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Hot take: I stopped scrubbing my feeders with bleach and the birds came back
I used to bleach my tube feeders every two weeks because some blog said it was the only way to stop disease. Then a guy at the Wild Birds store in Columbus told me the bleach smell can linger way longer than people think, even after a rinse. I switched to just hot water and a stiff bottle brush back in April, and within a week I had goldfinches and a downy woodpecker showing up again. Now I scrub every week with plain water and swap in fresh seed, and honestly my birds look healthier than before. Is there anyone here who actually uses bleach and swears by it, or did I just mess up the rinse all those years?
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jenny_hall7d ago
Oof, hate to be the bearer of bad news but I gotta push back on one thing here. Bleach does kill the bad stuff, that part is real, and the issue is almost never the smell, it is leftover residue that dries on the plastic and the birds pick at it later. If you rinse well and let it fully air dry, bleach is actually the go to for things like salmonella and pox outbreaks, so saying it is bad is not quite right. What you probably fixed was the seed going stale, since fresh seed and a clean feeder will pull birds back no matter what you scrub with. Also the birds vanishing in April could just be them moving to nest spots or natural food popping up, so try not to read too much into timing. Water and a brush every week is honestly fine for normal days, just keep the bleach in your back pocket for when you actually need to knock out something nasty.
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