Vulture culture

To the editor:

An effective, inexpensive, and benign way to get rid of turkey vultures (Page 1 story last week) is to set up close to their roost an inflatable “dancing man” — you know, a brightly colored long plastic tube with long floppy arms, scary face, and floppy “hair” that sits atop an electric fan and “dances” by alternately inflating and collapsing in an irregular fashion.

They are often seen at car washes, convenience stores, and other businesses trying to attract your attention.

Something about that particular constant motion drives the vultures crazy —and away.

Public utilities use these across the country on water towers and other places birds like to roost.

I was puzzled by the statement that the vultures were migrating and would be gone in a couple weeks. When we lived in McPherson, you could just about set your calendar by the date the vultures returned to the Board of Public Utilities water tower in the spring and when they left in the fall.

Steve Schmidt
Hesston