Purple Bird Crap

[Ducati]

Looking for suggestions as to what is the best sniper rifle that I can use to pick-off the birds that crap all over our boat. Just kidding...

Anyhow, these birds eat some kind of red/purple berries and then site atop the spreaders and drop mega-dumps all over the decks. Of course they wait until the day after we wash the boat.

The normal soap will not get the stains off and was wondering what works the best to clean without damaging the gelcoat.

The Jackal

 

[Billbeard]

Get a nice Red Tail Hawk

 

[fox islander]

We get that here (PNW) starting in late summer when the blackberries ripen...the only thing that gets the stain off is...um...whats it called?...the liquid soap stuff with clorox in it.

 

[Don12364]

Over here it is the Starlings that do do it.
The sun bleaches the purple dye and the rain washes the residue away - after you have removed the nasty stuff.
Takes about a month or so.

Nothing else seems to work.

 

[Warren Milberg]

Couple of years ago, I was in a slip near a copse of mulberry trees. The blackbirds would eat the berries and make a deposit on the deck of my boat. After cleaning up this crap lots of times (using anything with bleach in it -- the sun will then clean up the residual pink) and often taking an hour out of my sailing time, I surrendered. That is, instead of cleaning the boat, I spread a large blue tarp over most of the deck and a smaller one on the foredeck when I left the boat. I hosed them off before taking them off to go sailing. At the end of the season , I threw them away. Went up to the marina office and got another slip far away from the berry trees. That worked best....

 

[Ross]

This time of year they are eating poke weed berries and they wil until the berries are gone after cold weather sets in.

 

[Steve Dion]

Okay gang here is the deal. Go to the Dollar Tree Store. They sell this stuff called Totally Awsome. The stuff costs $1.00 per bottle (I bought 12). I gave 5 of them away to the other Harbor-Rats. The consensus is that everyone of them is going to buy some for themselves.

The bird shit melts. I cleaned most of my entire boat (bird shit and spider crap) without a brush.

Someone on another post mentioned this. I am glad I tried it out.

CHEAP & IT WORKS! What else needs to be said?

 

[shemandr]

So we agree we are into bird crap season.
They tank up on berries across the marsh from my boat and then make use of my double aft swept spreaders to poop up a storm before moving on with their day. I can tell the wind since I left the boat by the set and drift of the technicolor poop. I shake the shroud every time I get on the boat and almost always have two or three fly off the top of the mast. Sometimes I have to shake it twice.
Oh yeah, I've looked at the pellet guns. Plastic pellets, CO2, pistol body. I don't need to kill anybody - just make them find another rest room. The problem is they have the time advantage. They're 24-7. I have to go to work. I'll look into the totally awesome.
And then they turn off the water at my marina!!!!! I mean it gets disgusting with poop all over the deck, tracking it all over. If anyone knows of a small , mobile pressure washer with its own water tank I'd like to know about it.
I love fall sailing. I don't like bird poop on my deck.

 

[Paul Brinkley]

On seeing the title of the post, my first thought was "Is he talking about crap from purple birds, or purple crap from birds?" Has anyone ever tried something like running a plastic owl or hawk up their main halyard? It has worked on fruit trees and in gardens, but I don't know about a boat. -Paul

 

[Ross]

Just wait until spring and the grackles are nesting. They take the fecal pellets from the babies and drop them in about the same place each time they leave the nest. One year it was the roof on our car. They drop out of the tree and glide away from the nest and drop their bombs. One pair can deposit 20-30 pellets in a single morning.

 

[shemandr]

The birds aren't even afraid of me screaming at them. Plastic snakes, owls ... pah-lease!
The farms and vinyards have air canons going off every thirty seconds all around. Where do they escape to? My spreaders!
Spring is a whole other story. A bit less crap but much more nesting debris. This late in the season, any spirited jybe and I'll have straw in the cockpit.
My parents were bird lovers ... and I'm trying. I'm also getting closer to that pellet gun-just to make them move elsewhere.

 

[jibes138]

String fishing line in a crossing pattern in the space above your spreaders. That way the birds won't land there because their wings will get caught up in the fishing line. I saw a beautiful swan at block island once where cormorants were sitting in the spreaders. Entire mainsail (no cover) dodger and bimini was completely covered many layers deep. Most likely a massive expense for replacements considering that amount of damage.

 

[Broke sailor SV Marcell]

I gave up, raised the white flag and moved to a different Marina where the birds are better behaved and there are more boats.

 

[Jimm]

Get a nice Red Tail Hawk

Coopers Hawk would be more effective

 

[Jimm]

Red wine stain remover ........

 

[Ross]

Down at Rock Hall i watched a pair of Ospreys playing on the top of a bimini that had a spider web of springs and ribbons strung over it. For them it was a challenge. Remember they can see about a hundred times better than people can.

 

[Brian D]

I have used vinegar for all my hull cleaning needs. This includes nuclear bird dropping that nothing would remove. The vinegar worked. It has to be a cure-all.

 

[Ken13569]

attach mono fishing line 2 inches above and parallel with the spreaders. It makes it difficult to stand there.

 

[pogo2]

love

On seeing the title of the post, my first thought was "Is he talking about crap from purple birds, or purple crap from birds?" Has anyone ever tried something like running a plastic owl or hawk up their main halyard? It has worked on fruit trees and in gardens, but I don't know about a boat. -Paul

A friend of mine insalled a plastic owl on his boat to chase the birds away, what he got was a blue heron at sunset trying to cuddle up to the owl. This went on for about a week, he finally took the owl down and put up several old CD's the reflection and movement seem to keep the birds away. I have seen people insall those plastic flags that come on 10' lengths and run them up a halyard to keep the birds away

 

[jibes138]

how about some kind of poison? Maybe something that would be absorbed through their feet? Or put some bird food up there filled with Bird Killer Brand Poison.