Some one like Hasbeen will know what it is like to clean a Yacht after it has been left for a while.
Most of my life has seen me on only tank water.
This village like thousands of others is such.
My veranda was freshly painted just less than a week ago, the Brunswick green is now white in parts.
No health issue? maybe but what does the inside of my water tank look like.
I think my 100 birds is under estimating them, the flock in flight of an evening is huge.
What if they had bird flue? this town, maybe a hundred towns, would be dead.
Such illness exist 150 klm south every poultry farm had its stock killed and burnt, because of Newcastle disease.
The answer is not run water to us,millions spent on a few is not going to happen.
And my councils so lost, so useless it will do nothing in any case.
Others may tell of the very real damage these ,and in my view only these close relations to Starlings do.

Yes I have been out bush cutting timber and they on my block there. They have only arrived in the past year or two I think.

A .22 makes short work of them I must say.

Dear Belly,

I really feel for you after I read that link I gave you. I had no idea that the Indian Myna birds were such pests. As you know I live in Melbourne and in our suburb they're not such a noticeable problem.
However, I'm now on the alert - and will definitely not be tempted to feed them as I might have thought of doing previously. We've got a few in our garden - but not the hundreds that you mentioned on your roof. Our roof is a flat roof and birds are not able to nest in it. So that's a plus. Anyway Belly, Thanks for this thread and for alerting us to the dangers of these birds.

Rainbow Lorikeets have been returning to the suburbs of Melbourne and are amazingly aggressive, they will see off anything (including mynahs).

Shooting off a few rounds from a .22 is banned from the urban environment, probably for safety reasons - quaint I know.

Instead, encourage more indigenous birds, plant a few more callistemons, grevilleas, correas and acacias and a few relaxing 'erbs while you're in the great outdoors. You will be fitter and happier.

Ammonite let me brag about my garden, and tell you why it is my dream come true.
From the southern Highland's of NSW my childhood was in rented older homes.
Rain water tanks wells and fruit trees, old English gardens, hot pokers the lot, I wanted and got that.
Nearly, its a work in progress, no water here just tank and recycled.
Planted 32 weeping bottle bush, from my first day May 2002, now 8 feet tall covered in flowers, they boarder my block, day Lilly's? about 60 will be more, hot pokers every bulb and type I can get.
The birds have not always been here or even up north it is an invasion, very true.
No gun here you just could not do it, it would get you in prison.
A tree, at nesting time, is a horror story if its their home sketching squawking nigh mare.
No thing like it read those links, be happy most of the infection is near coast or City's but no flock of any bird is as big.
I will get rid of these birds then the next wave but look them up see just how invasive they are Morgonzola no worries mate sending 500 to Ludwig however.

Myna's are not a problem for boats. With private yachts it's the swallows that are bad. When they chose to roost on a yacht, they do so on the life lines is large numbers. It only takes a week or so for a mound of bird poo, an inch high by 2 wide will circle the yachts deck below the lines. This stains, & is a smelly & difficult chore to remove.

However this is nothing to the havoc caused out at the reef by the gannets. For our outer reef cruise I installed a 20 by 10 meter pontoon at a suitable reef, 40 nautical miles out to sea, & a 20 meter coral viewing vessel configured to appear as a submarine.

To show their appreciation of these 2 artificial islands we had provided, the gannets moved in in very large numbers, paying their rent in guano.

My first response was to install a 50,000 gallon per hour fire pump, & a couple of fire hoses on the sub. Two men, in a rather smelly operation could remove 24 hours guano buildup in about 15 minutes. It was not something you wanted to do while 240 tourists waited to go explore the reef.

I then installed the largest of those electronic bird scarer things. The gannets loved it. They made it their toilet of choice, & in 3 days could completely hide the 3' by 2' by 2' housing in their gifts.

When a period of heavy weather had meant a few days when we did not visit the reef, & clean our gear, I would have to fly a couple of blokes out by sea plane, a couple of hours before the boat full of tourists arrived. It took an hour of cleaning, & then another hour for the smell to clear. This was quite expensive.

Continuse