Martin Gourd Birdhouse Cleaning Tips

Here are some great tips you can follow to clean your martin gourd birdhouses (or any of your birdhouses) at the end of each season.

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As the winter turns to spring and the geese once again begin flying north in those beautiful V formations you hear flying overhead, it is time to check your nestboxes once again. Even if you cleaned your birdhouses out in the fall, after all the nesting activity was over, you need to check them all and make sure they are once again ready for the return of all of your cavity nesting birds.

You may find that your birdhouses were used by some bird species during cold winters to stay warm at night. You may even find evidence that mice were using some of your nestboxes for homes. No matter what birds or animals took advantage of the warmth of your birdhouses during the winter, there are important considerations you need to know when you begin cleaning out those nestboxes in the spring.

Position yourself to avoid inhaling any dust from the nestbox and wear gloves while cleaning out the boxes. I use a putty knife to remove any old birds nests or wasps nests and put them into a plastic bag with a tie or a zip lock bag in case there are any parasites in the nestbox material. Dispose of old nest materials in the trash. Do not dispose of the old nesting materials close to the birdhouse as this may attract predators.

Once you have scraped out the nestbox and made sure all of the drain and vent holes are open, you can disinfect birdhouses by spraying them with a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach, nine parts water). If you decide to disinfect your birdhouses, leave them open for 24 hours to allow them to dry before closing them back up. I recommend disinfecting your nestboxes if you have evidence of parasites in any specific boxes. Many times you can simply scrape the insides of the birdhouses and wash them out with a sharp stream of water.

Just as I’m sure you like a clean house, your bird friends enjoy a clean birdhouse when they arrive in the springtime to bring all of their beautiful color and song to your backyard. Make them welcome by keeping your birdhouses clean before they arrive in the spring and, if you have nesting birds that produce more than one brood per season, clean out the nestboxes after each brood.

Let’s get ready for a great birding season by cleaning out your birdhouses now and enjoying all of your feathered friends and their offspring for years to come. Happy birding!

Author: Larry A Jordan

Larry Jordan has been bird watching for many years and building birdhouses for over 26 years. For quality bird products including bird feeders, bird houses, binoculars, scopes, birding field guides, CDs and DVDs and much more, go to Birds In My Yard for some great deals.

If you want to learn how to build your own birdhouses go to Build Your Own Birdhouse Plans and while you’re there, sign up for my newsletter to receive a free mini-course on how to attract birds to your yard! Plus you can go to my resources page for free plan downloads and a link to my Blog.

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Purple Martin Gourd Houses

In addition to the joy of having the birds, this is a reason many people construct artificial nesting houses to attract martins to their home for natural insect control. One type of nesting structure is a gourd house.

The Purple Martin Gourd: A Relationship Between Man and Bird

Whatever happened, it was discovered by man that a large gourd with a hole in it could entice the Purple Martins to nest in it. thus was born, the Purple Martin Gourd.

Purple Martin Houses

Then I turned my attention to the purple martin gourd houses. I had no idea the Amish were professional gourd bird house makers. Their website contains detailed instructions for creating your own gourd purple martin house.

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I was asked the other day, ‘Where do you buy gourds? And when you talk about cleaning them, what does that involve?’ Oh, yeah, not everyone knows about this stuff. Funny how you forget that at one time, you yourself were asking the very same questions! And gee, these questions were nicely timed, as it’s the natural next step to talk about gourds.

You can either grow your own gourds; purchase them from the local farm market (usually fresh and you would have to dry them) or over the Internet from a gourd farmer. My two favorite places to purchase gourds are Mojave Gourd Farm in California and Foothill Farms in Ohio.

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Why two? Mojave Gourd Farm offers gourds by the box. They usually offer two types of boxes with varying amounts and shapes of gourds for a nice price. I get a whole box of characters and personalities to create with! When I need a particular type of gourd in a small quantity the place I like to get them is at Foothill Farms I just love the Internet and modern technology.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I intend on growing some of my very own gourds next year. I received lots of tips when I attended the Ohio Gourd Show and am I excited to put them to the test! Oh and you bet, I’ll be blogging about that.

Now the next question was "and when you talk about cleaning them, what does that involve?’ You know you are a true lover of gourds if cleaning them is nothing but a thing. What happens in the morphing process of a gourd from fresh to dry is it loses its water weight. This process takes about six to nine months. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind shrinking that much in that short amount of time!

During this process the water evaporates through the gourd’s skin and forms mold. Okay, maybe that wouldn’t be a good process for a human to lose weight. Can you imagine? ‘Oh look, Tracy, you’ve got a nice coating of mold on you! How much longer do have to go?’ When the process is complete, you have a dried gourd with a moldy residue on it. This must be cleaned off to reveal the wonderful golden color and markings underneath.

I’ve noticed that how easily it cleans depends upon where it’s been grown. This is not based on any scientific fact. This is from my own personal experience. Those desert gourds require a bit more elbow grease than the Ohio grown ones. Now my Mom, who orders gourds from the same place, has managed to get ‘easy’ cleaning gourds. I think the difference there is that she has 19 more years of ‘cleaning’ muscle built up than I do. I know she could beat me at thumb wrestling.

To clean the outside of your gourd you can use some different methods:

Soak the gourds in water and a bit of bleach. Gourds float so it’s important to lay a wet towel over the top of them. After a few hours, wash them with a copper scrubby.

Soak the gourds in plain water and continue as above.

Do not soak the gourds and immediately start scrubbing with dish soap and copper scrubby. Can you tell I get impatient?

And my personal favorite for those desert gourds (and I have to give credit where credit is due, this was suggested by Janice Maloney from Mojave Gourd Farm) spray the gourd with Dawn Power Dissolver. After about half an hour they are ready for the copper scrubby. Sometimes you have to do it twice before you’re finished. There are places that offer to clean the outside of your go 1ff8 urds but you pay extra for that service.

Now the next step is to clean the inside, which wholly depends upon what you are creating. There are various schools of thought on this. Some folks believe that the inside must be cleaned out no matter what and others say ‘not’. I usually go with the first method, but have since learned that it wasn’t necessary. I’m still feeling my way on that one. There are two methods to accomplishing this fun task, dry or wet. Wet cleaning just about eliminates the dust, but I think it takes longer so I usually don’t do this. When the mood strikes, I want to work on the gourd as soon as possible.

When you open up a gourd the first thing you realize is that this is what underneath all that wrapping on a mummified person must smell like. Also, if you happen to have your mouth hanging open (as I catch myself doing often) you can get the nastiest taste in it. It takes several glasses of water, candy, ice cream, or chocolate to get rid of it.

Inside the gourd is a large ball that holds all the seeds along with membrane sticking to the sides of the gourd. If your really lucky, you’ll get a gourd where the membrane ball simply falls out and there isn’t any sticking to the sides. I’m warning you though; these are the really nasty dusty ones!

To wet clean this, I would take out the seed ball and then fill the gourd with water and let it soak. I’ve let them soak from a few hours to overnight depending on how patient I want to be about it. After they’ve soaked, the membrane is very soft and can be scraped out with a sharp edged spoon or a gourd scraping tool. Be warned! Cleaning out wet membranes is a messy and goopy job.

My preferred method is the dry method. Now I started out doing this with a spoon or any sharp object I could find until I bought my scrapers. Then, the Gourd Gods smiled upon all their people and someone invented The Gourd Genie. I love this tool!

This neat device fits into your drill (or your husband’s drill which suddenly has a new home in YOUR Lair. It becomes yours due to squatter’s rights). This neat tool scrubs out all that membrane very quickly! I can’t imagine life with out it. Well yes I can because the first one I bought broke. That’s how I found out what it’s made out of! It’s a golf ball covered with grit (like sandpaper grit) attached to a metal shaft. How simple is that? I really missed having it and it wasn’t long before I bought a replacement.

It is very important to clean your gourds in a well-ventilated area and to wear a mask! I didn’t listen (and still sometimes don’t) and ended up with a reaction to the gourd dust. It’s not fun! For me the result can be as severe as an intense ragweed allergy attack with a nice dash of bronchitis added on top. Gourd dust is nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. I highly recommend a mask. I started out with a mask from Home Depot that has the cartridges on it. Yes, I looked much like Darth Gourdess, which was most fun. ‘Gourd…. Gourd…. come to the dark side….’

I usually wear a blue disposable one for fine dust and so far so good. I clean my gourds outside whenever possible. If I can’t, I have a fan in the window of my Lair set on ‘exhaust’.

There you have it, where to buy your gourds and how to give them a bath. The fascinating thing about cleaning gourds is finding out what’s underneath that mold and dirt. Some of the most interesting pictures spring forth in the markings. It’s like finding the hidden message or the diamond hidden under the coal.

Want more information? I encourage you to check out The American Gourd Society (of which I am a proud member). Yes there are even gourd societies out there! One of my friends thinks that’s rather amusing. What I love is how people who have never heard of gourds until they meet me will suddenly see them everywhere. I didn’t realize how popular gourds were until I started looking for more information. They are everywhere…mwhahahahahahaha…. Oh, excuse me, I got a little carried away.

Have a Wonder-Filled day and enjoy the journey!

Author: Tracy Swartz

Tracy L. Swartz, PhG The Domestic Gourdess

My work is a treasure hunt to find the mystery and beauty of the Gourd hidden beneath the layers.

Gourd art is similar to life unfolding before us, and the choices we make. I choose to transform those things that may on the surface appear awful and unlovely into something uplifting and beautiful. I equate my gourd art to the versatile nature of people, always changing, always unfolding, and always discovering something new.

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The Growing of Gourds and More Gourds

A gourd which rattles is usually better than one which "clunks." Folk lore tellers say a gourd that won’t rattle will bring bad luck — so if you are buying a gourd, shake it. Buy the one that rattles.

Gourds

The gourds grew up and over the top.They looked like alien pods hanging down through the lattice. It was a fun project.I did buy gourds after that. I do not have enough room to grow all the varieties I wanted.

Farmers’ Market

As I was unloading the car, a lady bought several of my bird house gourds before I even had a chance to put them out! Woohoo!! Of course, the vendors buy from each other.

"Running Of The Gourds"

It is a judged event for the artists and place to them to display their wares, offer classes, buy gourds for their next project and visit with fellow artists and suppliers.

Bitter Betty Blogs

Your gourds are excellent; thanks for explaining how to use the fresh ones! There’s an excellent anti-mold product called Concrobium that you can buy at any Home Depot. It has no scent, is made of food-grade mold-killers.

Gourd Art Lampshades

Ok, I just did some research and one can easily buy dried gourds or if you have patience take the 2-4 months to dry them yourself. These people put beads in the holes they drilled which I really like. One could just go crazy with ideas.

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Attract More Birds With BirdHouse Gourds 

Bird house gourds are fun way to attract and enjoy many different types of small birds. Here’s an interesting article reviewing bird house gourds.

Gourd birdhouses are a great way to replace natural habitat for many native songbirds. Many of these types of birds prefer to build their nests in the cavities of trees. In areas where trees are lost due to urban development and logging there are far fewer places for these birds to nest.

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Birds actually will prefer to nest in a gourd over a manufactured birdhouse. The inside of the gourd, if some of the dried material and seeds are left, provides some nesting material and is much more natural than a plastic or resin type birdhouse.

Gourds can make very decorative birdhouses. They can be left natural by just cleaning off the loose skin and sanding the outside to make a very attractive rustic type birdhouse. On the other hand, gourds are very easy to decorate in just about any way that suits your fancy. Many artists love to work with gourds and designs can be handpainted on them, or by using woodburning tools, many beautiful decorations can be added to the gourds.

Birdhouse gourds are really very easy to grow and a lot of fun to decorate. Just one plant can produce 10 to 20 gourds in a nice variety of sizes and shapes. Keep in mind, though, that these are big gourds and grow on a fairly large vine, so you will need to have some space to grow them successfully. They grow quite well up a fence or arbor which would save some ground space.

Gourds are harvested in the fall after the vines have died down. They need to be stored in a dry area and left to finish drying and curing. This usually takes several months and you can tell when they are ready by shaking the gourd. If you can hear dry seeds rattling inside, they are cured and ready to be made into a birdhouse.

For more information on how to finish and decorate your gourds, visit http://www.myprairiegardenhome.com/.

For some unusual, decorated gourd birdhouses visit http://www.darlsprairiecreations.com/.

Author: Darlene Anderson

Darlene Anderson has been gardening and watching birds for many years. She grows birdhouse gourds and makes unique birdhouses on her prairie farm.

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Grow Birdhouse Gourds

While you’re planting food and flowers in your garden, why not plant a garden craft, as well? Birdhouse Gourds or Bottle Gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) are one of the thick-skinned gourds that are mainly grown for crafts or decoration.

Bird Lovers 101: A Good House Idea!

I found out that a House Wren is nesting in the gourd. It has a very creative idea for its bird house! It is built by fine sticks, piled on each other. There is also a hollow in the pile, where its eggs and chicks will be.

Birdhouse And Bowl Gourds

This natural birdhouse can last up to 30 years. Learn our easy technique for making birdhouses out of gourds. Purple martins will be flocking to your backyard.

Confessions Of A Compulsive Crafter

I found a few dried gourds last fall at a thrift shop and one of those happened to be a birdhouse gourd. When dried, birdhouse gourds are tough like thin plywood, and are commonly used for birdhouses and other craftiness.

About Drying Bird House Gourds

There is need to be very patient when it concerns drying bird house gourds because this process is a time consuming affair for which there are no shortcuts. It is necessary to ensure that drying bird house gourds is taken seriously.

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