Thread: Bird stuck in the roof space

Originally Posted by longshot

I just emptied five CO2 canisters into the spot where he is, and haven't heard anything for some time. Hopefully he's out for good and not just having a nap.

Attaboy

Just been fixing leaky gutter corners at my daughter’s house. A while ago, her husband was overseas and she told me there was a bad smell coming through a n aircon vent. I got up in the ceiling to find a dead rat, just “jellyfied” enough, that I could scoop it into a 10 litre bucket. She then got the place “gutter guarded”. Well what a pain in the backside it is, accessing bloody gutter corners to reseal.

Birds are a pain in the rear for this. When we moved into this house, the first Xmas we all got sick. I mean real sick - explosive arse, vomiting, 4 days of joy. One kid was too young and missed the fun, both parents not so much. Couldn't work out why so shrugged and let our bums heal.

One week later, Xmas and the whanau over. All got sick... Um - hmmm. Had a good look at the place and a head scratch - what are we doing that's so different? Couldn't think of anything so had a bit of a paper exercise and realised that the only thing we had that was different to the neighbours and town was our water supply was local tank from bore and rainwater collection. Hmmmm again, we went and had a good look at the tank and that was clean inside apart from some leaves etc - but noticed some bird activity from right next to the gutter outlet where the water heads to the tank. Little sparrow bastards had found a gap, got in and started nesting between the tin and the building paper and gotten themselves cooked!

That was an utter arse to fix, as it was Klass fascia gutters so where it needed to be 'hardened' to stop the birds getting in was almost inaccessible. Got there in the end, and then had to sterilise 20,000L of water and clean the water system. Was advised to not use chlorinated treatments, so it basically left silver chloride as the go to treatment which was pricey as hell. After that had a bit of time to soak we got a UV filtration and treatment setup and installed that - very highly recommended as no further problems with illness and it's actually been very effective and very low maintenance (less than I was expecting anyway).

Originally Posted by No good names left

If you or a neighbour has a cat, throw that up there and see where it goes, if it's stuck between the paper and iron you'll still need to dig it out but the cat may help you find it.

I would not suggest tossing a cat up there heres why - true story - idiot mate in Gisborne had rats in his roof so in his infinite wisdom he decides to put Toby his mini long haired sauasage dog into roof -Toby ( neat little bugger ) took to this with enthusiasm so much so he got lodged inside the wall cavity and there was quite some rescue effort to get him out - so no would not recommend cat in roof although at Waikaremoana used to borrow a cat when mice got bad just in house though

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

I would not suggest tossing a cat up there heres why - true story - idiot mate in Gisborne had rats in his roof so in his infinite wisdom he decides to put Toby his mini long haired sauasage dog into roof -Toby ( neat little bugger ) took to this with enthusiasm so much so he got lodged inside the wall cavity and there was quite some rescue effort to get him out - so no would not recommend cat in roof although at Waikaremoana used to borrow a cat when mice got bad just in house though

We have a fairly capable cat, but yes, my thoughts too, it could end up a bit like the lady that swallowed a spider to catch the fly.

So no more signs of life since flooding the area with CO2 last night. Thanks to all for their helpful suggestions, it has helped conclude the matter sooner rather than later. Old feathered mate didn't have quite the ending he was hoping for, but I think it could have been a lot worse for him, and a bit worse for me having to hear it.

Even though I post more responses than questions in the actual hunting and firearms parts of the forum, I really appreciate this forum for being able to seek advice on the weird stuff that blindsides at 9pm on a Saturday night. Not many places where you can get fast helpful answers from people that have already seen it before and know what to do next.

Originally Posted by No.3

Birds are a pain in the rear for this. When we moved into this house, the first Xmas we all got sick. I mean real sick - explosive arse, vomiting, 4 days of joy. One kid was too young and missed the fun, both parents not so much. Couldn't work out why so shrugged and let our bums heal.

One week later, Xmas and the whanau over. All got sick... Um - hmmm. Had a good look at the place and a head scratch - what are we doing that's so different? Couldn't think of anything so had a bit of a paper exercise and realised that the only thing we had that was different to the neighbours and town was our water supply was local tank from bore and rainwater collection. Hmmmm again, we went and had a good look at the tank and that was clean inside apart from some leaves etc - but noticed some bird activity from right next to the gutter outlet where the water heads to the tank. Little sparrow bastards had found a gap, got in and started nesting between the tin and the building paper and gotten themselves cooked!

That was an utter arse to fix, as it was Klass fascia gutters so where it needed to be 'hardened' to stop the birds getting in was almost inaccessible. Got there in the end, and then had to sterilise 20,000L of water and clean the water system. Was advised to not use chlorinated treatments, so it basically left silver chloride as the go to treatment which was pricey as hell. After that had a bit of time to soak we got a UV filtration and treatment setup and installed that - very highly recommended as no further problems with illness and it's actually been very effective and very low maintenance (less than I was expecting anyway).

The one litre bottles of 50% hydrogen peroxide are the go to for treating large quantities of water

Yep, I was told to avoid the chlorination treatments and the strong oxidisers like peroxide as apparently they may be less effective if you have higher iron levels in your water??? The word was it will dissolve all the minerals out and drop them onto the bottom of your tank, and may not do the job on the bugs. I dunno...

They recommended the silver chloride product as it is effective no matter what the level of iron is - so we went with that. It was pricey, but the shits we had meant I wasn't bothered how much it cost haha. Buy once, cry once, and our guts could then heal!