We’re a BPCA-accredited specialist team in bird control, serving Selkirk, East Lothian, Midlothian, and West Lothian. Across all the building types the area presents, from tenement closes and listed Georgian terraces to commercial warehouses, our technicians install humane, long-term bird deterrents and bird proofing. Ahead of any installation work begins, every job opens with a free site survey and a fixed written quote.
Why pest birds are a problem in Selkirk
All year round, feral pigeons hold sway over the city centre and tenement neighbourhoods, sustained by hospitality, tourism, and the density of food outlets across popular main streets and the residential high streets in between. Herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls typically work the coastal edge, and across recent years they’ve pushed further inland to feed across the city centre during the spring and summer breeding seasons. The property damage and occupant health risk from pest birds ensure the deterrent method has to be matched to the building rather than picked from a catalogue.
Sandstone damage and structural decay
Building stone etching, metal corrosion, and roofing membrane degradation all happen within a single season of bird droppings accumulating. Open structure is a feature of the sandstone that makes up most of Selkirk’s stone. Rather than running off, acid soaks into the surface, and once the staining and pitting set in, the only fix is specialist masonry repair under conservation conditions. Scaffold-based inspections or routine condition surveys are usually when sandstone damage from long-term guano accumulation is identified, by which point the etching is structural and the remediation cost reflects that.
Accumulated guano on a flat or low-pitch commercial roof wears down felt and single-ply membranes faster than weathering alone, while the lead flashing common on older Selkirk roofs corrodes from beneath where droppings collect in the joints. Choked gutters and downpipes, water at the eaves, damp in the upper-floor ceilings, and a repair bill that climbs from a few hundred pounds of bird proofing to a structural job worth several thousand: that’s the sequence once nesting material and dried droppings take hold.
Health and food hygiene risks
Via contact, contaminated surfaces, and inhaled dust once guano dries out, bird droppings pass on bacteria to people. Businesses handling food, providing accommodation, or running a public-facing site are required to take Salmonella, E. coli, and Psittacosis (also called Ornithosis) seriously, as these are the three most commonly associated illnesses. Council inspectors usually react to visible bird activity around hospitality and tourism premises in central Selkirk before customer complaints arrive.
Flagged bird activity near a kitchen extractor vent, a bin store, or a loading bay can lead to an inspector downgrading your food hygiene rating or issuing a formal improvement notice. As soon as the downgrade lands, it shows on the public score on the FSA’s register, which is searchable by anyone considering a booking. On top of the bird problem, nesting sites draw in secondary pests fast. Fleas, mites, and clothes moths all establish themselves in the organic material a nest produces, and you end up with two pest problems running underneath each other.
Noise, mess, and aggression
Dawn light during breeding season is when gulls are most active, and being loud and persistent makes them a recurring complaint source for hotels, serviced apartments, and city-centre flats. Defending eggs or chicks makes herring gulls aggressive, and through May and June swoops on staff and customers near bin stores and outdoor seating are common reports. Gull behaviour getting to the point of incident reports is the reason we attend several jobs each year at venues along Shore in Leith and around the bistros and bars on St Andrew Square.
Pest bird species we treat in Selkirk
Feral pigeon control
Feral pigeons are the dominant pest bird across central Selkirk and the tenement neighbourhoods that ring the city centre. A single breeding pair brings several broods per year, and once a site is established, droppings and pheromones draw further pigeons to the same roosting and nesting spots season after season. Initial activity that seems tolerable grows into an established colony by year three when no deterrent is installed.
Physical-barrier exclusion at the entry points and landing surfaces, paired with guano removal and disinfection of the existing site, defines our pigeon control work in most cases. Residual pheromone residue on the surface keeps attracting new pigeons even when the original birds have been excluded, which is why installing deterrents without first clearing what’s already there often fails.
Gull control
Flat roofs across the city support the two dominant pest gulls in Selkirk, the herring gull (Larus argentatus) and the lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus). The methods can be used on these gulls is controlled by their protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The NatureScot licence is required to disturb active nests with eggs or chicks, and working outside that framework carries real legal and reputational risk for the property owner as well as the contractor.
Our gull control service covers physical exclusion, habitat modification, and where the situation qualifies, nest and egg management under the relevant general licence. Most effective gull work happens outside the breeding season, when deterrents can be installed before the birds return to the same roof they used the previous year. Breeding gulls are strongly site-loyal once they’ve raised young somewhere, so one season without intervention is often enough for a pair to re-establish.
Starlings, sparrows, and other species
In Selkirk from autumn through to early spring, starling roosts can be substantial, and when a flock chooses a building to roost in overnight rather than just fly over, the volume of droppings generated in a few days can be significant. As with pigeon droppings, starling guano carries the same acidity, and the response should be the same. House sparrows, swifts, and the occasional corvid issue make up the remainder of the work, mostly tied to eaves, dormer voids, and the deep roof recesses common on tenement and Victorian commercial stock. For every species, we use deterrent and exclusion measures matched to the species and the structure, never with methods that injure protected birds.
Bird control methods we install
It comes down to the building, the species, and whether the birds are nesting on the surface or just using it as a landing spot when choosing the right method. The majority of Selkirk jobs use a combination of two or three methods rather than a single deterrent, because pest birds find any unprotected adjacent surface and exploit it within days.
Bird netting
For large open areas where birds nest rather than just land, bird netting is the broadest exclusion method we install. Our netting we fit goes under tension on a stainless steel cable system fixed to the building fabric, covering rooftops, undercrofts, light wells, courtyard voids, balconies, and the inset spaces between tenement blocks where pigeons commonly roost. Bird species drives mesh size, with finer apertures for starlings and sparrows, wider for pigeons, and wider still for gulls. The payback on a netting install arrives within a few seasons for commercial buildings where guano removal has become a regular cost, and a well-installed system lasts a decade or more with periodic inspection.
Bird spikes
Landing-only surfaces such as ledges, parapets, sills, signage, and any other narrow surface are where bird spikes are the right method. Depending on the substrate, we fix our standard stainless steel spikes with UV-stable adhesive or mechanical fixings. It’s important that spikes don’t injure birds. Site avoidance follows: spikes make the surface too uncomfortable to stand on, and the birds move to a different roost. Street-facing facades and listed buildings use polycarbonate spikes, which keep visual impact to a minimum. From street viewing distance, polycarbonate spikes are transparent, which often makes them acceptable to planning officers when stainless steel would be refused.
Bird wire
Wire systems run thin stainless steel wires between low-profile posts to create an unstable landing surface. For stone window sills, wide ledges, and ornamental cornicing where spikes would draw the eye and a low-visual-impact method is needed for listed building consent or conservation-area approval, bird wire is the answer. Against larger birds, particularly gulls, the system is highly effective and barely visible from ground level. Listed Georgian terraces in the New Town where any visible fixing will attract scrutiny frequently leave bird wire as the only method planning officers will accept.
Avishock
Laid along ledges and rooflines, avishock is a low-profile electric deterrent strip. The birds learn to avoid the treated surface entirely after repeat exposure to the brief low-voltage pulse delivered when they land on the track, which startles them without causing injury. Flat to the masonry and barely visible from ground level, the system holds a low visual profile. Where visual impact rules out spikes on prominent sandstone facades around George Street, Princes Street, and Charlotte Square, and where wire alone wouldn’t deter the volume of pigeons present, avishock is often the right specification.
Bird-free gel
That bird-free gel system is an optical deterrent installed in small dishes spaced along a ledge. The gel reflects ultraviolet light in a way pigeons read as flame, so they avoid the surface without ever landing on it. Conspicuous fixings are a problem on retail signage, prominent shopfront frontage, and heritage facades, so the small dishes that are barely visible from the street make this method useful in those contexts. This humane deterrent suits low-pressure sites where the bird activity is consistent but the volume isn’t high.
Solar panel bird proofing
A bird control call we regularly take involves solar panels on commercial and residential rooftops across Selkirk and the Lothians. Within a few breeding cycles, what begins as a single pair in the warm, sheltered nesting cavity under the panels becomes an established problem. Steel mounting hardware corrodes and panel output drops under droppings, and in many cases the build-up voids manufacturer warranties when it’s left untreated. Stripping out any existing guano and nesting material from under the panels is part of the visit, on top of fitting fine-mesh wire skirting around the perimeter of the array, secured to the panel frame in a way that doesn’t restrict airflow or affect the warranty.
Guano removal and disinfection
Two job: guano removal in its own right (where bird droppings have accumulated over time), followed by deterrent installation. Bacteria are released when dry guano is disturbed and breaks down into fine dust, which is why clearance work needs full personal protective equipment, contained disposal, and a disinfection programme to follow. All equipment to do this safely is on the van, and on commercial sites we provide written documentation of the clearance and disinfection for supplier audit or environmental health purposes.
Commercial and domestic bird control across Selkirk and the Lothians
Across commercial clients, we cover hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars, retail premises, offices, warehouses, university and student accommodation, healthcare sites, and the larger industrial premises. Commercial installations tend to be larger in scope, often require out-of-hours scheduling to avoid disrupting trading, and frequently need written documentation for supplier audits, environmental health records, or insurance compliance. That’s routine for us, provided as part of the job.
Regulatory considerations sit alongside the property ones for food-handling premises when it comes to bird control. This compliance exposure exists when bird activity is near a kitchen, a bin store, or a loading area, and an environmental health inspector will flag it, with responses ranging from advisory through to a formal improvement notice depending on what they see. A successful inspection results from installing the right deterrent before the visit, which takes the bird activity out of the picture entirely.
Faster to resolve, domestic bird control across Selkirk and the Lothians usually involves pigeons nesting in tenement roof voids or under dormer windows, gulls nesting on flat garage roofs in coastal areas like Portobello and Joppa, and pigeons under residential solar arrays across the suburban belt. Identical standards apply across the work: the same BPCA-accredited approach and fixed-price survey on a domestic job as on a commercial one.
How we work
Get in touch. For the quickest response, call 0131 322 1291 or fill in our online enquiry form. We’ll ask a few questions about the species, the building type, and how long the activity has been going on.
Free site survey. One of our technician attends the property, identifies where the birds are accessing and using it, assesses the building access required for installation, and confirms whether listed building consent or planning approval is relevant. No fee to pay, and no obligation to proceed.
Installation. The work is carried out by our technicians at a time that suits the property. Beyond trading hours, at weekends, or in stages where access requires it: commercial jobs can be scheduled to suit.
Follow-up. Once installed, we advise on any inspection or maintenance the installation needs, and we stay available if new bird pressure develops elsewhere on the property after the work.
Why choose Edinburgh Pest Control Co.
BPCA accreditation
Full membership of the British Pest Control Association (BPCA), the principal trade body for professional pest control in the UK, covers our technicians. Through BPCA membership, our staff are confirmed to meet the association’s training and conduct standards and to understand their legal obligations under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. For commercial clients running supplier audits where a contractor’s accreditation status has to be confirmed in writing, the BPCA’s code of conduct and complaints route matter.
Local Selkirk and Lothians knowledge
The complete range of property types Selkirk and the surrounding councils present has been covered in our work: city-centre listed buildings, Georgian and Victorian tenements, suburban semi-detached and detached housing, modern commercial estates, and rural Lothians properties where the access challenges and species mix shift again. Listed-building installations carry the steepest learning curve, and planning officers across the city have specific positions on which fixings, materials, and methods they accept on stone facades. We carry that knowledge into the survey.
Humane methods and legal compliance
Wild birds in the UK are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and that shapes every job we take on. The five core standard methods, netting, spikes, wire, avishock, and gel, deter birds from the property without harming them. When lethal control becomes the only viable option for a specific protected species, we operate under licence with full documentation, including any general licence usage and the species and dates the licence covers. Documentation is retained for the property file and is available to commercial clients on request.
What areas of Selkirk and the Lothians do you cover?
We cover Selkirk city, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, and the Scottish Borders, including Leith, Portobello, Stockbridge, Bruntsfield, Newington, Morningside, Corstorphine, South Queensferry, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Livingston, and Penicuik. Not sure whether your property falls within our service area? Phone us and we’ll confirm.
Contact Our Bird Control Edinburgh Experts Today
One free site survey is the right starting point if pest birds are causing problems on your property in Selkirk or the Lothians. No obligation to proceed: we’ll assess the situation, explain what the work involves, and give you a fixed written quote.
To book your survey or to talk the problem through first, call 0131 322 1291. Our online enquiry can also be submitted, and we’ll call you back.
