Last Monday, crews from Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (OPP) commenced its annual crow relocation program to rid campus of the large flocks that frequent the trees east of Old Main near South Halls. OPP attempts to relocate the crows each year due to the unsanitary conditions the population creates, according to a press release from the borough.

“Penn State deals with crows every day, all day. They estimate about 3,000 crows that come down from New England and Canada to spend the winter here. It’s like their Florida,” Penn State OPP Spokesperson Susan Bedsworth said in an interview with WTAJ.

Beginning in the fall of 2007, crows began roosting in large numbers on campus adjacent to the busy bus stop at the intersection of South Allen Street and College Avenue, according to the release. Following numerous complaints that year, Penn State and the borough began to research the problem and consult avian experts. Later that year, OPP began its first of many attempts to shoo the large flocks away from campus.

OPP has used a number of techniques to combat the crows in the past: fogging (the birds hate the smell of bubblegum), pyrotechnics, a “Laser Recon team,” and even hanging crow effigies in the trees.