Last day in Jersey: pest control stuff

[urbpan]

This post may have a more narrow audience than most of mine. It may be of interest only me, in fact. This post will help me organize my eventual presentation about my class.

This picture shows the now-repaired electronics in the First Impressions exhibit. When it was originally built, the wiring was exposed. The electronics controlled the shift doors. Soon after the building was completed, mice chewed through the wiring. Repairing the damage cost £3000.



The bowl-within-a-bowl food dish minimizes the amount of food spillage.


These signs are on all the outdoor concessions tables, and on all the food trays.


These containers are pest resistant, but in North America gray squirrels chew into the top.


When this aviary was built it was made with pests in mind--except for where the straight line of wood met the irregular stone wall. This will need to be filled with mesh or caulk to keep rodents out.


Durrell Wildlife keepers are serious about pest control!


A detail I missed earlier at the bat tunnel: the weeds are mowed about 6 feet away from the exhibit, to reduce the amount of cover for rats.


I burst out laughing when I saw these improvised bays. Apparently mosquitoes are not a serious pest issue in Jersey.


The trash area of the zoo had the usual scavengers.


Their pest control guy had a nicer vehicle than mine.


His office was separate from the rest of the zoo.


The zoo has red squirrels, which they do not control: in the rest of Britain red squirrels are quickly disappearing due to competition with introduced gray squirrels. To keep young red squirrels from developing the habit of feeding on the ground (where the rodenticide bait stations are) they deliberately feed them in feeding stations mounted on trees.


Durrell has two flamingo exhibits: This one has willow trees forming a natural barrier against avian pests (gulls).


This one has no such cover, and gulls fly in to steal the flamingos' food.


In the evening, this gull was drinking water from a (presumably clogged) roof gutter.

Comments

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

You can't blame the invasive animals for taking advantage of situations and food that we provide them. It's not their fault that they're pests.

Here in Perth Zoo, the "Wetland Swamp" exhibit- basically an artificially created Billabong full of Australian waterbirds- has netting over the whole thing about 50 feet in the air, so that the birds inside can fly about, but birds outside can't get in and steal food/eggs...

btw- Yaay, Red Squirrels!

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

They're right about the seagulls. Ian was telling me about the Sydney fish markets, where tourists can buy $150 lunch, sick down, get swooped by a seagull and panic, which is the cue for the entire flock to mob the table. Apparently this is highly amusing to watch. When they tried it on Ian's table he grabbed it by the neck and threw it off the porch.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

A lot of pest control seems to be trial and error combined with sharing of information.

I like the office.