Crows and garbage?

[Tony Sade]

Ok-I know there's a simple solution to my problem, but hear me out. Crows have started attacking the garbage I leave out for the city crew to pick up one morning a week. The usual practice around here is to bring the garbage bags down to the street for pickup, so the guys on the crew don't have to march up to and/or around houses to locate, then carry the bags down to the truck. According to the crew and the little helpful hints we get from the city. it is highly preferable that the bags be removed from containers so that they don't have to be wrestled out.

For a while the problem was dogs, until I figured out a couple of sprays of ammonia on the bags would keep the Thursday morning canine breakfast club at bay. Now, these humongous crows (I believe it's one posse that has settled on my location, but I can't prove it ;) ) have decided to feast on my stuff, creating a mess far worse than the dogs ever did. The ammonia doesn't faze them-I think these bad boys may actually get a buzz from the stuff.

Is there anything that I can use to prevent the carnage? I know I could simply use cans with lids on them, but that would disturb the previously settled order of things, and require me to get rid of my own little wood mini-shed created to store the bags until pickup day.

Don't suggest a 12 guage-there are far too many of the suckers, I don't own a gun, I'm a terrible shot and would probably kill a neighbor, the city takes a dim view of discharging firearms within city limits, and besides, they're just doing what crows do.

Any and all non-toxic, non-lethal suggestions would be appreciated greatly, before I have to hit the Rubbermaid aisle at the Borg. :D

[Michael Stafford]

Tony,

We also have problems with crows. We are not allowed to use a 12 gauge solution either. :p

Only solution I have found that works is exclusion, i.e. lids to keep them out. If you are not careful they'll be flying off with items and dropping them on the roof, in trees and everywhere else. :eek:

Good luck...

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Tony. As some famous guy once said, but I don't remember his name, "I feel your pain." Our problem is the neighborhood dogs, so we have taken to keeping the trash bags into our fenced in area. On trash day, I throw the bags in the pick-em-up and take them out to the 2 55gal. drums by the roadside.

When we lived in Plano, the city provided large plastic bins(about 70 gallon) with a lid. The garbage truck would drive up and a set of steel arms would pick up the container and dump it in the truck. Funny what happens when you have workmen's comp claims.

So, if it were me, I would look around town for a like bin to what we had in Plano. They are about 2 ft. square on top, and about 4.5 ft. high, with a lid. There are a set of two wheels on the side where there is a handle so you can tip it back a little and roll the bin to your pickup location. My guess is that they will cost about 60 to 80 dollars each, but they should last a good long time. An industrial supply company would be a good place to start.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

If you don't want to use a can, try Cyan Pepper. Mix some up with water and spray the outside of the bag. If nothing else, they'll be doin' the 2-step the next day.

Bruce

[Ken Garlock]

If you don't want to use a can, try Cyan Pepper. Mix some up with water and spray the outside of the bag. If nothing else, they'll be doin' the 2-step the next day.

Bruce

Bruce, I don't think the pepper solution will work as birds are not affected by capseicin, the organic compound that make chili peppers hot. The birds eating the pepper seeds is one of the ways the plant spreads it seeds across the country side. If you look in the bird feed section at home depot, you will see seed cakes that contain pepper seeds, the birds love them.

Yes, I too thought the pepper would work on birds until I saw my wife putting out pepper seed cakes for the birds in the winter time. Strange how things work for the benefit of nature. :)

[Ken Garlock]

Tony, I did a little searching at McMaster & Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/) . On page 1607 of their online catalog, at the bottom of the page, is the type of container I was talking about in the above post. :)

[Greg Heppeard]

Rubber snakes....but you have to move them periodically

[James Giordano]

How about a scary scarecrow!!

[Keith Christopher]

Well we're woodworkers here, how about building some sort of lift top wooden bin to house the bags. some pressure treated with an MDO bottom. you can walk the bags to the street anytime put them in there and shut the lid

[Christine Tiede]

Gee, Tony.. not much help here, unfortunately!! Just a story.... In our town, they were having that problem pretty widespread and they decided to start collecting the garbage in the middle of the night so the garbage wouldn't sit outside all day long. So now we're really *lucky* to be awakened by the noisy garbage truck at oh, 1am every garbage day!!
regards,

[Tony Sade]

Thanks, all. Guess I'm off (sometime before Thursday, that is) to purchase some of those ugly garbage cans on wheels. The way the property is configured, there's really no spot to build a container to hold the stuff until it's picked up. That's what I built up at the top of the driveway to hold the bags that I've been taking down to the bottom of the drive on garbage day. Maybe I can reconfigure my little storage thing to hide the plastic cans. Hmmm.... Cheers.

[Rob Littleton]

Did a google search........

http://www.getipm.com/answers/crows-Wisconsin.htm

[Richard McComas]

"Ok-I know there's a simple solution to my problem, but hear me out. Crows have started attacking the garbage I leave out for the city crew to pick up one morning a week. The usual practice around here is to bring the garbage bags down to the street for pickup, so the guys on the crew don't have to march up to and/or around houses to locate, then carry the bags down to the truck. According to the crew and the little helpful hints we get from the city. it is highly preferable that the bags be removed from containers so that they don't have to be wrestled out"

Sounds like the city is getting+ you trained pretty well. Since the city's service has you doing everything but throwing the bags in the truck I suggest you might as well do that too. Now all you have to do is get the city too show up at a predetermined time, you throw the bags in for them and they only need a truck driver and you can keep the crows away while you wait.

[Bob Weisner]

How many crows are we talking about? a couple or more than that?


Bob

[Ed Falis]

How about an "outside the box" approach, courtesy of my very smart and bird-knowledgeable wife?

Get something the crows like on garbage day, and toss it somewhere away from the garbage.

May save you some bucks and energy.

- Ed