You probably think I'm talking about new plants, right? An agave or maybe an opuntia? Nope, not this time...
Sometime in late January I noticed the hose hanging on the back of our house was covered in bird poop. Unbelievable quantities. Since the hose is black and the house dark brown it was rather noticeable, it seemed to have happened virtually overnight. Gross as it was I cleaned it all up, figuring it was a one time occurrence. It it wasn't. I cleaned it again and then put plastic over the hose, it didn't take long for more to show up.
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The entire length of the house and some bird decides to perch on the gutter and poop right above the hose, what are the chances? Not that anywhere else would have been great, but this was the worse possible spot, it almost seemed personal.
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I thought maybe there was a nest in the gutter. Andrew climbed up there to have a look, there was no nest. He tucked a section of wire fencing into the gutter to deter perching.
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The poop continued to fall (please ignore the gutter in need of painting)...
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I thought it looked like the guiltypooper party was actually hanging under the gutter, and sure enough there's a utility line of some sort tucked under there. A very small bird was producing very large messes. Andrew ordered stainless steel bird spikes on Amazon, can you see them tucked under there?
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Here's a better shot. Most importantly there has been no new poop since they were installed. Hooray for a poop-free hose!
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Since the order came with more spikes that we needed to do that job I decided to use the others for raccoon deterrent around the stock tank pond. This wire fence was my original solution. It kept the little beasts from jumping in to the tank off that short retaining wall and gave me a place to hang more plants.
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But late last fall they somehow managed to start scaling the side of the tank beyond the fence to go for a swim and thrash my plants. Once the patio was closed for the season I stuck this very unattractive bit of reflective insulation in there to keep them out.
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It did the trick, but wasn't something that could stay in place, obviously.
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Enter my new spikes!
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Fingers crossed...
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Weather Diary, Apr 5: Hi 63, Low 42/ Precip 0
All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
Sometime in late January I noticed the hose hanging on the back of our house was covered in bird poop. Unbelievable quantities. Since the hose is black and the house dark brown it was rather noticeable, it seemed to have happened virtually overnight. Gross as it was I cleaned it all up, figuring it was a one time occurrence. It it wasn't. I cleaned it again and then put plastic over the hose, it didn't take long for more to show up.
The entire length of the house and some bird decides to perch on the gutter and poop right above the hose, what are the chances? Not that anywhere else would have been great, but this was the worse possible spot, it almost seemed personal.
I thought maybe there was a nest in the gutter. Andrew climbed up there to have a look, there was no nest. He tucked a section of wire fencing into the gutter to deter perching.
The poop continued to fall (please ignore the gutter in need of painting)...
I thought it looked like the guilty
Here's a better shot. Most importantly there has been no new poop since they were installed. Hooray for a poop-free hose!
Since the order came with more spikes that we needed to do that job I decided to use the others for raccoon deterrent around the stock tank pond. This wire fence was my original solution. It kept the little beasts from jumping in to the tank off that short retaining wall and gave me a place to hang more plants.
But late last fall they somehow managed to start scaling the side of the tank beyond the fence to go for a swim and thrash my plants. Once the patio was closed for the season I stuck this very unattractive bit of reflective insulation in there to keep them out.
It did the trick, but wasn't something that could stay in place, obviously.
Enter my new spikes!
Fingers crossed...
Weather Diary, Apr 5: Hi 63, Low 42/ Precip 0
All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.