Are crows a problem where you live?
By blueskies
@blueskies (1186)
United States
March 3, 2007 1:23pm CST
In my town, we are plagued by large flocks of crows that nest in the trees by the lake. These birds tear open bags of garbage and hang around dumpsters looking for food. It has become quite a problem. We even have one playground that is unusable because of the amount of crow droppings on the equipment. Our town recently tried some crow "hazing" techniques to try to drive the birds away. These techniques including shining special lasers into the trees where they roost and clapping boards together to make a loud noise. The measure met with slight success, as the birds moved further uptown. However, they returned to their favorite roosting trees beside the lake as soon as the hazing was stopped.
I was recently watching a show on Animal Planet that included a segment on the nuisance crow population of Tokyo, Japan. That made me realize that this may be a worldwide problem. With a lifespan of up to 20 years, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Do you have too many crows where you live? If so, what measures have been taken to try to rid your areas of these pesky birds?
9 people like this
20 responses
@GardenGerty (160952)
• United States
3 Mar 07
We do not have an excessive number of crows, but sometimes one or two are too many for me. One year I decided to plant a cute garden of marigolds. I did, and then found them pulled up and laying bare root. This happened about three times. I asked about this at my garden center, and I was suspecting crows, as I had seen two of them on power lines near the back of my property. He said that crows were notorious for pulling up petunias and marigolds, but he did not know why. They eventually went away. My husband likes crows. Our problem in town this year has been Missouri Kites, a predatory bird. They attacked two different people downtown. Probabaly the people were near their nests. I understand that the Kites are the reason we do not have pigeons, though.
2 people like this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
3 Mar 07
Hooray for the Missouri Kites. I am not crazy about pigeons.
They sh** all over everything. If they have been eating mulberries it is PURPLE SH**, which really stains everything.
I don't like them at all.
1 person likes this
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
3 Mar 07
Not in the area where I live. But I do know that there are some places in Singapore that have crows visiting rather often. What we do here is we employ professionals to shoot them.
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
3 Mar 07
Unfortunately for us, it's illegal to shoot the birds within the city limits. There is also a "crow season" here in New York. If you shoot a crow out of season, you can be fined. Here's a pic of our lovely crows.
@beckyomg1 (6756)
• United States
4 Mar 07
In a town near us yes they are a real problem, they have people come in and try and take care of them every year.
1 person likes this
@TerryZ (22076)
• United States
4 Mar 07
We dont have alot of them but we do have some and they are huge. Every once in awhile Ill see in my back yard next to my bird feeder a flock of them but they arent there to long and they all take off at the same time. They are so big its scary.LOL
1 person likes this
@kgwat70 (13387)
• United States
3 Mar 07
We do have crows where I live but they do not seem to be too big of a problem here as I do not see many of them. I see more seagulls and Canadian geese more than anything. I think the geese are more of a problem here than any other types of birds.
1 person likes this
@ESKARENA1 (18261)
•
4 Mar 07
sorry you are having this problem. I remember from my childhood my father would tell me that they were good to eat. So now I see them, i shoot them, i eat them, no problem
blessed be, there is good eating on a crow
1 person likes this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
3 Mar 07
I understand that if you want the crows to leave all you have to do is get some owl decoys and place them all over the area that you don't want the crows to occupy. I have never had a problem with too many crows. I kind of like them. Many years ago my cousin had a pet crow that he named Joe. Joe actually talked. If you were to ask him his name he would tell you "I'm Joe the Crow."
1 person likes this
@mzbubblie (3839)
• United States
4 Mar 07
I use to live in this town where, I don't know exactly what kind of birds they were, but they were black...They would be in the trees like thousands of them..Swarming around...It was on the news about getting rid of these birds, however, I moved away and never knew how they got rid of them. Those birds were everywhere, it was a little scary almost like they were taking over...I feel for the people that had to walk under those trees..lol
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
4 Mar 07
Wow, I wish I had seen that program. I had no idea that they were a problem world wide. Crows are a major problem in our part of the country. They take our garden seeds right out of the garden when we plant them if we dont wathch them. I had no idea that they lived to be 20 years old. That is a long time. People shoot them in our neighborhood but you cant tell it. There are just too many of them.
@bananamanuk (835)
•
4 Mar 07
Here in England I wouldn't say we have a problem with crows but we do have a problem with wood pidgeons, at least around where I live, there are thousands of them everywhere you look. We never used to have so many and the environment hasn't changed around where I live, but I am certain the population of these birds has increased. Maybe they've changed farming methods or something.
1 person likes this
@monkeywriter (2004)
• United States
4 Mar 07
Well I've never seen a crow problem anywhere I lived. This is actually funny though. My dog thinks that "crows" are "black cats". She grew up in our house in Orange County and saw crows as much as black cats and cause dogs are color blind she thought it was cats. So whenever we say "Crow" she freaks out and starts barking.
Here she still likes to bark at crows and chase them. They fly but she has never seen it as anything different :))
Sorry for going for going off you just reminded me of that :))
1 person likes this
@sweetgirl_k1 (3972)
• United States
5 Mar 07
We don't really have lots of them. I've seen them but where I live we don't have problems with them.
@sweetaspie52 (2359)
• United States
4 Mar 07
we do have a problem with crows and there is nothing done about it I do not think that there is anything anyone can do about this problem if you hear of something please let ua all know
@trouble4u2avoid (2915)
• United States
13 Mar 07
I don't think I have a huge problem but I have noticed a few showing up in my backyard lately. It usually happens when I am mopping and put the dog, her food and her water outside. I would think that my dog would chase them away but...she's lazy. If my dalmatian was still with us, he certainly wouldn't tolerate birds in his yard.
@dfinster (3528)
• United States
4 Mar 07
I honestly didn't know that this was such a huge problem. We don't seem to have this going on where I live. Although living out in the country we constantly are having huge problems with wild turkeys. They destroy our gardens and flowerbeds all the time.
@imsilver (1665)
• Canada
5 Mar 07
We get lots of crows here. And seagulls which are just as bad if not worse.
On the sidewalk that my children take to get to the school there is a crow's nest in one of the trees along the side. The last couple of years the crows that use that nest have been quite vicious when they feel threatened. They like to swoop down on you as you walk by. I had one just skim the top of my head one day. Another day as I was walking them to school, I had this elderly lady stop me and ask me to check and see if her head was bleeding because she'd just been clawed at by a crow. My kids were always coming home and telling me about the latest person who had had dealings with the crows. They haven't been a problem yet this year but spring is only starting.
