State Department Scaring Off Snowy Egrets At Thousand Oaks Amid Health Concerns

The State Department of Agriculture is getting creative to keep migrating snowy egrets away from a Northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood.

Residents in the Thousand Oaks and surrounding neighborhoods near Northwest 10th Street and North Council Road call the egrets a nuisance, Staff Biologists with the USDA call them a potential health risk.

The problem lies within the snowy egret droppings, you see it lining the streets sidewalks and curbs in Thousand Oaks.

The USDA and the Wildlife Branch of the State Department of Agriculture have tried and recommended several methods to try and scare the birds from the area including pyrotechnics and propane cannons.

USDA biologist, Justin Cooper says, “They come in a big number, it would not be that big of a deal, you could basically take care of the droppings just by cleaning it. But with the numbers that come through and roost there it is human health and safety issue, E Coli and Salmonella can definitely break out.”

USDA Biologists heard about the problem at Thousand Oaks and introduced their management to companies like Predator Impact LLC. Thousand Oaks now contracts the company, to fight birds with birds.They use a variety of raptors, a natural predator to scare the egrets  

Mark Smith with Predator Impact LLC says, “We train them to follow the laser pointer, they see the laser and then the hawk comes in and then they’re scared to death. They think there’s something big and bad coming after them.”

Smith says he has seen a steady decrease in the number of snowy egrets since introducing the raptors.