Residents of the majestic Balluta Buildings may have won the battle against a car park in the square opposite but they now have to fight the pigeons that plague the ornate architecture, corroding and defacing it with their droppings.

The owner of the landmark block of 20 apartments, an “almost” art nouveau structure dating back to 1928, has reached a point of desperation, trying to combat the persistent and pesky problem.

“Every morning, I wake up to my disgusting terraces and walls, carpeted in pigeon droppings, which go green and stink if not cleaned.

“Every morning, I have to hose and scrub the floors and, the next day, the problem recurs,” recounted the Marquis Scicluna, who prefers to be known simply as Marcus Marshall.

The pavements, cars and plants were also in a bad state, he said.

Mr Marshall has to clean his terraces three times a day, which also means wasting water. And when it rains, the situation is even worse because the droppings are washed off the façade into the balconies. The wind can even blow the excrement into the apartments.

In summer, the stench is unbearable; the droppings fuse into the floor and have to be “blasted” and scraped off, Mr Marshall said.

The situation has been ongoing for about four years and is thought to be a result of development in the area.

The elaborate stonework and its many ledges, unique to Balluta Buildings, provide the ideal roosting ground for feral pigeons.

But the damage caused by what some refer to as “feathered rats” is not only manifested in the architecture due to the excrement’s acidity; being infectious too, it is also a matter of hygiene and health.

An attempt had been made at trapping the pigeons but it proved futile, so, according to Mr Marshall, the only solution is culling. Driven to despair, he had tried to take the matter into his hands, shooting at the pigeons from the roof. But he ended up being arrested, taken to court and fined.

Using spikes was not an option either because the building is so ornate it would cost far too much, while the ledges are so wide the pigeons could settle anyway and it would be a shame to cover it with nets, Mr Marshall maintained.

“We have nothing against pigeons per se and we love animals but something has to be done,” Mr Marshall said, pointing out that similar problems in Mdina and Floriana had been tackled.

The building’s 30 residents have signed a petition for the intervention of the government, which has acknowledged the problem but has not yet committed itself to any action.

The government would be willing to give its blessing to get rid of the pigeons as long as the pest controllers engaged would use a humane method, said Mario Spiteri, director general of the rural development and agriculture unit, within the Rural Affairs Ministry, under whose responsibility animal welfare falls.

“It would be unfair to give the go-ahead to farms, where pigeons are a major health hazard to animals, and not Balluta, where they pose health threats too,” Dr Spiteri said.

He recognised the problems the residents faced and said the disease-carrying pigeon population had to be controlled but insisted on a “clean kill, not a ­lingering death”, envisaging a backlash from animal rights groups.

Given the building’s sensitive location, Dr Spiteri proposed trapping over culling, even though it was used worldwide, and areas in Paris, for example, were often cordoned off to shoot the birds.

Contraception, regularly used in London’s Trafalgar Square, was not effective locally because the same pigeons had to receive the same daily dosage.

However, Dr Spiteri insisted he was against poisoning because it was a tormenting death and could even cause traffic accidents if the pigeons fell out of the sky, landing on a car.