Protecting Medieval Villagers From Droppers

Question

This is a long-overdue sequel to How Can I Protect Medieval Villages From Chompers? and covers Chomper's flying brethren: Droppers.

These little devils are more than a little dangerous. A Dropper is the size of an elephant bird egg (but is shaped like a typical chicken egg, and is clad in a 1-inch thick shell of enamel) with the round bottom of the egg split into two jaws, with an eye on each jaw so they can see what's below them. They have four more eyes, two on the back and two on the front, so they can see in front of and behind them. (They also have two wings, one on each side, instead of a Chomper's tube legs.)

So, they can't really see what's above them (try to look up without moving your head, and you'll see what I mean), they have a small blind spot directly behind or in front of them, and when they open their jaws they can't see what the heck it is they're about to eat, but on the whole they can see everything around them.

They fly at 30 mph max, have the processing speed of a squirrel (so they can act quickly, which is a life-and-death matter when it comes to flight) and the maneuverability/agility of a dragonfly. To make things worse, Droppers have a close-ended digestive system, which means all waste comes out of the mouth and lands below them. Additionally, Droppers have the same powerful acid as Chompers, so you really don't want to be under one when it's angry.

In fact, you don't want to be under a Dropper period, since they don't just fly around, they're always hunting for food. And if they see something they can eat (and like Chomper, they'll eat just about anything), their favorite hunting strategy is 'divenoming,' diving down at speeds rivaling a rocket (a kiddie rocket, like a firecracker rocket) to catch the prey by surprise before grabbing and swallowing their prey with their strong jaws (and throat, obviously, which is aided by) four feeding tentacles.

This is problematic because if a Dropper hits someone and they aren't immediately removed, they'll start growing (and flying back up), engulfing their unfortunate victim in about two minutes. (They'll be above a normal person's reach in four minutes, rising two feet each minute.) After that, they'll become a Quad, which looks sort of a UFO-think of a giant football, flattened and elongated, with thin edges, so that it's like a disc. Add four wings and you have a Quad Dropper.

Quad Droppers are twice as fast as a regular Dropper (flying at 60 mph), are about six feet long, and are big enough that if they encounter a sunbather, they can drop down and 'divenom' them no problem. They also have strategically placed eyes so they can see around, above, and below them and have the intelligence of a pig (which can understand human speech. For the purpose of this question, assume Quad Droppers understand human speech as well as a current-and fluent-speaker of the native language.)

TL;DR: My question, summed up, is How Can Medieval Villagers Protect Themselves From Droppers?

Specifications For Best Answer:

1. The best answer will include active and passive methods; methods that require human action to work and others that work without interference. I count behavioral patterns as active methods.

2. The best answer will thoroughly cover multiple viable methods and explain why they'd work. For ideas, I strongly suggest you see the linked question above, as well as the information above TL;DR.

3. Said methods should be viable for medieval villagers, specifically medieval Europeans, something they can actually come up with and produce. I believe in human ingenuity, so this should be the easiest of the criteria to accomplish.

4. Final notes: Droppers rest or sleep in high-up, hard to access areas, like the roofs of houses or the eaves of cathedrals, or on church gargoyles, and on nearby bodies of relatively still water, like lakes, lagoons, swamps, or the sea. Half of their brain is awake at any given time, so if they fall or feel something bump them (or hear something coming for them), they will awaken and take flight.

As for population, I haven't decided between 1 Dropper for every 100 Chompers or 1 Dropper for every 13 pigeons in an area. Yeah, sorry about that.

Answer 1

Humans are most likely extinct in your world, but they did their best by living underground. If a single quad-dropper spots a typically medieval above-ground human settlement then the settlement is more or less dead. The Quad-dropper is too fast, too strong, and smart enough that it will always eat its fill. Like a smart pig it'll stay in the area and continue feasting on Humans until the city goes extinct. Anyone trying to leave will be easily eaten, and those that don't will starve. As a result of these alpha-predators Humans have been forced to live underground. Human cities have gates made of foot thick granite stone with murder holes to allow for defense. Inside the cities are cramped with zig-zagging streets which would prevent any dropper from reaching max speed. Every so often are lowerable steel portcullis that creates new lines of defense. All surfaces are smooth and there are no places where a dropper might be able to nest.

Your towns have low populations because farming above ground is simply impossible. They might have greenhouses near the surface, but farming those greenhouses would be a very deadly job. At any moment a quad-dropper might smash through the glass and iron to grab a tasty treat. Instead your people have to scavenge to survive, eating anything they find even rotting carcasses of animals.

In a world with these droppers, Humans probably don't have to worry about conflict with other Humans. Their prime concern are these genocidal predators. You're talking about a world that is depopulated/post apocalyptic. Humans settlements exist on the edge of a knife where any wrong move means their complete extinction. There won't even be trade via sea because these droppers will melt any wooden boat that someone manages to whip up. (Quad-droppers will know of the tasty treats hidden inside those boats) Every community will be self-sufficient ala a post apocalyptic world.

As to your numbers of droppers: I suspect that your world will be completely devoid of all life except for droppers. In the 1871 the largest nesting area of pigeons was recorded as having 136,000,000 pigeons in an area of 850 sq miles. That would be a million droppers by your count. If you want to make this anywhere near believable Droppers need to be nerfed hard into the ground, or need to be so rare that a person might only see a Dropper once in their lifetime. My suggestion for a nerf would be their habitat. Humans can't destroy the ocean, but they could burn down a forest.

Edit: All alpha-predators who get "too good" at hunting end up being territorial creatures. Why? There's not enough food to go around. Lions, Bears, and Wolves all fight each other over territory to avoid starvation via over hunting. Your droppers would lightly be hyper territorial. Quad-droppers would have massive territories and kill any young droppers who enter it before they have a chance to grow.