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Thousands of little corellas that have been terrorising the inhabitants of Kangaroo Island have been culled but it won’t be enough to fix the problem, authorities say.

The birds – which are not native to the island – have covered a local school in faeces, torn up infrastructure, damaged crops and caused mental distress to residents with their screeching.

They have been spotted using the nesting hollows of the endangered glossy-black cockatoo, smashing their eggs and killing their nestlings.

Past attempts to control populations by shooting, scaring, trapping or gassing them have failed, with the highly intelligent birds learning how to survive or just moving to cause havoc somewhere else.

Little corellas arrived on Kangaroo Island (KI) in the 1960s. Their population has skyrocketed as they enjoy a predictable water supply from stock troughs and dams, and food from grain crops.

Parents have been particularly concerned about the flock’s presence at the Kangaroo Island Community Education’s Kingscote campus, where the birds have covered tables and play equipment with droppings.

The Kangaroo Island Landscape Board finished a shooting trial in March, which killed 2,640 little corellas, including at the school. It used thermal and infrared technology to target them as they roosted at night.

The board’s general manager, Will Durack, says night-time shooting was more efficient, with the roosting birds easier to kill in large numbers, but it is not clear how much of a dent they made in the population.

“We’ve created the perfect environment for them,” he says. “What they need is reliable water, and they love irrigated lawns, so places like schools have the perfect habitat.

“They’re in such high density around the school, there’s a huge amount of droppings.”

Diseases such as the bacterial condition ornithosis can be passed from little corellas to humans.

“But almost more than that, it’s the physical noise of the things,” Durack says.

He says students talk about mental health issues, and about struggling to engage with their studies because of the noise.

“Little corellas are also an ecological problem,” he says. “They interact with the woodland nesting birds … and outcompete those birds, so they don’t have the nesting sites to have their young.

“They love the nets in the tennis courts, they’ll rip that to pieces. They’ll pull off electric covers, sealants on gutters.

“People’s yachts, they love to sit on them and gnaw at the sails.”

There are three corella species in Australia. The little corella (Cacatua sanguinea, meaning “blood-stained cockatoo”, for the pink markings on their face) is the most widespread.

Their destructive habits and loud shrieks have been the bane of councils across the country.

Eagles and falcons have been trialled as “the perfect scarecrow” to humanely deter them.

On KI, residents have tried to disturb flocks with lights, noise, drones and fireworks but that only served to make them more vigilant, a report into the shooting trial says.

“This attempt to move birds on rarely worked but made flocks more difficult to work with,” it says.

“Large flocks create significant noise disturbance, and this can affect people’s sleep … large flocks also leave considerable faecal matter under and around roost sites.

“None of the existing deterrent or control techniques have effectively reduced little corella populations within the state.”

Previous shooting trials have been ineffective, but the night-time shooting using thermal or infrared scopes showed promise. Adding a suppressor to a 12-gauge shotgun reduces the chance of frightening the birds away, the report says.

As night-time shooting is done while the birds are sitting still, it can minimise flock disturbance and stress, it says.

The landscape board says coordination with other agencies and more resources are needed if the trial is to be expanded.

Rodney Bell, a KI resident, has four grandchildren at the school.

“They poo all over the yard, then the kids are playing in it,” he says. “I was talking to one father, his boy had come home covered in crap.

“Near the school, they would drive anyone insane from the sheer noise.”

Bell says when the birds first arrived on the island someone commented: “You should shoot those two because they’ll bring their families over.”

“We should have listened to him,” he says.