Roseboro, N.C. — Town officials plan to use a high-tech system to deter flocks of pigeons that have taken up residence and leave daily messes on sidewalks and anything else outdoors.

"We hate to even walk outside because they'll get you," resident Ann Patterson said of the pigeons. "We just run. We try to outrun them."

The pigeons have been flocking to the town of about 1,200 in Sampson County for about three years. Roseboro residents said they don't know what the attraction is, only that they would like to get rid of them.

"We do everything we can to get rid of them, but they don't go away," Patterson said.

Town officials said they refurbished Main Street with new sidewalks and repaving to entice more visitors and business, not pigeons doing their business.

“All we can do is just watch, watch them do it,” resident Brian Bennett said. "You can see they've been making a mess on the ground."

Students and instructors at a Sampson Community College satellite campus on Main Street got an owl decoy from a drug store that recently closed, but it didn't scare off the pigeons when the students placed the decoy outside their building.

The Roseboro Board of Commissioners plans to hear a presentation from Bird-X at their next meeting. The company sells a system that uses ultrasonic waves to get rid of unwanted birds and other nuisance animals safely.