to UPS employees working there, Chism points out.
The solution needed to be simple to maintain, safe for humans, and also something that wouldn’t disrupt the working environment -- harsh chemicals and audible sound devices were out of the question.
Chism consulted with Bird-X, Inc, the Chicago-based manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrence products since 1964. Bird-X and Arrow are family-owned and operated, but the real reason the two companies align so well is their shared philosophy of finding a humane, environmentally friendly solution for the customer in a way that goes beyond selling a product or service.
As a result of the consultation, Chism’s team decided to apply BirdShield, an all-natural, non-toxic Bird-X product derived from Concord grapes. Grape flavoring, used for decades by the food and drug industry in candy, gum, soda and drugs, is inoffensive to humans, but birds hate the grape scent. BirdShield is a special formulation of the flavoring developed, tested, and EPA-approved specifically to repel birds. Sprayed directly on the areas of the UPS building where birds were making their nests, the product quickly convinced the feathered pests “that there’s got to be a better place than this,” Chism says. Sheltered inside and out of the elements, the product need only be reapplied on a quarterly basis to keep the building bird-free. “The facilities director there tells me ‘Tom, you’ve changed my life,’ ” he says.