#211 Balancing Beauty and Chaos: Expert Insights on Bird Control and Coexistence w / Tyler Cole - Encore Presentation

Tyler Cole from OK Bird Control joins us to share his fascinating journey from the machining industry to becoming an expert in avian management. Discover how Tyler tackled the formidable task of managing flocks of starlings at industrial sites and turned a part-time passion into a thriving full-time business. We explore the delicate dance of keeping birds at bay in both residential and commercial settings, shedding light on the surprising scale of bird-related challenges.

Curious about modern versus historical bird control techniques? Tune in as we explore classic tools like scarecrows and shotguns. Tyler shares insights on managing birds in diverse environments, from bustling urban landscapes to tranquil farmlands, while navigating complex legal frameworks like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Dive into stories of feathered intruders at airports and in backyard havens, highlighting the ongoing conversation about coexisting with these captivating creatures. Whether you're dealing with a house finch nesting at your front door or managing avian impacts on agriculture, this episode promises a wealth of knowledge and engaging anecdotes.

Contact Info for Tyler Cole - https://www.okbirdcontrol.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Bird Control Solutions and Challenges
• 11:25 Effective Bird Control Techniques
• 20:00 Urban Bird Control Strategies

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show brought to you by Dietzelman Productions.

Speaker 2: 0:06

Hey, this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for joining the Scott Townsend Show. And today I have with me special guest Tyler Cole from OK Bird Control and husband, father of three kids. Wish him luck.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Tyler, how's it going? Going great, how you doing, scott.

Speaker 2: 0:23

I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, awesome, it's a great. It's kind of cloudy, going great. How you doing, scott? I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, awesome, it's a great. It's kind of cloudy out, but that's okay. What'd you have for breakfast this morning? What'd you have?

Speaker 1: 0:31

for breakfast this morning. Well, funny, you should ask the I forget what it's actually called. I'm going to say the perfect bar. It's from Starbucks and they put it in the cold section and it is. It is a, I don't know. I guess it's really healthy for you, but I look at it as kind of like dessert. So after I eat a good meal I like to gnaw on one of those, and sometimes first thing in the morning, what a way to start the day.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Sounds good. Yeah, so, tyler, you're uh with, okay, bird control and uh, you and I were talking on linkedin not too long ago and I thought the subject was interesting, and for a couple reasons. Number one, number one I like birds and my wife likes birds and you know everyone, so not everyone's. Well, every, every night, pretty much, we'll go in the backyard sit down, watch the red birds you know, all that stuff hates darlings.

Speaker 2: 1:33

but you know so, hummingbirds, we always write down on the calendar what you know when they show up. This year they showed up really late, that was like a week later.

Speaker 2: 1:44

So I think the Texas freeze had maybe something to do with that, but cold snap yeah, but uh, and so then you were uh talking about, uh, okay, bird control and and birds as pests. And you know, I was thinking about that too and I never really think of birds as pests until I go and visit like a monument or a historical building or something like that. And then you, you know, like oklahoma state, you know they have all those, all that architecture and perfect places for birds to make nests and you know if you, if you think about for about a second, what's the big deal.

Speaker 2: 2:27

But if you, if you think about, you know if left unchecked for you know if you never do anything about it, oh my gosh, yeah, what a problem that is. And, uh, my brother and I used to work in uh, we spent one summer working down in south Texas and we had to go to this warehouse to pick up some stored equipment that was old and I mean there was bird stuff everywhere. Windows were broken out, pigeons inside, the whole everything was covered in pigeon droppings, and so it's pretty gross. I've done a lot of talking here, so how did you get into, okay, bird control?

Speaker 1: 3:11

for sure. Uh, before I started working in the the industry, um, I was tied to the machining welding world and did that for about 10 years and one of the employers that I worked for didn't kind of what's the word? Diversify, so they kind of had one customer and when the price of oil went, whoops, I kind of I didn't have to look for a new job, but I my hours got cut pretty big and just believe in god for the right opportunity. And one of one of my friends at church, uh, actually owns a, uh a manufacturer of a product that uh repels birds, so he needed somebody to help him in the warehouse in the back, uh getting orders out and that sort of thing, and that that turned into that other part of that, that 20 hours that made up for that, for that job, because I was only working 20 hours and, uh, that was about seven years ago and throughout that time it turned into a full-time job and I just worked at that company, learning all about birds, worked in sales, worked in agriculture.

Speaker 1: 4:31

A lot of birds like to consume crops in mass numbers Makes farmers really mad and trying to save some of their ammo for them. So that's when they'd would call me. I have a solution for them. Um worked at that company for about six years and um started my company about two years ago doing it part-time. So I'd get a client here and there um go help them get rid of their birds, and then it started to be more and more clients, and then more and more clients and then this last January went full time and on my own with okay Bird control been doing it full time for about five months now.

Speaker 2: 5:18

Yeah Cool.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:20

I noticed on your website it's 24, seven service. Have you ever had anybody call you at 3.00m saying hey, I got a bird problem.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Well, yes, I have.

Speaker 2: 5:30

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:31

It goes straight to voicemail about that time though. Yeah, just answer it in the morning when I get there.

Speaker 2: 5:38

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Why is bird pest control important? Yeah, why is bird pest control important.

Speaker 1: 5:46

Yeah well, when you're dealing with your residential job, you got birds making noise in the morning. When you're trying to wake up you got nesting materials clogging up like air ventilation, bird droppings everywhere. It's kind of a nuisance. So for residentialsials it's a little bit different. When you're talking about commercial like I've got some clients that are big oil refineries or chemical plants and with the residential jobs you're dealing with, uh, maybe four birds at the most. One one of my jobs I have um about a quarter of a million starlings. Of my jobs, I have um about a quarter of a million starlings on one site and it's uh, it's quite epic to see that in action, especially uh when they come to feed at night or when they're feeding all day and then they come to roost on site, um about dusk it, the murmurations, what they call it, the murmurations are definitely when the birds all flock together and they kind of move in the zigzaggy.

Speaker 1: 6:48

There's really no actual pattern. It's just, it's just amazing to see that though. Right, yeah, but when you're talking about commercial, a job size that big, the amount of droppings that that produces, right, um, like this specific job site, before I started the job they were doing this, monthly they were. They had about 54. He told me about 54, 50 gallon drums that they would scoop up and fill those up with bird droppings so when you got a bird problem like that, you definitely know you got a bird problem from a safety uh standpoint too.

Speaker 2: 7:30

I mean, that makes the wherever you're walking uh slick slippery.

Speaker 1: 7:36

You know exactly man, especially those, uh, those large goose. Uh dro too. Those are pretty slick and I've had some clients call me because like a bank, for instance. Oh yeah, just one of the older ladies was walking in and slip and fell on some goose droppings.

Speaker 2: 7:59

So what kind of bird are you? Does it seem like you're after more than any other? What's the most popular?

Speaker 1: 8:07

Probably the number one pest bird would probably be the pigeon, and then starling and house sparrow are kind of neck and neck, they kind of. They kind of produce mixed flocks. So when you have starling, sometimes you have sparrows.

Speaker 2: 8:23

So it's mostly not just one specific bird, um, but pigeon would be definitely the number one yeah, I hadn't thought about that too when you said a while ago that they had to scoop up and uh what?

Speaker 1: 8:37

55 gallon drums, barrels, whatever yeah, 53 actual barrels per month, full of droppings.

Speaker 2: 8:48

So you got to pay somebody to do that, which I hadn't thought of either, and for sure.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Then you got to handle it yes um I I on a job like that. I really don't offer my cleanup services. It's not really like a job like that. They have maintenance workers to clean stuff like that. Up for me, right um your job is just to get the birds out of there, exactly, I get them out of there, repel them out of there. Uh, keep them from just making it nice for them to be there what uh.

Speaker 2: 9:21

So talk about the different ways to repel that you've got. You know several different uh ways to go about um, scaring off birds, um, like three in particular that I can think of. Can you kind of go into the different uh ways that you go about uh?

Speaker 1: 9:38

yeah, there's. There's exclusion, um which, just if you have a specific area on your property that you don't want birds, um then you would do like a spike or a netting.

Speaker 1: 9:52

Like big box retailers or just some other places like that. It's kind of not an eyesore, but people don't like to see big spikes coming out of their building, so that's kind of try and do that in the background. If there's like a loading dock or something like that, that's where, like not a a, not the front of the building, um right, that's where you would see something like that. Um, you got the scare devices which are your scare owls uh for cut for, uh geese, it'd be something like a coyote, something that there's a predator. What's funny is like the. You see, a lot of companies take it on themselves to take care of the the bird problem internally, and I I definitely applaud that. But they'll put a scare owl up and just leave it there and it'll work for a couple days.

Speaker 2: 10:45

But with with scare devices, you kind of constantly got to move them I wondered about that yeah, they're just going to get used to it yeah, I'll drive by one piece of uh property here in town and there's a pond in the backyard and I saw some coyote, one or two coyote statues and I and so I always thought they just must like coyotes. You know that's good. So when you mentioned uh coyotes for geese yeah, I guess that's what they're doing really is uh it just that just dawned on me. They're probably trying to scare away the canadian geese or whatever.

Speaker 1: 11:19

Yeah yeah, I mean it's, it's science versus mother nature and you know it's also trial and error. There's no real silver bullet that takes care of every bird problem. Um, sometimes you have to incorporate one use the other. What I, what I usually lead with, is a product called avitrol easy blend and it's, uh, it's basically a grain bait with baiting trays and they're just wooden trays. But it's mostly rooftop work and I'll put the trays up on the roof and I'm feeding them basically wheat, milo and a crack corn. Um, and it's great for mixed flocks, cause even the, the small birds can eat the grains. It's not big whole kernels of corn.

Speaker 1: 12:05

Um, so they I come out once a once a week for about a month, uh, put the trays out, make sure the birds are feeding off of it, and then that's when I come in the next month with the Avatrol Easy Blend and it's designed to scare the flocks away. Basically, the birds eat it. It affects them like there's a predator in the area. So the birds that consume the Avatrol Easy Blend they kind of vocalization a little weird, uh, flapping the wings, and the other birds around see that bird reacting like there's a predator. So they get scared and then they fly away. So it's one month of the pre-baiting and then one month of the live baiting and then once a month coming back just to monitor, um, and see if there's any new bird activity. Because those, those birds that are treated like that they'll never come back to the site. They associate the actual building, the rooftop, with danger, not actually the food.

Speaker 2: 13:02

So that's that's usually what I lead with and that's usually the most effective way so the, the avitrol, or avitrol, does it, uh, does it kill the bird that eats?

Speaker 1: 13:13

it, it can, it is. It is a pesticide and usually we come in with a 1 to 40 ratio. It's a really high diluted ratio. So, um, the birds that do uh perish are usually the, the dominant flock members in that flock, that get in there at the very beginning, when the food's there, and just kind of eat it all up.

Speaker 2: 13:38

But once you get some reactions then those birds will fly away of secondary poisoning or something like if a coyote, take, for example, or something, eats the dead bird that ate the avatrol? Does it hurt the? Does it pass along to the second generation or whatever it?

Speaker 1: 14:02

actually doesn't. Um, it's just quickly metabolized throughout the bird as soon. I mean, it takes a lot of uh, it burns a lot of of calories trying to keep those bird wings flapping, so it pretty much goes in and then goes out. So there is no secondary poisoning at all. Yeah, and it is weight based. So I'm putting up out enough bait for basically a few little birds, out enough bait for basically a few little birds. So if it affects, let's say, a cat or something, they're gonna have to eat a lot more than what I'm putting out.

Speaker 2: 14:38

Uh, you mentioned crop control a while ago. Farmers, uh, wanting the birds out of there. Um, I didn't know that was a problem, um, but uh, can you talk about that for a little bit? What, uh, what are farmers? What's the problem farmers have with all these birds?

Speaker 1: 14:53

Yeah, there's, there's. I mean you got your farmer and then you got your, your, your cow, calf operator, your feedlot, your feed yard. So with that it's basically birds pooping on the, on their actual food and getting the water contaminated, and then those horses, those cows, um whatever, eating that contaminated food.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Vet bills go go high to uh kind of counteract whatever's going on internally with those animals, um, with crops, um, you've seen maybe not in real life but maybe on TV just those murmurations and how many. You know it can be anywhere from a thousand starlings to. You know, I have a job that has a quarter million starlings, but those flocks can go up to about a million, and then they land on a crop and just consume all that, that wheat, that soybean, and it can be pretty devastating. I wish I had the numbers in front of me about the crop loss per year, but I know, uh, there's a b attached to it like a billion, right. So I just I know that farmers and uh people like that can definitely be affected by by profit loss, by grain consumption, by contamination, all sorts of stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 16:20

So what did farmers used to do in the past, before there were these electronic and different ways of scaring birds away?

Speaker 1: 16:27

I mean, like you, shot guns or I would say shotguns, I would say the scarecrows probably uh, scarecrows yeah probably derived from that. Um, I would say bird like definitely shotguns. Um, loud noises pans banging pans. Um, uh, it's been a lot of, uh, you know, probably poisoning somehow. Um, I would say mostly probably shotguns yeah yeah the uh.

Speaker 2: 16:58

So you talked about the three ways of uh repelling birds. You've got the exclude. What was exclusion? And you've got the uh repellents, yeah, and, and then the scare devices, yeah. So you know, people probably don't realize what's going on at the airport.

Speaker 2: 17:16

Now, the airport is a place where I can definitely see yeah, you really need to keep your bird population under control because, you don't want bird strikes, and I just saw a video yesterday of a plane having like eight or nine bird strikes and they had to turn around and go back, um, and so it's that screeching sound that you hear in the parking garage. You know, you can, and I've had people ask, you know, mentioned. So what is that? Why? Why do they have all these birds under here? Yeah, I'm thinking, well, that's a, that's a, that's a recording to keep the all the birds away. You know, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1: 17:55

And that's your like international airport, like tulsa international, there's probably I mean, if I had to guess, probably 15 different hangers, commercial hangers, like different businesses, and they individually have to take care of their bird problems. And then you have the actual international airport different areas, runways, different thing, and then terminals, even the entrance to walk in, like the southwest area, there's there's birds, there's starlings. You get there early in the morning on a Monday for a 5.00 AM or 6.00 AM flight. You'll definitely hear them, definitely see them, and it's an issue with those bird droppings. I mean there's about 60 plus different types of diseases associated with with bird droppings.

Speaker 2: 18:40

I was going to, I was going to ask you about that.

Speaker 1: 18:41

So there really is, there really is some kind of contamination or a sickness or what's going on there? Yeah, definitely, yes, salmonella. Like, probably in the early 90s there was a peanut facility that made peanuts, made peanut butter, all sorts of products like that, made peanut butter, all sorts of products like that, and they had a pigeon infestation up on top of the roof tin roof holes in it, probably where the rivets are, just a leaky roof, leaky roof. So when it rained, of course those droppings went down, those holes dropped into. That batch of peanuts, that batch of peanut oil, batch of peanut butter got sent out. It was all rooted back to those pigeons up on the roof.

Speaker 1: 19:37

So there definitely is the disease factor you have to look out for, the disease factor you have to look out for and the ectoparasites that they carry. You know, ticks, bedbugs, any kind of little creature like that you don't want in your house, you don't want at the hotel you're staying in, you don't want that at the airport, getting on your luggage, that's kind of a stretch, but you know, at your house, oh, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 20:00

You know when you think of when I think about birds, you know at first you think oh, yeah, definitely. You know when you think of when I think about birds, you know at first you think oh, they're cute little birds, you know pretty. And they are. Yeah, they are From a backyard perspective For sure. If you've ever opened up a birdhouse or had to clean out a Purple Martin house and you see how messy they are, yeah, it's pretty gross.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Yeah, messy they are, yeah, it's uh pretty gross. Yeah, and what's uh, what's interesting when I, when I go on uh on-site consults, um, when we actually go on the roof and they show me the uh exactly where, where the infestation is and there's nesting materials and there's bird droppings, even before the pandemic, I would always have a n93 mask and I would always put it on just to let them know. You know I'm trying to protect myself, but let them kind of demonstrate the severity of it, cause when you're kicking up those nesting materials and, um, that's when the bird stuff gets in the air, those little dust particles, and that's when it can get in your lungs. So when the bird, when the birds dropping when lungs. So when the bird, when the birds droppings, when they, when they dry up and they get kicked around in the air, that's kind of when you have to uh watch out, especially when it's a a lot of droppings.

Speaker 2: 21:15

Um, that's what that's when I, that's why I put the mask on I wish I would have known that back in 82, when I was in that warehouse, there was a lot of dust.

Speaker 1: 21:26

I mean, yeah, one of the jobs I was at earlier this week, the guy I'm driving around with. He told me a guy just got pooped on by a pigeon and he was very livid. He's just a maintenance guy working probably welding or something, just got pooped on his helmet and he threw his helmet down. He was so mad. Um, you know that's uh, you got to think about your workers, uh, especially when they're day in and day out working in the stuff.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Um, you got to protect them too so you know it's a huge safety factor. There's no slips, trips or falls you know, it's a disease control. You know, you've got that when you've got that big, uh, when you've got that big a bird population you know, residential, you probably don't have much of a problem. You know, uh, for the most part, yeah, except for starlings up in the uh brick work, you know, up in the gym, whatever. How do you take care of something like that?

Speaker 1: 22:27

for sure. Uh, each job is a little different. You know you, by law you can't really touch bird nests. When there's, when there's eggs in there, even if it's a unprotected bird, um, as soon as the the hatchling, as soon as they uh actually leave the nest, that's when you can move it. Um, so it's kind of nest removal. Um, you know they're, they're starlings, they're sparrows, are really small birds, so they can. You'd be surprised what kind of cracks and crevices and holes they can find themselves in. Um, I've had a client with a starling climb up the uh, the, uh, the dryer chute vent, oh yeah, peck its way through that little it was, I think it was a, probably a plastic shield peck its way through there and find a home in that little, uh uh little space looking tube, yeah, and had to had to retract the starling from that. That was. That was pretty interesting. Um, unfortunately it had died. Their uh, their uh, um, clothes started to smell kind of kind of dingy and uh, yeah, the.

Speaker 2: 23:43

uh, one of the questions I had that you just tapped on to there for a second was are birds protected by law? So I guess you kind of answered that with the if there's a nest with little birds in there, you can't touch it. Are there any other laws that birds are protected by?

Speaker 1: 24:07

that birds are protected by. Yeah, I mean, when it comes to somebody that's uh, like an employee, employer that needs to get birds, like there are, I mean, most birds are protected, except for your, your starling pigeon and the house sparrow. Um the migratory bird treaty act. It was enacted and it protects all, all birds, um, except for those three birds um but there are depredation orders you can get.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Just working for um, the previous company that I worked for, we get a lot of calls, uh, like a magpie or a raven um it's kind of gross, but like the magpie swooping down and getting at the eyeballs of baby sheep, plucking those out, yeah, and just stuff like that then, you have wineries.

Speaker 1: 24:53

You got wineries with uh birds hitting those grapes but not really consuming them, just putting their beaks in there and then flying off, and then you got a uh kind of a wasted product right there yeah, so there are there are. I mean you work with your local wildlife department and they can uh kind of help you um get that depredation order and then uh report whatever happens back to them. Um yeah, so they are. Most birds are protected, except for those three.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Yeah, that's really interesting. Well, tyler, thanks for stopping by and visiting. Is there anything else you want to tell us before we?

Speaker 1: 25:34

close it up. You know we don't hate birds, we love birds too. For instance, we have a uh, a house finch that just moved in to our uh, actually our front door. At our house we have a wreath and before we even knew it, there was a nest there, um, and then a mama bird, you know, yeah, had four little eggs in there threw a fifth egg in there and now she's, uh, incubating them.

Speaker 1: 26:00

We're just waiting for those uh, little birds to hatch, so we creep open that door and we shut it really softly, kind of trained our kids not to slam that door open because those eggs could fall out. Uh, we're just, we're really excited about these little birds and see what happens to them.

Speaker 2: 26:18

We had the exact same thing happened to us a wreath on the front door, and so my wife wouldn't let us go, wouldn't let me go out the front door anymore. I had to go back until those eggs were hatched. Everybody was gone. But uh yeah, that's really, that's really cool. But yeah, so you know there's there's the pros and the cons. And the pros are awesome you know bird watchers and things like that.

Speaker 2: 26:43

The cons are, you know, one of the things I think I want if I go up to, like you just mentioned, a big big box retail stores yeah and you see bird nests that are being built in the letters of whatever the store you know, like uh, tarjay maybe, yeah, yeah, you think my first impression is is that they don't really care about. You know, if they're letting junk up in there and their logo on the building and there's nests all up in there, then there's something about that. That's a little off-putting to me. It's kind of like, yeah, they don't pay attention to the details or take care of the details yeah so, uh, yeah, I can see that.

Speaker 2: 27:29

So, yeah, I mean, if people want to get a hold of you, um, I never knew this was a business, uh, until I ran into you on linkedin. So if someone needs more information or you know needs contact you, how do they get in touch with you?

Speaker 1: 27:45

Yeah, we have a website, okbirdcontrolcom, really active on LinkedIn. I have a truck I drive around in kind of mobile advertising, but I would say the majority would just go to the website okbirdcontrolcom. It's got all the contact information questions you may have. Yeah, we're here to help.

Speaker 2: 28:09

Yeah, if you need any help with bird control for your business refinery warehouses. You know I especially think of architectural monuments or city buildings, state buildings you know you always see those spikes, or whatnot. Yeah, for good reason, just get in touch with Tyler Cole, he'll get you all set up. So for Tyler Cole, this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for joining the Scott Townsend Show. Have a great day and we'll talk to you later.

Speaker 1: 29:01

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