Pest infestations come in many forms. They could be from rodents to insects. They could be in individual buildings or even entire communities. In Northern Dublin, IR this past year, communities complained to their municipalities of infestations of sea gulls. The towns of Balbriggan, Skerries, and Howth were effected due to a nearby landfill that had been attracting the birds. Fingal County Council agreed to hire an engineering contractor to survey the situation at a cost of €13,500.

Finding and examining bird nests is not an easy manual process. So the contractor used camera equipped drones to carry out the survey of the population throughout the three towns. The data collected by the drones was astounding. Over 450 nests were identified, with more than 230 of them in the limited areas of Balbriggan. Each of these nests are home to two mating gulls and their hatchlings. That’s a lot of birds for three small communities.

The problem was that the gulls were causing damage to the the town and it’s residents. People were losing sleep from the noise pollution they create. The cleanliness of the environment was compromised from all the droppings and feathers. And during the spring when the chick hatch, parents became weary of letting their children out to play because of aggressively protective birds.

The town residents, along with their council officials are now working on a plan to have the nests removed. This isn’t the first time drones have successfully been used to collect data on pest infestations. Drones have been critical in the aid of a rat infestation in Galapagos Islands. Rats are a non-native species that have found their way to swim to the islands. They have been causing extensive damage to the natural habitat. Because they have been come over and multiplying in droves, a general exterminator simply won’t do the trick.

Island Conservation, an organization based out of Santa Cruz, CA, has found a way to help Ecuador protect the Galapagos Islands from these destructive pests. They use drones to first track and monitor the rats. Then, also using drones, they are able to deploy rat poison to the specified areas to eliminate the population. Because of the precision and speed of the drones the infestation was dealt with quickly, cost effectively, and without causing any further damage to the natural environment.