USDA using bird bangers to scare away Cormorants from swing bridge

SURF CITY, NC (WWAY) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be in Surf City this week taking care of a messy bird problem near the swing bridge.

This week, crews are using Bird Bangers to scare away a certain type of bird causing the messy problem.

They may sound sweet, but what they are leaving behind is far from it.

“They poop like crazy,” Marcus Mustin with the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Mustin said Double-Crested Cormorants are the birds causing the problems.

“It’s a mess,” Mustin said. That’s the only way to put it, really.”

He said it is a mess for the NCDOT.

“They cause major issues on DOT drawbridges.”

It is also a mess for homeowners.

“During certain wind shifts, they get a lot of poop on their houses, on their windows, and on their vehicles,” Mustin said.

He said certain wind directions even make the situation much worse.

“It’s a lot of man power to clean up,” Mustin said. “It just causes a mess.”

Mustin said that is where the USDA comes in handy.

“We have modified pistols that shoot bangers and screamers,” Mustin said.

He said they are not to used harm the protected birds. They will just give them a little scare.

“It explodes right close to where these birds are roosting and landing and it scares them off,” Mustin said.

He said it is not a permanent solution, but he said it should make the Cormorants take their mess somewhere else for at least two to three months.

Mustin said the NCDOT has a contract with the USDA to cover projects like this, so it will not cost the taxpayer anything extra.