An elementary school in the Sainte-Julie area on the South Shore called on our services at the beginning of the school year after the administration received numerous complaints from parents and teachers about the noisy and messy presence of starlings on the roof and windowsills of the main building. Nests had been built in the air ducts, droppings covered the pedestrian walkways leading to the main entrance, and birds regularly tried to enter the cafeteria through the ventilation openings. As the safety and health of students is paramount, the administration wanted a rapid, effective and non-disruptive intervention for the conduct of school activities. Our starling extermination team took charge of the case with all the rigor it required.
Safety audit and planning of work outside school hours
The first step was to carry out a complete audit of the situation, taking into account the particular constraints of a school: limited access during school hours, areas to avoid so as not to disturb students and strict safety protocols. In Sainte-Julie, as in the neighbouring communities of Deux-Montagnes and Mirabel, school buildings from the 1980s and 1990s often had flat or slightly sloping roofs with numerous ventilation and ventilation ducts, expansion joints and lightning rods that provide starlings with ideal perches and nesting sites. Our inspection identified ten potential entry points on the roofs and facades, including four untoasted ventilation ducts, three damaged roof joints, and several gaps under the decorative ornaments of the main façade. All work has been planned to be carried out outside school hours, i.e. evenings and weekends, with minimal noise during critical time slots.
Interventions on the roof and ventilation ducts
Our technicians began by inspecting and cleaning each of the ventilation ducts identified as entry points. Complete nests, some still containing recent building materials, were removed from three out of four ducts. The entire roof was then subjected to a preventive treatment including the installation of stainless steel stretched wires along the edges and edges of the roof, a discreet but very effective device to discourage starlings from landing and nesting. Galvanized steel mesh was installed on all ventilation ducts, with appropriately sized mesh to allow for adequate ventilation while blocking access to birds. The main façade, which had several nooks and crannies suitable for nesting under the concrete ornaments, was treated with repellent gels based on polybutylene, a viscous substance that is harmless to birds and deters them from landing on the treated surfaces. Caulking of the entry points completed the device on the damaged roof joints.
Cleaning and decontamination of soiled areas
The pedestrian walkways and the surroundings of the main entrance, heavily soiled by starling droppings, were thoroughly cleaned using high-pressure cleaners and suitable detergent solutions, then treated with a bactericidal disinfectant to eliminate health risks. The teams worked early in the morning, before the students arrived, to ensure that the surfaces were clean and dry when the doors opened. Inside the building, the air ducts giving access to the cafeteria were inspected and cleaned, and disinfectant misting was carried out in the accessible technical spaces. All of this restoration work was photographically documented for the school’s archives and to demonstrate compliance with the health standards applicable to educational institutions. To learn more about our full range of services, visit our extermination services in Quebec website.
Results Achieved and Recommendations to Management
In the first weeks following the intervention, the school’s management and staff noticed an almost total disappearance of the presence of starlings on the roof and around the building. The aisles remained clean, and no birds tried to get into the ventilation ducts. A complete report was submitted to the management, accompanied by a recommended maintenance schedule: annual inspection of the fences and anti-perch devices before the start of each school year, verification of the roof joints after the winter and preventive cleaning of the surroundings at the end of spring. Also consult our achievements on a similar intervention in another public building and on a case of nesting birds treated on the South Shore to get a more complete idea of our expertise in bird management.