What are Starlings?
Starlings are an invasive species with a strong presence, totaling over 150 million birds. They live mainly in urban settings and flock in large numbers, which causes various problems for crops. Starlings can also spread many diseases to humans and other animals.
These pests sneak into various homes and buildings, causing all sorts of problems. European starlings can damage your home and property, so if you have an infestation, it’s better to take care of it sooner rather than later. Our team at Critter Control is here to help you address the problem by crafting a custom starling control strategy for your home. This way, you can enjoy the stress-free benefits of a starling-free home and property.
How Professionals Remove Starlings
Wildlife professionals employ multiple tactics to remove invasive starlings from your home. They start by inspecting your home and yard to understand the situation. During this inspection, the pros evaluate the extent of the infestation and the damage they’ve caused.
With the specifics of your situation in mind, they’ll craft a custom solution to deter the starlings from returning and nesting in and around your home. These solutions can look different for each home but may include deterrents, exclusion, and trapping.
To wrap up the service, they’ll repair any damage the starlings caused around your home. Like most birds, they construct nests to hold their starling eggs. Unfortunately, starling nests can do a number on the elements of your home, such as clogging your gutters or drainpipes and causing water damage. The pros will find and correct these issues, restoring your home to its former (starling-free) glory.
At Critter Control, we have extensive experience helping you deal with the starlings invading your home. We’ll carefully evaluate your situation to determine the best course of action, helping to keep your home starling-free. We provide strong warranty options and service estimates to give you a better idea of what to expect from our services, ensuring transparency from the get-go.
Signs of a Starling Infestation
If your house has become home to starling birds, you’ll probably notice a few telltale signs of starlings’ invasive presence, including:
- Property damage, such as torn roof materials, to the upper areas of your home.
- Bird droppings on various surfaces of your home.
- Damaged shrubbery, plants, and crops around your home.
- Large flocks of starlings on or around your house.
- Nests in gutters, drainage pipes, tree cavities, and holes in structures in and around your home.
- Starling bird calls or starlings singing.
If you notice one or more of these signs, you may have a starling infestation taking root in or around your home. In the early stages, you may not notice all of the signs, but as the infestation becomes worse, they’ll likely become more prominent.
Starling Control Services
Each starling infestation may require different control services to correct the issue. Often, professionals use repellents or deterrents to keep these pests at bay.
Common deterrents and repellents include:
- Barriers that prevent the starlings from getting a grip on ledges of your home.
- Special netting to keep starlings out of nesting areas.
- Audio devices that produce well-timed noises, such as noises mimicking distress calls or predator hunting sounds, to scare the birds away.
- Liquid repellent that irritates the birds (but is non-lethal) to discourage their presence.
- Specific scents, like peppermint, that they don’t like to deter them from sticking around.
In the case of a severe infestation, wildlife professionals may use trapping as a last resort. They use humane methods to trap and remove the birds, transporting them to somewhere safer and better suited to their needs.
If you have an infestation, you shouldn’t attempt to control the starlings by trapping or through other methods. Effectively eliminating an infestation requires careful measures and professional knowledge, so it’s best to leave this process to the pros. Our team at Critter Control can help—we only use human methods to effectively address the problem.
Starling Prevention and Exclusion
Avoiding a starling problem starts with home exclusion to prevent starlings from entering in the first place. Exclusion keeps your home locked up tight, ensuring birds can’t sneak into nooks and crannies and build a home for themselves.
A well-rounded exclusion strategy involves multiple methods, including sealing openings, inspecting your yard for starling nests or eggs, and removing food sources. With these methods, you can prevent an infestation from taking root and keep your home blissfully starling-free.
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Short-tailed and typically squat in appearance, starlings appear black or brown with iridescent green feathers around their backs, necks, and breasts. In winter, the plumage is speckled with white spots that replace the greens and purples of spring. The bill is yellow to brownish yellow, depending on the season.
Their appearance is very similar to grackles, but these birds aren’t the same. The main difference between grackles vs. starlings lies in the coloring and tail—grackles have dark bills and long, keel-shaped tails, while starlings have yellow bills and short tails.
More about what a starling looks like.
Starlings can be found throughout the United States in marshes and forests and on building rooftops, although they often prefer lowlands. A hearty species, the pest bird lives in towns, cities, suburbs, and throughout the countryside, though starlings are less common in rural areas. European starlings’ invasive presence can be found feeding in gardens or lawns, in fields, and even on sidewalks and parking lots. They have spread beyond their initial range in the United States and now live as far north as Alaska.
Unfortunately, starlings are indiscriminate feeders, and roosters frequently enter buildings, squeezing through small holes in your home, such as dryer, bathroom, or stove vents.
Starlings are cavity nesters, so they target spaces such as attics, the protected areas under the eaves of a roof, building rooftops, crevices, and signs. Starlings may account for a lack of other birds in and around neighborhoods, forests, and parks, as they are known to compete for nesting sites. Since they congregate in large numbers, starlings typically win such competitions.
Obnoxious and destructive, starlings can cause considerable damage to both people and property. Given the large size of their flocks, damage to fields is typically considerable and includes uprooting new plants and eating seeds. Starlings also gather at feeding troughs where they eat and contaminate the food and water. They enter buildings to nest and roost, leaving masses of droppings that corrode building facades and that can also contain various bacterial pathogens. Diseases transferred by starling droppings include blastomycosis, histoplasmosis, and salmonella.
The best way to implement starling control methods and keep the birds from invading your home is through habitat modification and exclusion. Close off all potential entry points to your home and outbuildings where the birds may choose to nest or roost. Eliminate foraging areas and water sources around your home. Use bird netting on the undersides of your home’s rafters and thin tree branches around your property, as this may also help keep starling populations in check.
Additionally, you can try several exclusion tactics to keep the pests away from buildings and attics. Use bird screens and netting to block chimneys or cover gutters, soffits, and ledges. Other deterrents, such as bird spikes, are also available. Professionals can advise you on the right starling exclusion method for any property.
Multiple devices can deter starlings from returning to their nests. The best solution for your home will depend on the extent of the problem but might include special nets, audio devices, and special surfaces.
Starlings don’t like strong scents, especially peppers, peppermint oil, garlic, cinnamon, vinegar, and citrus oil. While these scents on their own might not be enough to permanently deter starlings, they can be a helpful addition to a well-rounded deterrent strategy.
Not all bird foods are appealing to starlings. There are a few mixes with ingredients that they don’t like, such as peanuts in the shell, nyjer seed, and safflower seed. They have softer bills than most other birds, so they have trouble eating these seeds.
Multiple sounds can startle starlings, scaring them away. Starling bird sounds that may work include distress calls or even predatory hunting noises.
As starlings flock in large numbers, removal should not be attempted without professional assistance. Critter Control wildlife specialists have the training, knowledge, and tools to achieve successful starling removal humanely and efficiently.
The cost of starling removal varies based on multiple factors, including the severity of the infestation and the specifics of the solution. It may cost as little as a few hundred dollars or as much as $1,000 or more.
Starlings in the attic or on the roof? Those pesky starlings are notorious for causing significant damage to buildings, vehicles, property, and machinery with their excessive droppings. If you’re dealing with the headache of a starling infestation, our team at Critter Control can help