seagulls: Pest control firm boss forced to spend £500 cleaning Mercedes of bird poo 'Bombardment' of poo was left on car and ate away at paintwork Clean up and repair bill of new Mercedes cost Jon Whitehead £500 Seagull poo only needs about 12 hours before damage becomes irreversible He is personally responsible for ordering the eradication of flocks of pesky seagulls. So when this pest control boss left his shiny new blue Mercedes outside his home while he went on holiday, it was no wonder the birds decided to strike back. Jon Whitehead returned from his fortnight break to his home in Seaford, East Sussex, to discover his new vehicle had been smothered in the gulls' faeces - and the clean up cost would top £500. When Jon Whitehead returned after a two-week break he found his motor splattered with seagull poo after it was 'constantly bombarded' for 14 days Mr Whitehead, a director of pest control firm Cleankill Environmental Services, said: 'Part of my work involves deterring seagulls and removing nests so it's as though the birds decided to get their revenge on me.' When he returned from his holiday last Friday he found his vehicle - which he only bought a week before going on holiday - splattered with seagull poo after it was 'constantly bombarded' for 14 days. After washing his care for more than an hour Mr Whitehead gave up and sought professional help as the muck had eaten away some of the paintwork. Mr Whitehead, a director of pest control firm Cleankill Environmental Services, said: 'The gull used my new car as target practise while I was away on holiday. It was completely covered and the droppings had eaten right through the paintwork. The poo only needs to be left on a car for a period of 12 hours and the damage will be done, as Mr Whitehead discovered I took it to a local garage who told me the whole area needed re-spraying. Andy Melville, who owns Motorline Engineering near Lewes in East Sussex, said it only takes a few hours for for bird muck to inflict irreparable damage to vehicles. He said: 'The poo only needs to be left on the car for a period of 12 hours and the damage will have been done and the whole area will probably need re-painting. The hot weather has literally been baking the poo into the paintwork and setting it hard really quickly. The best advice is to wash it off with soap and water straight away. He said repair bills range from £100 for minor damage and go up to £2,000 if the whole car needs re-spraying. A 2008 study by insurance firm Zurich found that British motorists paid out a staggering £57million-a-year to repair paintwork damaged by bird poo.