Experts in Site Assessment and Species-Specific Solutions!
In the next several months, we’ll be celebrating the 15th anniversary of Flock Fighters USA. As part of our celebration, I asked Jeff to give us his thoughts on the past and to start looking forward to the future. Here are a few things he said when I asked him about the changes we’ve watched:
In March 1998, there was no “chemical aerosol bird control”. Rejexit Migrate (then “Ag 36”) had been on the market for several years, but fogging was still unproven, and not labeled by the EPA. That was my first fogging job: experimenting so that fogging would be approved by the US EPA- and it was October 16, 1998.
So the biggest change in bird control is the story of Flock Fighters USA. Taking the “new chemistry” of Methyl Anthranilate aerosols, we did the work to understand its operation, affects and limits in the real world of nuisance bird control. Thus we became “The Nation’s Leader in Chemical Bird Control.”
Besides developing many of the procedures for manual fogging, FF USA formed the basic constructs for automatic fogging systems and in 2002, the “Bottle Blaster” set the standard.
The first half of the 2000’s saw huge upswings in nuisance bird control services as most regional and national pest control companies started to sell and implement (often haphazardly) bird control. Most of these companies relied on exclusion and began selling bird exclusion materials. Large jobs priced in the $100,000’s were common. The technology of noise aversion also expanded significantly in direction and complexity. Nevertheless, all the new products had limits like the old products, and most times, it proved ineffective in the long-term.
There has always been, and will be lethal control in nuisance bird services. This avenue, however, went to extremes. Unknowing, uncaring or unscrupulous contractor-treated food laced with poisons struck birds by the thousands; sometimes 10’s of thousands fell dead out of the sky.
For us, more influential than any business activity was the economic downturn in 2007-08. Within 2 years, over 50% of the companies doing bird work had failed. Nearly all regional and national pest control companies had reduced or suspended operations. Flock Fighters USA was hurt as well, but we continued to serve as we were able.
Now, in 2012 and 2013, the consequences of not controlling nuisance birds and problem areas in a routine manner have come to bear with excessive manure and mess created by 4 years of uncontrolled nuisance birds. Nuisance bird aversion has once again become an imperative and Flock Fighters USA is placed on the cusp of the new revival. Our experience and expertise is once again helping us to lead the way in aversion strategies and solutions. We’re looking toward new delivery technologies for MA that will deliver the advantages of this chemistry in more effective ways. However, the change in bird control is not a silver bullet… there’s never been a silver bullet and there never will be one. What has come out of the past several years is that the bird control professionals that have continued in the field are the ones with the passion and knowledge to create exciting solutions. They’re the ones who understand site dynamics and bird behavior in a way that others never did. These are the people who will continue to work toward new technology and we’re proud to work with professionals like these. Keep an eye on our blog, because we’ll let you know as science continues to advance… and, as always, if you have questions about your site or species of bird, contact us! We will design a solution just for you!
Beak Speak 