When young Gary Crawford raised homing pigeons and raced them, he would take them 200 miles from his home and, invariably, they would beat him home to their cage. One year after closing the cages, they were still coming back. “They remembered their home location from 200 miles away and continued to test the area for moving back in. I learned then that birds have great memories,” Crawford explains.
How fitting that 40 years later Crawford, owner of CITC, a special effects company in the Seattle area, used his knowledge of birds to build a machine that would deter birds from open spaces. “In CITC, we manufacture specialty machines to create haze, wind, smoke and other special effects for the entertainment industry,” says Crawford. Crawford’s knowledge of haze, fog and air currents encouraged him to develop a smaller particle machine, which uses Methyl Antranilate (MA), a repellent used for bird control. Crawford founded GBS, Inc. to produce the small particle machine that would create a haze that encourages birds to fly to new roosting areas. He named it Bird Buffer.
According to Cory Gellerstedt, president of Nixalite - a distributor for the Bird Buffer, the issue of bird control originally had taken hold in the 1940’s when the original “porcupine wire” bird spikes were invented by his grandfather, Charles Kaufmann, and named Nixalite. “Nixalite bird spikes are very successful in keeping roosting birds away from structures and today are still considered to be the most effective and practical deterrent for roosting birds. But flying and migratory birds in open air spaces are another story,” adds Gellerstedt. “They can cause all kinds of problems, from being a mere nuisance to spreading harmful diseases. Finding a way to control nuisance birds in open spaces has been a challenge that, until now has not been easy to solve.”
It wasn’t until 1994 that a harmless grape food flavoring called Methyl Anthranilate (MA) was found to deter birds without harming them by stimulating a nerve only found in birds. Once registered by the EPA and the FDA, it was swiftly employed in turf sprayers, crop sprayers and in fogging equipment under the name, Fog Force.
“Nixalite has been a supplier of Fog Force since its introduction to the bird control industry,” says Gellerstedt. “It is an effective deterrent and has the advantages of not harming birds or people. The MA stimulates the trigeminal nerve in the mucus membrane only found in birds,” said Gellerstedt.
Being familiar with the habits of birds helped Crawford in his research to get a better response from birds by reducing the amount of fluid consumption, vaporizing the fluid and keeping it fresh throughout the day. “We used to wonder why the birds didn’t leave, until they started flying through the nano-sized particles floating in the air. Then we realized it was their breathing faster when flying that caused the birds to become stimulated enough to want to leave,” Crawford said. “So we developed automation for short output duration for the flying birds.”
GBS, Inc. took on the challenge and created Bird Buffer, a machine that converts the liquid Fog Force into tiny nano-particles which, when blown into the air at 90 mph, create an invisible haze that stays suspended in the air for about six hours. Because the machine is set on a timer to dispense the haze periodically, the effectiveness as a bird deterrent is constantly fresh, but only when the birds are active. Also because of the tiny size of the particles created by Bird Buffer, the scent of grapes is mild and pleasant. When used indoors, the Bird Buffer haze does not damage paint, which was an issue with fogging.
“We at Nixalite are excited about this product,” says Gellerstedt. “The patented Bird Buffer system is the only flying bird deterrent of its type in the world. It has proven to work, and it is extremely cost-effective. Because it works on a timer, labor is minimized. Whereas a fogging machine requires a gallon of Fog Force fluid to fog a three- to five- acre area for two hours, the Bird Buffer only uses one gallon of Fog Force to keep the same size area 96% bird free for two months. That’s quite a savings of money and time.”