It’s that time of year again; ‘Seagull Season’. Often deemed by many as one of the most noisy birds present in coastal cities such as Dublin. Over the last year seagulls have been getting a lot of bad press and attention, due to  the humor surrounding comments made by a Dublin politician. All jokes aside, seagulls can prove to be a real nuisance to home and business owners.

Seagulls are an aggressive bird species which cause a lot of damage due to their droppings and high noise levels. However they are also an endangered and a highly protected species under Irish and European Wildlife Legislation. Dealing with seagulls yourself or even tampering with their nesting areas is an offence that is taken very seriously and carries fines as can be seen from the case outlined in this link.

The only solution for seagulls is using a preventative measure such as proofing. On a recent visit to Inverness I was struck by the amount of buildings which were proofed to stop seagulls from perching and building their nests on them. It was interesting to see the level of preventative approaches being taken in the city even to the extent that signs such as this below are being used in public areas.

If your building or business is prone to seagull’s nesting/perching and the associated hazards that their droppings bring, i.e. the spread of disease, fall and slip hazards, damage to buildings and vehicles, now is the time to start thinking about proofing as once seagulls begin to build their nests the whole area is deemed a protected site which cannot be tampered with.