{"id":78676,"date":"2021-07-12T15:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/?p=78676"},"modified":"2021-07-12T15:32:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:32:53","slug":"usps-goose-poop-solution-saves-money-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.21cpw.com\/usps-goose-poop-solution-saves-money-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"USPS: Goose poop solution saves money, mess"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"\"

Geese like this one ruffled feathers at the Cincinnati Network Distribution Center \u2014 until an employee came up with an inventive solution.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

July 12, 2021<\/span>
\nGeese used to congregate around the Cincinnati Network Distribution Center the way crows congregated around Tippi Hedren in \u201cThe Birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides dive-bombing workers entering or exiting, the geese were leaving calling cards everywhere, requiring 200-plus hours of pressure-washing at a cost of more than $10,000 a year in overtime and chemical repellents.<\/p>\n

John Pittl, a maintenance operations supervisor, had his work cut out for him.<\/p>\n

The nearly 30-year USPS veteran said the geese have been a problem for as long as he can remember because of the facility\u2019s location. \u201cIt\u2019s natural wetlands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One day he did an online search for \u201cnatural goose repellent.\u201d He had in mind a spray of some sort but \u2014 as with penicillin, insulin and other revolutionary cures \u2014 a perfect, elegant solution appeared by accident when a nearby search result caught his eye: coyote cutouts.<\/p>\n

Scarecrows for geese.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might work,\u201d he remembers thinking.<\/p>\n

A tryout with one cutout persuaded his very skeptical supervisor, so eight more were purchased. The $40 prevention worked like a charm and had the added benefit of being a lot easier to implement than the $10,000 cure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Year Two and the geese have yet to catch on. \u201cEvery time we cut the grass we move them,\u201d Pittl said, so it looks like they\u2019re traveling around.<\/p>\n

In fact, when a recent windstorm blew the cutouts down, some geese returned. Within 30 minutes of standing them back up, they had flown, he said.<\/p>\n

Pittl \u2014 who recently received a yellow belt<\/span><\/a> designation from the USPS Continuous Improvement team<\/span><\/a> for his efforts \u2014 said the cutouts have not faded yet and estimates their life span at three or four years, so his current supply should last another year at least.<\/p>\n

At the end of the season, the geese fly south and the coyotes head indoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier when [the geese] are not out there,\u201d Pittl said. \u201cI have no custodians on goose poop duty this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as they say at the end of movies, no geese were harmed in this production.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: USPS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 12, 2021 Geese used to congregate around the Cincinnati Network Distribution Center the way crows congregated around Tippi Hedren in \u201cThe Birds.\u201d Besides dive-bombing workers entering or exiting, the geese were leaving calling cards everywhere, requiring 200-plus hours of pressure-washing at a cost of more than $10,000 a year in overtime and chemical repellents….<\/p>\n

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