THE biggest ever crackdown on unruly seagulls was taking place in Worcester today, thanks to a firm based in Alfrick.

Red Kite Pest Control has been putting hundreds of fake eggs on to roofs to fool the birds.

Andy Staples, of the company, said workers would be removing real eggs from nests on flat roofs across the city and replacing them with fakes from a stock of up to 400 plastic dummies. He added: “They don’t like me – seagulls attacked me in Worcester once as I tried to get out of my van.”

The £5,000 scheme is aimed at tricking the birds into wasting their time with the fake eggs and preventing a new generation of the pests ever being born.

Despite the seagull population dropping by a third in recent years, bosses have branded the current tally “a pain and a nuisance”.

Seagulls have plagued the city for years and the latest estimate suggests there are about 400 in Worcester, infuriating traders, visitors and shoppers.

Councillor Roger Knight, deputy leader of the city council and the cabinet member responsible for the environment, said: “Stepping up the work to reduce their numbers further is excellent news – they are a pain and a nuisance and if we can fool them by using these fake eggs, it can only be a good thing.”

In recent years contractors used to oil eggs to stop them hatching, but it was largely dumped four years ago after it failed to reduce the numbers satisfactorily.

The replacement scheme will run until early June, the main breeding season.