Charleston getting pigeons drunk to exile them
CHARLESTON S.C. - In this most mannerly city, workers don't shoot pesky pigeons. They get them drunk instead.
Contractors trying to rid a city-owned garage of pigeons fed them corn coated with a poison that attacks their brains. The substance, called Avitrol, makes pigeons wobble like they've had one too many
"It makes them fly sporadically and act funny and gives a signal to other pigeons: 'There's something wrong here. Let's pack our bags and move out,' " said Winnie Vaughn, district manager for Dodson Brothers Exterminating Company of North Charleston.
Avitrol is not intended to kill pigeons. But a few do die because they are old and feeble or gluttons, Vaughn said.
The poison works because pigeons hang out in flocks and when one gets woozy, the others notice, said Dennis M. Forsythe, an ornithologist and biology professor at The Citadel.
"Everybody watches each other," Forsythe said. "If you saw someone crazy-drunk, staggering, and coming over to you, you'd be apprehensive, too."
The pigeons were poisoned because they were creating a big problem in a parking garage in downtown Charleston.
Platforms and sidewalks were coated white with slippery pigeon poop, and workers feared the bird droppings could make them sick.
"These pigeons were not house-trained or garage-trained," complained Charlie Lybrand, who works at the nearby Charleston County office building. "It was just awful. There were pigeons on every floor. Certainly there were lots and lots of pigeons."
It isn't the first time workers tried to get rid of the birds. Ten years ago, the county spread paste that pigeons supposedly find repugnant. That didn't work.
Dodson Brothers received $13,000 from the county to clean the garage, remove the pigeons and monitor for pigeons for a year. Vaughn said his employees were surprised Avitrol worked so well.
Before using the poison, workers simply tried to keep pigeons from roosting by using nets or metal spikes and bristles that poke pigeons in the behind. But the six-level garage could not be covered with a very large net, Vaughn said.