Ornithosis

Two weeks ago I wrote about a lady on the North Side who lives next door to someone who feeds and attracts some 50 pigeons daily, pigeons which leave their droppings indiscriminately. "My porch is littered with droppings; my air conditioner is loaded. We cannot enjoy our home," the lady wrote, asking for help.

Chicago in the past has attempted to stop nuisance pigeon feeding, primarily because the food helps the rat population thrive, as well as the pigeons.

But the city ran into stiff opposition in the courts of law as well as of public opinion, the latter being led by writers at the Sun- Times who championed Eleanor Arens, aka "The Bird Lady," who was feeding whole loaves of bread to pigeons on public property.

In spite of taking a public relations shellacking, the city was able to get Arens off public property. But the court ruled, in the Chicago case at least, that people have the right to feed pigeons almost without restriction on private property.

That's left a lot of neighbors irate and with little in the way of a solution. (The North Side lady tried posting a fake owl to scare off the birds, with no luck. Spreading anti-pigeon goo on her own roof would be useless because the birds congregate on the neighbor's house.)

But I think I've come up with a common-sense solution with the help of Tech-1, a pest control company in Chicago.

Step 1: Knock on the neighbor's door and ask them to stop or severely curtail their feeding frenzy, politely reminding them that pigeons carry fleas, ticks and mites, all of which can annoy humans. Then add, with emphasis, that pigeons and their droppings also can transmit pigeon ornithosis, encephalitis, Newcastle disease, histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, pseudotuberculosis, pigeon coccidiosis and salmonella food poisoning, some of which can be fatal to humans.

Also tell them that if they don't alter their behavior, you'll start using poison pigeon bait. If the neighbors are true bird lovers, they'll stop attracting pigeons before the critters are harmed.

Step 2: If Step 1 fails, start putting out whole corn on the roof at the same time each day and continue until the pigeons are feeding regularly and all the corn is eaten every day. Then call an exterminator licensed to use a bird poison like Avitrol (you can't buy this stuff by yourself). The exterminator then will deposit a few kernels of Avitrol-tainted corn.

After eating the corn, some of the pigeons will become ill or die, said Scott Kaufman, president of Tech-1. An alarm then will spread throughout the flock and it should depart the area soon and stay away, unless the neighbor continues putting out food, he said.

Step 3: If the pigeons return, start with Step 1 again.

But be careful. Kaufman tells of once getting whacked by an umbrella-wielding lady after he told her he was setting out pigeon poison.

Interesting are the results of a home renovation survey done by HomeJupiter.com., a source for home building and renovation on the Web. It queried 512 homeowners who recently completed remodeling projects and found that the most popular room remodeled by registered Democrats was the home office (34 percent), while among registered Republicans it was the kitchen (41 percent) followed by the dining room (21 percent).

It also was found that Republicans were four times more likely to have mudrooms than Democrats.

More seriously, the survey discovered that couples who locate the laundry room on the same floor as the bedroom made love more often (four times a week) than those who had the laundry room on a different floor (twice a week).

Write to Bill Rumbler at 401 N. Wabash, Chicago, 60611. E-mail: homelife@suntimes.com.

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