“For about a half an hour, they’re absolutely gorgeous,” said Jared Fiel, spokesman for Aims Community College. “But for the rest of the time, they’re just not very good guests.”

It’s that rest of the time that has prompted Aims officials to essentially ask the birds—starlings and blackbirds—to leave. As of Thursday, the college began playing starling distress calls and hawk squawks from 5-8 p.m. every night in an effort to scare them away.

The birds have startled students walking to night classes and leave a few carcasses every day. But mostly the problem comes from the bird poop. The birds have pooped over everything—sidewalks, buildings, cars, students and under trees—so much that Fiel said it looks like snow. Not only has that made it hard to keep the college clean, it has stressed the trees, causing some to lose needles or leaves, said Larry Bauman, grounds maintenance supervisor for Aims.

And the poop, as you might expect, stinks.

“Basically, you don’t want to be in the direct line of one of those things,” Bauman said.

The calls sound randomly so the birds don’t get used to it and will cover a six-acre radius, but they shouldn’t reach far beyond the Aims gymnasium, where the $500 unit will be located for now. Aims can control the volume and will turn it up or down depending on how effective it is or if it bothers neighbors. The speakers reach 60-80 decibels. A truck’s alarm as it backs up reaches 95 decibels.