My wife and I bought a batch in Taupo about a year ago, it's surrounded by a number of trees which means a good bird population also inhabits the area. She loved having all those wonderful feathered creatures around and decided to encourage them more by putting out birdfeed, totally forgetting about the fact that what goes in comes out.

The deck has beams covering it, and of course our wonderful new found little bundles of happiness decided that it was a great idea to use these as lookouts for cats, bigger birds and approaching humans, or to practice B52 bombing runs starlight onto the deck...as a result small mountains of bird 'poop' started to pile up at the front of the deck and on the railing below. In inclement weather the birds also took cover under the roof on the exposed beams creating more chaos.

I am the owner of a number of firearms and had wonderful visions of the great chaos I could cause to the bird population should I be let loose, I also envisaged armed offender squad members on the end of ropes hanging from helicopters so decided this was probably not the way to go in a built up area.

Enter your spikes. I found and ordered them over the net when I desperately searched for a solution that wouldn't involve being shot at by the Police (Tasers hadn't been introduced) or some time in prison.

They were very easy to order and I received them within two working days. I read the instructions (a bit of a first for me) and put them up in strategic positions on the beams around the deck. I didn't have to cover everything but worked on the theory that if I put them on the beams they mostly perched on, it would block flight paths, and they wouldn't go around them to land on the beams behind. This worked and I am happy to say we can now go out onto the deck and not have to sanitise the area before we do so. I was able to put them up in such a way that they were reasonably well hidden (even though they are not major objects) and the fact you can snap them of to fit different areas was great.

In short I would recommend them as a great permanent deterrent to birds, easy to handle and install and pretty good value for money.