Case Study| First Flexi Lease | Defender® Seagull & Lamp Spike Install

Stopping Seagulls Landing on Lamposts

There are always exceptions to the rule, so when Exeter-based First Flexi Lease, a company with whom we have long-standing ties, approached us with a seagull issue, we thought this would be the ideal opportunity to test a couple of our seagull products.

First Flexi Lease is a car leasing company that offers flexible services across the Southwest, with a wide choice of usually brand-new vehicles that they offer on contract. In real terms, this means new beautiful vehicles are always parked in their car park and road awaiting pick up. It happens their offices are based very near a recycling plant, which by its nature has refuse piling up in its yard. Seagulls are natural scavengers and love this opportunistic style of feeding. The problem for First Flexi Lease is these seagulls would wait for the next shipment of recycling by sitting on the lamp posts in the car park and road where the brand-new cars are parked. While the birds waited, the birds pooped. You can see the issue!

Seagulls poop constantly and the cars are soon covered in droppings. There are several issues with this.

• It is unsightly and First Flexi lease was spending a large amount of time cleaning the cars, after all, first impressions count.
• Seagull droppings contain uric acid which is quite acidic and if left on the car will cause damage to the paintwork which can prove to be costly to fix.
• There are health issues associated with direct contact with bird guano. Exposure can exasperate respiratory illness and there are several diseases connected to bird droppings.

We took this opportunity to test two Defender® Bird Spikes products, the Defender® Seagull Spike and the Defender® Rocking Spider Lamp Spike on the lamp posts around the office. This was however no easy job, lamp posts are surprisingly high and were not accessible with ladders alone, so to get up there safely with all the equipment we needed, we hired a cherry picker for the day.

Once up in the aerial work platform, it was clear the seagulls had used these lamp posts as a perch for a long time. First things first, we set about cleaning the tops. We needed to clear off all the debris and guano so the silicone could get a good fix to the surface. We used scrapers and brushes and finished off by washing down with warm soapy water. We then had to wait until they were fully dry before we went any further with the installation.

On the first lamp post, we fixed 3 rows of Defender® Seagull Spike. These spikes are slightly taller than the average spike to account for the larger size of a gull. We had to use quite a bit of Defender® Bird Spike Fixing Silicone to fix them in place as the top of the lamp was uneven and ridged.

On the second lamp post, we installed one strip of the Defender® Lamp Post Spike. This has central rows of seagull pins but with the addition of 16 extra-long pins that cover up to 1 metre. They move in the wind and stop birds going near the lamp top.

Although this sounds like a straightforward job, it took us all day to complete. It was a reminder of just how tricky pest control can be, even when you have all the right equipment on hand. When dealing with installations at height, it's always best to call in an expert pest controller who knows how to complete jobs safely and correctly.

Thankfully the effort paid off. When we had finished the installs, we watched and waited for the seagulls to return. They clocked the spikes immediately and gave the lamp posts a wide berth. It’s the perfect result.

We spoke to First Flexi Lease about the impact the Defender® Bird Spikes were making on their business. Billy and Alex told us the droppings on the cars were costing them a fortune especially when they returned to work after a weekend and there was a substantial build-up. It would take all day to take all the cars to the local carwash. Also, if the acidic droppings were left for too long on the car’s paintwork, the guano would damage the paint coating which then had to be fixed, often costing several hundred pounds. Of course, once the clean cars were parked back at the office, the process would begin again.

Thankfully the cycle of washing is now over. After the Defender® Bird Spikes were installed, Alex and Billy can park their First Flexi Lease cars in the car park safe in the knowledge that the seagulls won’t poo on them, they won’t be wasting valuable time washing the cars and visiting customers will no longer have to avoid piles of slippery bird droppings on the paths outside the office or come into contact with the guano on the cars.

The seagulls happily still love to perch around the area, they have just moved to the neighbouring businesses' roofs and lamp posts, leaving the cars and outside areas of First Flexi Lease clean, neat and bird-free. A perfect outcome!

If you would like to chat with us about a seagull problem you are having or on the ins and outs of how to install Defender® Seagull or Rocking Spider Lamp Spike, either drop us a line at sales@jonesandson.co.uk or give our customer service team a call on 01626 835055