Well, it isn't exactly small game, but since this seems to be THE PLACE for info on covert nuisance control, here goes:

My neighbor (rental house, never a decent tenant!) accross the canal likes to keep a pile of dog food on his deck when he goes out of town for a few days. Well, the dogs are too lazy to keep the grackels away, and the damn birds like to fly over to my deck/dock/boat to eat and crap. I would let them eat in peace, but the bird crap is really hacking me off! Add to that the fact that my 18 month old daughter likes to pick up and taste anything she sees that catches her attention....and you see my issue!

It's way too crowded for even subsonic firearms unless shooting straight down, and no chance of that.

The birds use owl decoys as a convenient high perch.

Any suggestions? How can I get ethylene glycol into them? Is it as effective on birds as it is on rodents?

Hello CDH, I'd try to get rid of the dog food.
Too many people around for even a pellet rifle?
I'm sure that some of our fellow Small Gamers will come up with something.

Try rubber snakes...A friend put one by the steps in his pool, and the grackels wont come any where near it.

An electric "fencer" as used for horses ans cattle will work. Just put it where the little one can't reach it and run however many wires it takes to discourage the flipping birds. derf

No pellet guns either...the only backstops around are 100 feet away, and they would be the neighbors homes! No fences around either...it is a deck over a saltwater canal (Gulf of Mexico)...so corrosion would make short work of metal electric fencing.

I'll try the snake trick...but given how quickly the things warmed up to the owl decoys, I am not optimistic! Why the heck are the most annoying and UGLY things in the world also the craftiest!?!?

I need a quiet way to kill 'em off, preferably in large numbers. Keep the ideas coming guys!

One thing you might try is to mix up a batch of dishwashing soap and water, and spray hell out of the grackles with that come evening. It'll remove the oil from their feathers and, if it is cool enough, it'll cause them to die of hypothermia. If it isnt' cool enough to do that, they'll still be in a hurting state for quite awhile.

1. tell all your snowbird neighbors they are a delicacy.

2. fabricate a bouncing Betty using cracked corn as the ballistic medium. It has very poor ballistic characteristics.

3. go down to the pound, pick up some crats. Later on you CAN get some EC down there gullet, or make chum out of them.

4. My favorite. A chinese windsock. Very effective at repelling birds from boats, ought to work for you as well.

5. learn to converse in French in their presence.

6. If you're a REAL man, expose yourself in their presence. They will faint dead away.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Pull.BlamBlam

CCI 22 lr shot shells! range 50 feet,(blue) size 12 shoot / range 75 feet,(green) size 10 shoot. The green tipped are hard to find. Wal-mart has the blue.
Good luck 338vt

The problem is your neighbors across the canal. You need to go for a visit when they are gone and check it out. They probably only work in the meth lab there a day or two a week. They dump dog food on the deck to feed the dogs while they are gone. The dogs are there to discourage people from from visiting. We both know that if you dump a bag of dog food on the deck in a Texas location like that you would be knee deep in fire ants pretty quick and neither the dogs nor the grackles will bother it then. I'd like to help but I'm having trouble getting to your grackle problem part. Something is not as you describe it. ned

Dan, excellent advice, as usual...obviously you are familiar with coastal living in the South (especially in the winter), but come on, a snowbird with a gun!?!? The walls of my home aren't thick enough!

2.Bouncing bettys would work, but could my deck sustain the multiple hits required? And then there's the boat...55 gallons of 89 octane on board...I kinda like my boat too...

3.ummmmm, crat chum....did'ya ever hear about the rage a while back in shark bait? Live cats, preferably small, floated on the surface from Gulf piers...don't let the Warden see!

4.What is a chinese windsock? Not something like a chinese finger trap I hope.

5.ROFLMAO! We're doing a project right now for some Algerians...French Arabs! Whatta mix!

6.Bout passed out on this one. Wouldn't wanna get the wife jealous...she's sorta possesive...and a good shot with my .40 Glock!

338-how loud are the CCi shotshells? I used some a loooong time ago and thought they were as loud as full power LR shells. They might do in a pinch though...how many carcasses hanging from the rails of my deck would be enough to scare off the rest!?!?

Try soaking bird seed mixed with dog food in a heavy but "friendly" glycol solution. Its about the only way to feed it to them without soaking 70gr. pills. Jeff

The Chiminese wind sock...well, it looks like a windsock They are brightly colored, 4-6' long, some have ribbon streamers off the small end. Some look like dragons, some like...fish. Dunno what else to say, check with your friendly nautical supply house, or artsye fartsey gift stores. They work really well unless you have a crat. They like to chase the tail... then you got the same problem all over again.

Another option would be a CFM6 with a black compressor spike and a spiral white pattern painted on it. Like you see on big jets, in the intake? It scares birds a LOT. Of course they have to be spinning, and the CFM6 is rated at about 40,000# of thrust so there is the noise and fuel problem.

That about empties my idea well pardner, good luck!

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Grackles.HitTheFan

Heck, while you're going with the CFM, why not get serious about it and try the GE90. Each engine has the thrust of all four engines on the original 747 (125,000 pounds). All you have to do is hang out at airports that have 777s, and beg to see if they'll give you one.

I mean, c'mon, it's not like you're asking for an entire AIRPLANE for gosh sakes!

Of course, you would still have the fuel problem....

Hi all, I think your bandageing a bleeding wound, get rid of the knife. Remove the dog food, Ask the neighbors to pay someone to feed the dogs once a day in the AM. Volunteer to feed them yourself. If the dogs are barking a bunch call animal control and have them hauled off for being neglected. That would be kinda low as I wouldnt want my dogs hauled off.
Just a few thoughts. Do an internet search for bird repellent and see what comes up.

Crunch up up some alka-seltzer, and add to the dog food. Birds can't belch.
Dogs, as we all know, are man's best friend, and mimic our best traits. (farting, belching, ignoring wife)

If you get one of the better air rifles,,,It's more like laser surgery.Grackles will come in to check out dead ones,,,,no joke.For more passive means of controll,,,,, www.gemplers.com has a large array of bird annoyances.Good luck,Clay

Go fishing for the grackles, take some old fishing poles/reels, place a large enough hook on the line, bait with soaked dog food. Idealy do this in your yard when you are home. That way you can reel in your catch and dispose of catch and rebait for the next one. Cold beer opitional

Hog Killer

Two words:

LAND MINE


Toolmaker

Already suggested that TM, but he was a little concerned about collateral damage. I wasn't thinking big charges behind the cracked corn but at close range it would suffice. Perhaps even compressed air would do the trick?

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Food.Bomb

Hmmm...DD&TM, now that you mention small charges (I was thinking about the big stuff) the concussion alone might be enough to knock them out for a few seconds, and a few seconds is all I would need to 'collect' them. Now I wonder what my neihbors would think...???

BOOOMMM!

CDH runs around his deck wildly for a few seconds.

Police arrive soon after.

CDH goes to jail for felony explosives use.

Nah...what do I care what my neighbors think!

Compressed air is NOT considered an explosive and would work as well. derf

size 18 or 20 treble hooks on 6' of 2# test line one on each end cover with dog food or bury in soft corn wait for birds to take off.

mills, is that address yours or somebody you really don't like?

Sometimes guys here threaten to send my dead crats for my gators, wondering if you have any that need feedin'?

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Crat.Disposal

D-Con

Spread a couple or three boxes in the neighbor's roof.

A couple of ideas:

1) A net shot out of a pvc pipe using compressed air. will get all the damn birds and won't hurt the dogs(might freak them out a bit) dispose of birds with baseball bat.

Downside: costs to build and fine tune.

2) Bow and arrow using blunt tip fluflu's and a reel for bowfishing to retreave the "evidence", while time cosuming, it presents less of a risk to the dogs and can be done a little at a time

Downside: because it's one at a time and you have to physically do it yourself, there's a better chance of getting caught.

3) Antifreeze soaked food dumped/lobbed into the yard. Efficient and can be done under cover of darkness.

Downside: will probably kill the dogs.


Toolmaker

Dragon Lady think you need get in touch with universe, be one with mind and body. Sit stirr on dock with dog food arr over you, practice mantra and wait for grakers come sit on you. Carefur no put prop on you though! When sit on you, quick rike Ninja, grab grackre put in sack. Gunny sack! HA HA! Li make joke! Gunny numba 10!

2 bird, beau coup garric, ginger, vegetabres, same same cat cook. Numba 1 GI, serve onry you! Add more for more, unnerstan GI?

Li go now.

There is no doubt the classic DRAGON LADY has returned! N.S. Sherlock

About controlling Grackles,

They are cavity nesting birds. My father was having a similiar problem to yours many years ago. The first
year they would temporarily land in the apple tree next to his back patio. While there they processed the
food and left a lot of droppings before flying back to the various trees in the neighborhood for the night.

He came up with a plan for the next spring but wouldn't share it with my mom. He just told her to not
worry, it would not involve a firearm. She new that as a career Marine that firearms were a definite
possibility as he had often used them on cats when we lived out in the country.

During the winter he and I built many nesting boxes that had holes big enough for Grackles. In the
early spring we mounted all sixty of them along the top of our long back fence. Later in the spring
enough Grackles liked the nesting boxes that all were filled with happy breeding pairs. We didn't use
the patio that spring at my fathers insistence. The birds would feed locally, come back to the apple
tree in the evening make their mess. At dusk they would head for their Grackle Condos for the night.

This went on for about a week and my mother was astounded that my father didn't complain about the birds
at all. She must have thougt he was mellowing out in his old age. One evening while my mother was off
playing Bingo with the old ladies my father implemented his plan. He got a big box out of the shed and
headed out to the Grackle condos with me in tow. As I handed him the tapered wooden plugs that were
normally used in the local wine industry for bung hole plugs, he pushed one into each of the openings
of the Grackle Condos. The next weekend we took the Condos down and hauled them to the dump.

If you want to get rid of a Grackle, invite him to stay.

OEH, you are hereby formally crowned the Grackel King!

'Scuze me, I gotta go make some sawdust...

You got me to thinking about the Nestle candy bar called Crackel. Maybe we should suggest a new flavor called Grackel. With a commercial demand for the damn things they wouldn't last but a couple of years. Pretty soon they'd be on the endangered pests lists.

OEH, your wisdom astounds me! Imagine all those chubby little kids in front of the TV on Saturday morning, chokin' those Grackles down one after another, gettin' fatter by the mouthfull. I'm guessing it will take LESS than two years myself.

The next logical evolution of course is Puddy Puddin', or Panther Pops. Crat Candy or Garaguar GooJoos? Oh Jesus man, you have opened an entirely new venue......

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Pussy.Treats

just soak some wheat or sunflower
seeds in antifreeze overnite and give them that
the S.O.B.S will fly off and DIE.

DRAGON LADY might be a good one to consult about the Grackle Bar spinoffs, or perhaps Mr. WOLFER, inbentor of San Francisco's finest lip balm. ned

www.claymore.com

CDH,
I understand your dislike of the grackles. They are NASTY little critters.
The electric fencing is a good, permanent option. There is a poly twine and a poly tape available, that has stainless wire as a conductor. Should hold up fine on the coast. Additionally, there are solar-powered charger units, if power isn't handy. My only reservation is: would it work on birds? They could probably light on the wires with no ill effect, unless you ran a grounding wire within 1/2" or so, of the hot wire. Then you would likely have a problem with shorting.
As far as the grain, there is a readily-available grain that works! go to your local farm/feed store and get some Gopher Bait. It is available from 2-3lb. cans, to 50lb. sacks. The only drawback there, is that you can't pick which species will ingest. You're likely to give some of the neighbors a "West Nile" scare when they begin to find dead birds everywhere! Good Luck!

That isn' qiute so bad as it first sounds Bug. A West Nile scare is a good excuse to wack crows as they are primary carriers of this disease. derf

Don't want to stifle any creativity, but I don't know that 18 month old daughters and ethylene glycol (or any other toxic substances) are a good mix - regardless of where the treats are first placed.