Ways to say bye bye birdie

Regarding “Living in the Coo-Coo Nest” (Aug. 7) by Daniel Yi, this is how I got rid of persistent pigeons: I found that they went to sleep soon after dark, about the time I was having dinner in the winter. I used a long PVC pipe left over from my sprinkler project to wake them up. They would rush away but usually came back the next day.

Then I added this step: Before I went to sleep, I would unwind my long water hose in the front of my house, shoot the water high above the roof and let it fall like artificial rain. They left for good after a few showers.

STEVE LAU

Huntington Beach

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I think I have the solution: Fake snakes, plastic ones. Or go to a thrift store and buy belts. Throw them on the roof, where they will not be seen from below.

PRISCILLA LAZZARA

La Puente

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My birds were run-of-the-mill sparrows, not pigeons. They were building nests under my back patio cover.

Sometime early this year someone wrote a letter in Business Week and said you could hang old CDs or DVDs up and they would scare off the birds. I tried it and it worked -- even got rid of a family of crows that was nearby. My only suggestion is to use double-sided discs and a clear fishing line to hang them.

BOB HENDRICKSON

Laguna Woods

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Read with amusement Yi’s struggle with pigeons in the Sunday paper. His tone is perfect -- he could be your next Jack Smith. Pull him off whatever obtuse field he went to journalism school to write about, and give that boy a daily column.

It gets harder to open the paper every day, the world being the way it is, and it would help to have one more reason.

CHRISTOPHER PETERS

Newport Beach