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The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

maxnagy.com

31–40 of 71 posts

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#31

A loud bang works and you don't have to aim

I shoot them with a "pea shooter", a cardboard pipe with a balloon attached to one end, loaded with dry lentils or rice. Stretching/charging and releasing the balloon makes a loud, directed thump noise, but by itself it's quickly ignored by pigeons. They need to be actually hit by the load to care. (BTW I can confirm, although quite violent, pigeons seemingly don't readily learn from this experience... They are reall…

> They need to be actually hit by the load to care. (BTW I can confirm, > although quite violent, pigeons seemingly don't readily learn from > this experience... They are really fucking stupid.)

That doesn't sound stupid to me. Rather it sounds like they're willing to put with a lot of annoyance in order to get food.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#32
post #6

There's a cat in our neighborhood that shits on our back porches multiple times a day (I have no idea how this is possible, maybe it means the cat will die soon!), and I finally got a huge industrial fan and hooked it up to a motion sensor. Mischief managed.

Has the shit hit the fan?

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make friends with crows. They seem to really like peanuts and, if you offer them shell included, it's a somewhat selective package tailored to them (although great tits try, you may bribe them with sunflower seeds in selective feeders). I read reports of people sometimes receiving gifts from befriended crows in return, too, so it's possible to form complex relationships. Anyway, the downside is their beautifu…

Downside is they're intelligent adversaries who won't permit you an out, once they've classified you as a food source. Mine have surrounded my apartment and tap on the windows from every angle. There's no place to hide. I'm not even allowed to sleep in late.

Resistance is futile.

We found your HN account craw craw craw.

Food. Now.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#36
Cats also don't work. The pigeons eventually kill them by pretending not to notice then flying away at the last moment while the cat is in mid air. The cat then plunges n stories down again and again.

I don't think the pigeons will attack your network any time soon in the foreseeable future.

I'm very disappointed there is no video of this weapon in action.

A fun expansion would be to play a soft sound before shooting for familiar customers.

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#37
post #2

TL;DR: I built a wifi-equipped water gun to shoot the pigeons on my balcony, controlled over the internet by a python script running openCV reading the camera image of my old iPhone.

mind sharing a video or a blog post that explains how it was made

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#38

We have a pigeon on our balcony. We picked him when he was only a week old and now he lives with us. Our balcony is isolated from the street, so every morning we open a window there so Theodor (his name; although we're not sure, maybe he is she), so Theodor can go out and fly. In the evening he returns; sometimes he gets stuck somewhere due to rain (they do not fly in the rain) until dark (they do not fly in the dark…

> Pigeons are very pleasant to touch. The feathers have a silky feeling and they are warm, warmer than people.

My first language is not English, so I learned this late: pigeons are perceived as dirty birds due to its presence in urban environments, but they are the same species of doves which is perceived as clean. In my first language they are just called "pigeon" and "white pigeon".

Re: The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)

#39
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The neighbours probably won’t approve

Then you have to imagine another device to deal with the neighbours.

I like the way you think. If the loud bang takes care of the pigeons, the water gun is available.
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