A Dublin granny has revealed how she is being plagued by a flock of dive-bombing seagulls who attack her every time she tries to go into her back garden.
Linda, 68, from Artane, appeared on RTE One’s Liveline programme on Wednesday afternoon to discuss how she and her neighbours have been terrorised by the aggressive birds for the past three years.
Linda said a family of gulls have been nesting on the roof her shed and are furiously protecting their young.
Linda said that the situation has gotten so bad that she is unable to hang the washing out her back garden without being set upon by the seagulls.
"Every time I go out the back I am terrorised," Linda told Liveline host Joe Duffy.
"It's been terrible. Three years - this is the third year - and I can't even walk out the back.
"I just find it too much. I have nowhere I can go.
"My head is just done in because there is no way that I can just feel secure in the back [garden].
The Dublin woman said she was left shaken after a terrifying encounter with the animals on Tuesday as she went to put something in her shed.
As she was leaving go back into her house, Linda said the seagulls 'came down towards' her and forced her to 'run back into the shed screaming'.
The 68-year-old called for help and her grand-daughter, who was in the house at the time, came out to rescue her - before she was also forced to seek cover in the shed from the aggressive birds.
She added: "I have to be honest with you Joe, my grand-daughter is 27 nearly and she was terrified," said Linda. "We were both terrified."
Linda, whose husband Thomas passed away in March, said she was hoping to have her young grand-children over to her house now that she has been vaccinated against Covid-19, but said that she would be unable to as she is afraid that the seagulls will attack them too.
"If my grand children were to come up, and I am hoping with vaccinations that I'll be able to do that, but for the next few months that won't be able to happen in my house."
Linda's plight after the public were warned to treat seagulls with caution as we enter the summer period.
Rentokil has recorded a 50% increase in callouts to deal with seagulls and other pest birds so far this year in comparison to last year.
The breeding season for gulls runs from April until September, meaning they are at their most active at this time of year.
Seagull chicks typically hatch in June, making the seagulls more aggressive as they try to secure food to protect their young.
Richard Faulkner, Advanced Technical Field Consultant for Rentokil, said: "As we enter the warmer summer period and lockdown restrictions are eased, we encourage members of the public to treat gulls with caution and keep their distance from them where possible.”
Rentokil received the most callouts for counties Dublin (66% of all callouts), Wicklow (16%) and Kilkenny (16%).
