How are the Seagulls where you live? I personally detest these flying horrors, not content any longer with the cliffs where they should be, they are the scourge of the area nowadays. People who like to take their lunch to the seats at the front are being attacked daily for their food. Tourists are getting a nasty surprise when they pull up with their takeaways. The worst thing they are now doing, is at the school, some of them wait on the school roof and then dive at the kids when they come out at break, they’re after any food or sweets they can get a hold of. I saw one wee girl a few months back screaming her head off, she had one grabbing her hair. First thing in the mornings the park is strewn with rubbish they’ve pulled out of the bins, it’s everywhere and they are in the middle of it. I see it every morning when I’m at the pool car park. Horrible birds, I loathe them.
Have you got problems with them in your area?
Filthy creatures ! They really are a health hazard and seem to be becoming increasingly aggressive too, a bit like feral pigeons with attitude.
I suppose the question is what can be done, any pest control experts on the forum?
I think there was another thread about gull deterrents recently - I posted on it about how Problem seagulls could be deterred from settling on sites by flying falcons and hawks to scare them off.
I think that’s more for clearing a commercial industrial site - when it comes to seagulls at the seaside, I’m not sure how you can stop them.
I don’t loathe the birds - they are just acting on survival instincts to find food wherever they can.
They are attracted by the food people are eating outside and the food inside the wrappers they throw in the bin, so while humans do things that attract the gulls, I guess the gulls will keep raiding bins and swooping down to grab food.
Humans have taught gulls that food comes in wrappers and they have learned the lesson well - I’ve seen videos of gulls going into shops and snatching a bag of crisps and taking them outside to open and eat.
They weren’t born with that knowledge - we have taught them how to do it by doing it ourselves.
Gulls seem pretty intelligent to me.
They are a nuisance, though.
It’s nice to sit on a sea wall and enjoy an ice cream or tuck into fish n chips but I wouldn’t try to eat outside if I saw lots of gulls around - I’d retreat into a fish n chip cafe or ice cream parlour out of the way!
Do you remember how Covid triggered the Great National Shortage of loo rolls?
You couldn’t find a pack of loo rolls anywhere, for love nor money …
but there was a couple of enterprising gulls who may have cut you a deal!
Before I moved, there was an area that seagulls used to breed on, year after year. It was close to a car park, so woe betide you if you happened to park there - or even walk through it! They would swoop, chit, and steal, clearly teaching their offspring a thing or two about urban living! Those things were an actual danger and many complaints were made, but other than some spiky wire being put up, and a fake buzzard or two, nothing was done 
That picture was taken in Looe wasn’t it?
Very fitting:-)
Yes, it was - then someone added the loo roll to it and published it during the loo roll shortage - at the time, I thought it was very apt and funny!
I too hate the flipping things - living in the South West, everywhere we go we are plagued by these thieving pests. I get so cross that we can no longer safely have a picnic on any beach around here, can no longer sit on a bench overlooking the sea for a quiet coffee and cake. We were in Looe just over a week ago with my brother and sister-in-law, sitting on a bench overlooking the beach. There was a family just a few yards from us with a couple of kids who were taunting the gulls and actually FEEDING their crisps to them! And did the parents do anything about it? Did they heckers. It’s people like that who I just want to scream at, because they’re perpetuating the problem.
When Mr B’s parents were alive, and living in Brixham, their next door neighbour was a royal PITA, because she would feed the gulls in her back garden, and consequently there were always dozens of the pests on her, and my PiL’s roofs. For some reason, they took a dislike to my FiL, possibly because he would flap his hands at them, trying to get them to fly off. So they started to dive bomb him every single time he went into his back garden, several times drawing blood on his head, to the point where he was too terrified to go out there.
Yes, I loathe them, with good reason. I don’t care if it’s not their fault. They are pests, dangerous pests at that.
Yes, they are a menace here. They nest on our roofs/chimney stacks, and we have to endure the chicks wandering the pavements and roads, seeing their dead bodies littering the place, hearing the cacophony of their day and night time shrieking, having them fly about constantly, sometimes being dive bombed if a chick is nearby. And constantly cleaning their muck from our cars and gardens.
And then there are the wheely bin marauders. Even going through the contents of the recycling in case a morsel of food has been left in there. And the mess that follows, because the wind whips everything up, sending it all down our roads.
I hate them.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention this! We’ve had a family of them on the roof of a house opposite - the young ones just pad up and down screaming non-stop for their parents to come and feed them. It drives me nuts, and I can’t imagine how nuts it drives the people who live there! And then the shrieking cries all night long as they wheel overhead, grrrr 
