ok here's what i already tried

plastic snake- worked for about a week

mothballs- seemed to cause more nest building

engine gunk removal spray- no effect.

remove straw and twigs every other day, hope they give up- NOT

someone suggested minute rice will kill them but i don't want to harm them

any other suggestions?

If its Starlings you're having problems with, the only thing to do is to either continually tear down their nests or to kill them. We have the same problem in our hanger at the airport. I finally got tired of cleaning bird droppings off the plane and came up with a new trick. I tore the nest down and bought some sticky rat traps. I set one of the traps on the beam where they were building the nest and the next day when I checked, the problem was taken care of. I have to repeat this process every year. Starlings are a plague.

I've had luck in my hangar with a calico snake and a wooden owl.

sticky rat trap eh, i'll try it.

the owls and snakes work as long as you move them around, real snakes work better. If I catch a snake it goes in the barn. Keeps the rodents down as well.

I don't have that problem, as I don't have an external storage barn or sliding door, so this is just a WAG from outside the box.

From the second picture, I presume that the birds are nesting in the space between the "V" for the rollers and the top of the door OR they are actually getting INSIDE the "V" for the roller wheels. If so, have you thought of using those nylon bristle brushes like they use on over-the-road trailers... the 18 wheeler ones.

Those nylon brushes can be cut such that they just overlap the "V" in the center and still allow the support rod going to the roller carriage to travel between them. Another small piece can be mounted at the leading and trailing edges of the top of the door to close off that space. Between the two, they would create a barrier to the birds being able to enter easily, and should deter them completely.

Just a thought...

E

someone suggested plastic bags, the motion and noise is suppose to distract them. i dismantled the nests and put the bags up.

now, wait and see.........