Every now and then the average bird lover or home owner will notice that their bird bath has attained a dirty scum from birds. This scum although putrid, belongs to some of the most inquisitive creatures our planet has to offer. The bird bath itself will attract much more birds if it is fresh and pristine.
The first way to clean the bird bath is classic. Soap and water, everyone has heard this phrase in their child hood. If you want to get most of the scum off use hot water with a teaspoon of dish soap per 16 fluid ounces of water. Once this mix is achieved to the desired amount you can start scrubbing. From here you scrub and brush away at all the muck on the birth bath then rinse with cold water. The bird bath should then be rinsed with water to ensure that all soap bubbles are gone. If you leave the bird bath out to dry it will look much more fresh and clean when new water is put in.
The second way is to use a cleaning chemical, of which there are many. To clean a bird bath from it’s muck and scum you can buy an algae inhibitor and add it to the water in the bird bath. Follow the directions on the bottle. Be sure to replace the water every week or so with fresh water and add more algae inhibitor. Another chemical to use is bleach, scrub it to remove all the muck. Then rinse three times and add fresh water with half a cap of bleach mixed in it. The next recipe is one part Muriactic Acid to ten parts water. Muriactic acid can be found in your local hardware, Home Depot or Lowe’s store. It is relatively cheap at six to nine dollars a gallon When dealing with all of these chemicals make sure you wear eye and hand protection. For hands simple dish gloves will do, you do not need special laboratory gloves for these chemicals.
The third and final method uses brute force. This would be to use a pressure washer to literally blast away the scum particles. The setting used should be on medium with a wide nozzle for the bowl of the dish and a narrow nozzle used for the side walls.
After one or more of these procedures are done the bird bath should be washed with a stream of fresh water from a backyard garden hose for a minute or so. When that is done you can let the bird bath dry or immediately fill it back up with fresh water for birds to come by and decorate your yard.