Me? I can't stand the idea of a mite outbreak one day next spring as the weather is warming, right when I'm pulling the gourds out of storage. So - somewhat reluctantly, after the first freeze in the fall, I find some teenagers that are willing to do the hard work and we embark on the housekeeping duties. After watching the weather reports, I haul all my cleaning equipment out - the scrubbing brushes, the 'greenies', vinyl gloves, heavier dish-washing gloves and 4 gallons of bleach.
Yesterday, November 3rd, happened to be the 'perfect' day, so by 11 AM, we were ready - 96 gourds and 96 lids.
I still only offer 84 gourds, but now, after a landlord retired his racks & gourds last year, I have extra gourds - they really help with the nest checks / changes!
I always hate the part where the old nests have to be removed, so while I pull the gourds off the racks, the young lady and the two gentleman that came this year emptied them. "EEwwwwwww, here's a dead bird", or "uggghhh, I cracked an egg, OMG - that's GROSS"!, cracked me up as we moved across the three racks.
Luckily, those comments were few & far between and evenly spread between the three gourd racks....verifying that I had no serious owl predation the last month of the season. Whew!
Over the years of doing this, I've developed a system and some handy tools - mainly from The Dollar Store - lots of brush varieties and scrubbers. The most handy tool is this "wine bottle washer" that my husband found a few years ago.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Buon-Vino-Spray-Wand/112366978?fbclid=IwAR2CSIncgnffn0A-wYo60ywFOT8dbUft4z1UR3s84_xKeAE3fCN0GGIoo3M
It's a little more expensive now (5 years later), but WORTH.EVERY.PENNY! After emptying the gourds of all nest contents, I rinse them out with this sprayer. Water comes out the tip in a 360 degree circle as well as straight out the end of the tip too, so yeah, you get wet. After the initial rinse, they go into the large tub (the largest Rubbermaid tub I could find) where they soak in the 10% bleach solution for about 10 minutes.
The worker bees then begin to scrub off everything they can. As we worked yesterday, the 2 young men gave the young lady quite a hard time. The 3 of them were really cranking and when I told them that, the guys snarked and said, "well, we're really only 2 and a half". LOL So, I replied back, "Yeah, but she's doing FIVE jobs and you guys only have ONE!". Yes, she's small, but she's a little firecracker. Gotta stand up for the girl on my team!
As they washed, we would hang the gourds on these arms where I do the final rinse with my magic wand.
By then, everything is loose and rinses out really well...or well enough at least, for my tastes.
We pile them on the trailer, wait a day or two for them to dry, then Bob and I bag them up in the large leaf bags you can buy at Walmart. Safe & sound - and NO MITES - until next year. This has kept my gourds in excellent shape and some of them (the horizontals) are over 11 years old.
Another tip - other than paying the teenagers well (so they'll come back next year, despite the nasty work), feed them well too! Dr. Pepper, summer sausage, string cheese, variety of chips and water.....
I no longer have to worry about getting too old to handle all this ... turns out, there are some great parents raising some great kids around my area that are always willing to work. I am indeed, very fortunate.
Thank you, Carly, Jayden & Jay - you guys rock!! (I hope you guys still want to come back next year ....even if you're really sore today).
Use much the same techniques. Have recently been using a hard-sided kiddie pool for the washing tub.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea - and they are cheap too!
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