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Saleen411 · 13-09-2015, 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by savoir

I have never seen swallows around the waterfront. Oh well. The string method has been successful for me for years with seagulls and cormorants.

We have plenty of them here on the water. They LOVE to build their rock hard mud nests under ramps/ bridges/trestles etc. Even found one started on the tower part of my boat!

Great flyers, fun to watch, but bird crap is bird crap...it's either them or me.

rossny · 13-09-2015, 11:55

So...i,m going out to look for fake snakes, fishing line, shiny tape, bug eyed balloons and a feather duster!! Now i need some stuff to get rid of the stains on the deck. They drop bloody fish tails, bones and guts and sometimes i think they come strait from the berry farm to use my "facilities". The white chalky stuff at least matches the deck but if i didn't wash and rinse quick enough before it dries, the blood and dark stains are still there. What product or home mixed cleaners have you used successfully ????

**bstreep** · 13-09-2015, 13:48

A couple of weeks ago we hung up 1 single cd in the cockpit. They went elsewhere.

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Saleen411 · 13-09-2015, 16:25

Quote:

What product or home mixed cleaners have you used successfully ????

Depends on the surface. Skid guard and cool deck I use soft scrub with bleach....esp for berry schit. HATE berry schit as it stains the most. WD-40, SURPRISINGLY, works pretty good on most surfaces.

On canvas.....soapy water...laundry or dish soap. On Vinyl......Soapy water.... then vinegar, ....then hydrogen peroxide for tough stains.....some will add some oxyclean to soapy water.

Acetone also works good on SOME surfaces.

rgleason · 14-09-2015, 06:04

Quano becomes very hard in time. Soaking with hose helps scubbing helps but dont scrub off gelcoat, using vinigar (gallons) helps but there is no one thing that softens it. Just steady water vinigar scrub. Took us about 2-3 days at the dock.

rgleason · 14-09-2015, 06:08

The stains will eventually bleach and wash out over time. If you get the worst off, and can just let rain and sun do the final cleaning and save you gelcoat by not scrubbing it off.

rgleason · 14-09-2015, 06:10

I really like the idea of the stay twanger!! We tried a timed bird screacher but it did not work well and ran our battery down.

savoir · 14-09-2015, 06:18

Regular soaking with hot water is a big help. It will help it soften quicker so you can wipe it off sooner.

hgd137 · 14-09-2015, 07:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgleason

I really like the idea of the stay twanger!! We tried a timed bird screacher but it did not work well and ran our battery down.

I built a device that automatically twangs the rigging every minute or two. Like everything else it was good for about a week and from that time on they ignored it and continued shiting!

tager · 14-09-2015, 13:11

I just use my boat a lot. Bird blessings abound, swallows, kingfishers, eagles, osprey, sea hawks, gulls, terns. They always stop by but rarely **** on board. Don't you need to scrub the deck anyway?

rgleason · 14-09-2015, 18:48

Agreed. Use the boat at least once a week. Take it out, but sometimes we need to be gone 2 weeks. Then watch out!

Seymore · 14-09-2015, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Anybody here know why the dead bird works?

It's ingrained instinct, survival of the fittest. Over thousands and thousands of generations, birds who saw a dead bird and hung around to see what would happen next tended to get killed themselves. Birds who saw a dead bird and hightailed it out of there right away, survived. So taday it's instinctive. A bird who sees a dead bird instinctively gets away from there.

savoir · 14-09-2015, 19:08

The dead bird thing sure does work. Back in my younger days the boat owner shot a cormorant and hung it in the rigging for two weeks. The boat did not get any more cormorant poop for two years.

It won't work as long with seagulls. They move around too much.