Terror-Eyes Visual Bird Scare Device Testimonials at BirdXCanada.com

Yellow beach ball "with eyes" helps food processors meet health regulations by scaring away birds.

There's a group of consumers that loves Frito-Lay foods so much they actually fly from miles away to enjoy Doritos, Cheetos, and Tostitos. But Frito-Lay wishes this group never found out about its crunchy products, and it's easy to see why. These snackers are birds!

"It's always been a battle for us to repel the birds," said James Reeves, building maintenance supervisor. "The Frito Lay manufacturing plant here in Cucamonga is right next to a regional park which makes the bird problems a lot tougher for us. Hundreds of crows, sparrows, starlings and sea gulls would gather around our product waste area where there was food lying around. Our hands were tied but we had to find a solution because of the tight inspection policies within the food processing industry," Reeves explained.

Bird droppings on pallets in the loading area are in violation of the Food and Drug Association health codes. "If we're unloading trucks outside, we don't want the problem birds to even come close to hitting the containers. They carry parasites such as salmonella. We could then be in big trouble with the inspectors," Reeves stated. "We had to quickly find a solution to the bird problems."

Serious health hazard identified:

Bird droppings are often ignored as a serious health hazard but this material is frequently the home to two fungi called histoplasmosis and cryptococcus. The American Lung Association believes more than 50 million North Americans come in contact with these potentially dangerous fungi yearly.

"The bird problem is one which everyone in food processing experiences at one time or another if food or waste is exposed outside," Reeves said. "We knew that our bird problems was getting out of hand."

Originally he tried ultrasound units which proved to be ineffective because the problem birds eventually get used to the sound. Reeves also noted that these units were impractical. "They cost from $200 to $600 each, which got quite expensive for us and didn't even solve our bird problems."

But that wasn't the only method he tried. "Next, we tried plastic, stuffed hawks. But the birds would challenge these units after only a few days," Reeves said.

Solution to the bird problems finally found:

Frito-Lay finally found its solution to the bird problems from a local distributor of bird repellant products. "We were trying to get an ultrasound bird repeller device at the time. Our distributor suggested that we try a Terror-Eyes balloon," said Joe Becerra, plant sanitarian. These two-foot-in-diameter balloons contain two sets of holographic eyes that appear to move.

The Japanese-made devices are sold by Bird-X, Inc. in Chicago. According to President Richard Seid, there are now approximately 6,500-7,000 of the devices in operation throughout the U.S. and over 1 million have been sold in Japan. "The main distinction between Terror-Eyes and our competition is that Terror-Eyes is manufactured with holographic lenses set inside the eyes of the balloon which resembles an owl. Since the owl is naturally a predator to the problem birds, the birds are afraid of the balloons and will stay away."

"At first, we thought it was a joke," Becerra said. "But since I desperately needed help, I thought it couldn't hurt to give it a try. Besides, we had previously used a Bird-X product called Nixalite, which helped us to successfully eliminate roosting areas. The only limitation was that we couldn't place Nixalite everywhere we wanted because of safety reasons, so we tried Terror-Eyes."

Once he saw how Terror-Eyes really worked, he took it very seriously. Becerra said that he initially purchased two of the $45 units and sporadically placed them in locations where he could "scare the birds off." And he had amazing results.

Drastic bird reduction observed

"I would say that Terror-Eyes has helped to reduce bird problems here by about 90%," Becerra said. "Because this was the most effective solution we've tried, I ordered nine additional units. Whereas before we installed Terror-Eyes, hundreds of birds flocked here to fight over a popcorn kernel, maybe only a few birds can now be seen in the area because they seem afraid of the Terro-rEyes balloons."

Ron Schwarcz, general manager of Bird-X, Inc., said research has shown that the birds believe Terror-Eyes is a predator. "They think that the device can harm them because of the moving eyes," he said. "They see those eyes following their every move and they go somewhere else."

"We'll definitely save lots of money as a result of using Terror-Eyes," Becerra said. Thanks to these balloons, we can stay in compliance with our headquarters, county, state, and federal inspectors. If we were to be shut down for not being in compliance with health codes, the company would financially be in big trouble," he explained. "Because we found a solution to the bird problems, we don't have to worry about that now. As far as I'm concerned, Terror-Eyes works so well that it sells itself."

Inspector recommends units to others:

In fact, Becerra's inspector was so impressed with the reduction in birds that he recommended the units for use at his other inspection sites, including bakeries. "He used to complain about the intense bird problem activity here," Becerra recalled, "but after the Terror-Eyes balloons were installed, the inspector was shocked to see the area minus all the birds. He was really impressed."

The Terror-Eyes units were developed after extensive research by the Japanese. According to the manufacturer, researchers learned that the "eyelike design" on the skin of some butterflies, moths, insects and frogs, frightens birds feeding on crops. Various kinds of experiments were performed by authorized organizations of agricultural laboratories, and the experiments showed good results against bird damage.

Bird-X's Schwarcz said that the Japanese planning and design staffs succeeded in taking advantage of this effect by developing a new movable "eye-like design" using their experience with lenticular sheeting and illusive motion printing.

The Tokyo metropolitan government's Agricultural Experiment Center developed this concept. The device which eventually evolved into the Terror-Eyes units was a balloon with an optical lens that looked like a hawk eye. The eye is moved by the wind right and left and up and down. Farmers have long been troubled by birds like crows, sparrows, doves and gray starlings which eat their vegetables. In Japan, farmers tried anti-bird nets but the birds tore them up and ate the crops. They also tried putting up scarecrows, sounding off recorded explosions and putting out offensive smells, but they were not able to solve the bird problems.

Apartment dwellers, airlines and others have been troubled by bird droppings and noise created by the birds. In some cases, birds made their nests on utility poles and caused blackouts. In addition to protecting crops from the birds, the agricultural experiment center soon reported Terror-Eyes orders from wineries in France, an agricultural research center in Britain, and a military base in Switzerland.

Terror-Eyes receives prestigious award:

In fact, the balloons worked so well that two years ago Terror-Eyes captured the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Award for the product that best scares birds away from crops.

Chips and cheese puffs aren't the only snack foods that birds flock to eat. Apparently, the more health conscious ones also enjoy rice cakes, according to Shin Hamano, Plant Engineer at Umeya Rice Cakes in Los Angeles.

"Dozens of sparrows and problem pigeons used to hang around our loading dock where there are always crumbs of food in the trash bin area," Hamano explained. "Occasionally, some of these birds would fly into the warehouse which was really troublesome for us because of health reasons. We must regularly pass inspections by various agencies. With the bird problems, our status was put in jeopardy."

After years of bird problems, Hamano purchased various Bird-X products which helped the situation. He then saw an advertisement for the Terror-Eyes balloons.

Decrease in bird activity noticed:

"Because I was on the Bird-X mailing list, the company sent me some information on Terror-Eyes," Hamano said. "I ordered a few units about a year ago, which I installed in our loading dock area. Since then, I've noticed a real decrease in the number of birds around here."

Hamano stated that the Terror-Eyes units caused two changes: the number of birds was reduced drastically and the birds' behavior was different. "It seems that the small number of birds that hang around now are more jumpy than before. They seem to be afraid of the balloons, like they're ready to fly away in a moment's notice which is fine with me."

Hamano added that an acquaintance was so impressed with the Terror-Eyes balloons after seeing how they worked for Umeya Rice Cakes that he asked Hamano to order two units for his own use at the loading dock of a Seattle supermarket.

For food processing professionals who've experienced problems caused by our fine feathered friends, Terror-Eyes is no joke. This is definitely "for the birds"!

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