Pest Bird Species
Crows - Problems & Control Products

Crow Identification
The Common Crow is a big, all black (glossy) bird about 17 to 20 inches long with a strong thick build and a short, compressed bill. The Fishing Crow is a smaller and even darker version of this social bird family. Crows are scavengers and will eat a wide variety of things including: insects, frogs, small snakes, eggs, mice, dead animal carcasses and newly planted scrops such as corn. These highly intelligent birds are very social and the flock is in constant, noisy communication with each other, making hunting or capturing crows very difficult. The crow's native history, along with its helpful bug eating habits, guaranteed its Federally protected status. Like blackbirds, crows will gather in massive feeding flocks at certain times during the year, joining with other flocks to form enormous roosts numbering in the thousands of pest birds.

Damage Caused by Crows
When crows are in their flocking phase, thousands of these very noisy pest birds can literally overwhelm trees or buildings in an area, creating a tremendous amount of noise and harassing both people and animals in the area. Other crow problems occur when there is a large scale buildup of their feces which can lead to structural damage as the uric acid in the pest bird droppings can corrode stone, metal and masonry. As with other pest bird species, the bacteria, fungal agents and ectoparasites found in crow droppings and nesting materials pose a serious health risk. Crows are most often the source of agricultural bird problems due to their fondness for corn and other crops, especially when newly planted.

Crow Control
The best crow control product is 1-1/8” StealthNet bird netting. Bird net is extremely durable and creates a true bird barrier. Bird netting permantently resolves crow problems, keeping these pest birds completely away from the area.

In addition to bird net, another effective crow control product is an electrical wire/track product as these problem birds are generally to nimble for most traditional mechanical ledge products. If the crows are not nesting in the area, bird spikes are a good bird control product to use to protect ledges, signage, pipes, etc. You can get rid of crows with a combination of audio and visual bird scare products if the bird scare products are implemented quickly when the birds move into an area. A combination of sophisticated noisemakers like the BirdGard Pro, Bird Squawker (for larger areas), Zon Gun propane canon and the BirdBlaster sound unit with visual products like bird scare eye balloons, bird scare flags and flash bird scare tape creates a menacing, predatory feel to the area driving the problem crows from the vicinity. A new technique for sparrow bird control that has found some success is fogging with methyl anthranilate, a grape extract that reacts with the birds olfactory sense like pepper spray. This is a technique that should be undertaken by experienced professionals only.