Trenton Lasers, Loud Noises To Scare Off Growing Crow Population

The people of New Jersey’s capital city have had enough of the local crow population. The noisy birds who drop their waste over everything in sight have turned the city of Trenton into a crow sanctuary and the city is trying a new approach to thinning their numbers, NJ.com reported.

NJ.com claimed 30,000 of the bothersome birds shacked up in Trenton throughout the winter, filling the city’s streets with droppings and polluting the air with their trademark calls. The website posted a video to its YouTube channel to demonstrate the noise level the city’s residents have dealt with in recent months.

To help resolve the issue, the Department of Agriculture will step in and use lasers, pyrotechnics and high-volume recordings of crow noises to make them leave. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended using visual and audio stimuli to make crows uncomfortable, which is the easiest way to make them leave. Otherwise, crows are bound to hang out just about anywhere that will support their nests.

Aside from the annoyance that come with constant noise and the unpleasantness of bird droppings everywhere, crows present something of a public health concern in large enough quantities. Diseases can pop up from droppings and feathers that naturally accumulate around crow roosts, for example.

Crows can be found across North America, with an expanded population thanks to deforestation, according to National Geographic. They prefer open spaces with limited tree interference. However, the West Nile Virus scare in the early 2000s significantly thinned some crow populations.