Large flocks of pigeons tend to congregate in urban areas such as plazas, city parks and the tops of buildings. While the pigeons can be enjoyable to watch, they leave behind a great mess of droppings and feathers that can lead to a surprising amount of damage to public and private buildings.

Three Surprising Urban Hazards Created by Flocks of Pigeons

Pigeons are as much of the urban environment as streetlights and skyscrapers. These birds gather in large flocks and move about from rooftop to rooftop and plaza to parking lot. In their wake, they can cause a significant amount of damage without proper pigeon extermination in Las Vegas. Consider these three types of damage left behind from big groups of pigeons.

Fire Hazards

Pigeons nesting or roosting on rooftops leave behind messy nest materials and lots of feathers. When a building’s ventilation system cycles, these feathers and nest materials can get pulled into essential ventilation equipment, such as chimney and appliance flues. If one of these flues gets blocked from a mass of feathers or nest parts, the combustion gasses will have nowhere to go. This creates a fire hazard. Pigeons could also build their nest right into one of these openings, creating a direct fire hazard.

Etching of Marble

The droppings of pigeons and other birds are acidic. Frequent exposure to these acidic materials, along with the combination of vehicle exhaust, smoke, and other air pollutants, can cause considerable etching of marble and concrete statues and sculptures. Statues in the urban environment can become structurally damaged, stained or aesthetically unappealing because of the pigeon droppings.

Structural Damage

If pigeons roost in the same place for long enough, their waste can lead to structural damage of concrete and metal fixtures. Layers of droppings can build up on the surfaces of bridges, highway overpasses and pedestrian walkways. The acids released by the droppings gradually wear away the concrete and can cause metal to rust. The crumbling concrete can suddenly give way. This has caused disastrous consequences in other cities and contributed to the collapse of a bridged highway overpass in Minnesota.