Do Rochester and Rochester have problems with crows?

Dec. 31—Dear Answer Man: Do crows just love cities named Rochester. A recent article from Rochester, New York, talks about how that city has a major problem with crows. Is it possible that cities with the same names can have common genes … or in this case, an infestation of crows? — Jerry Loves Crows.

Dear Jerry,

Crows are causing quite the ruckus in downtown Rochester. Noise. Crow droppings.

And that’s the one in New York.

Of course, the Med City has its own crow problem. And Rochester — our Rochester — has done just about everything to rid itself of these birds.

Lasers, birds of prey and air rifles: When you have a murder of crows, cities get a little creative to deal with the issue. Just this last month, the USDA was in town helping the city with its crow abatement efforts.

Still, Jerry, this has got to be an odd coincidence, right? I mean, just about every city with a northern latitude has a crow problem.

Well …

Figuring every mid-sized city in Minnesota is dealing with the same issue, Answer Man randomly reached out to officials in St. Cloud and Duluth to ask about their crow problems, and how they deal with the issue.

“Duluth does not seem to have a crow problem,” said Kelli Latuska, public information officer with the city of Duluth, “and therefore, no offer of solutions to resolving a crow problem.”

Seth Kauffman, city clerk for St. Cloud added, “There are birds of all types in the downtown areas of St. Cloud, but no overabundance of any one specific type. The city takes no action to disburse.”

Not wanting a third strike, I left it at that.

So, is it just the Rochesters of the world that get infiltrated by crows?

Alas, no. It’s a widespread problem. A quick search of the internet shows cities ranging from Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Sunnyvale, California, to Danville, Illinois, to Poughkeepsie, New York, all battle the crow problem.

Interestingly, one success story was discovered. It seems Penn State University — which makes up a big portion of the city of State College, Pennsylvania — got its crows to move by turning on lights in an area where they wanted the crows to go, then shooing them toward that area until it became a crow habit.

Considering how brightly lit downtown Rochester is, I’m not sure we’d ever convince the crows to skedaddle the area to a less disruptive locale.

In the end, Jerry, it seems crows don’t focus on a city’s name.

Now if we can just find out what St. Cloud and Duluth are doing to be unattractive to crows.

Only a birdbrain would keep their queries to themselves. Send questions to Answer Man at answerman@postbulletin.com .

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