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The nuisance and dangers birds in fans bring has made you and a lot of people want to know how to remove bird nest from bathroom vent.
Birds flit, dance, swoop and can are usually fun to watch in the great outdoors. But when they cross the line and make a home in your bathroom vent, birds quickly become dangers plus nuisance for homeowners.
That being said, getting rid of birds nesting in extractor fan vent is a relatively simple process with the right tools and equipment
How to Remove Bird Nest From Bathroom Vents
The first step in how to remove bird nest from bathroom vents is to use thick gloves, a mask for your nose and mouth, and googles.
Naturally, nests are full of tiny mites and bits of bacteria. Always take precautions when working on a roof or with sharp metal materials.
- Put all of your protective gear, long needle-nose pliers, a flashlight and long screwdriver in one place.
- Locate the vent or pipe, mostly to the side or above of your bathroom
- Take off the easy parts by hand, such as any leaves, twigs and sticks that poke up from the nest.
- Long needle-nose pliers can help to remove parts of the nest that have wound around slats in the pipe.
- Use the flashlight to confirm that you’ve scraped the pipe clean. A long screwdriver can loosen any sticky leaves or stubborn feathers that are along the side of the vent or pipe.
- Finally, hose down the pipe to flush out the vent slats completely.
How to Get a Permit
Before you take on the job of riding your home of bird’s nest, confirm whether or not the nest is in use.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 states that removal of any active bird’s nest is illegal without a permit, no matter the location of the nest.
You can obtain a permit from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to remove an active nest with baby birds nestled inside.
You should also check to see if your area has any specific regulations and rules in place for wildlife.
If the nest is active, you may just have to wait till the baby birds can fly. Once the baby birds fly away from the nest and pop and mom have left the pipe, you may go in and clear the nest.
This can take a few weeks and up to a few months.
Dangers of Bird’s Nests in Vents
The mass vents and pipes that are mounted on the roof or side of your hone each perform some pretty important things.
The sewer pipes pull air into your bathroom pipes to make sure that any sewer gas stays within the pipes. Once the pipe is clogged with a bird’s nest, foul odors and dangerous gases can back up into the home.
Exposure to bird nests and roosts that are heavily contaminated with dangerous fungal spores found in droppings increases the chances of breathing it in.
You, I (and your family) are at most risk when dry bird feces become airborne and travel through air vents and open windows.
Birds can carry over 40 types of host and parasites internally. There are over 60 types of infectious disease that can be spread by the dried bird droppings to you, your family, pets and employees.
Ti add salt to the injury, the materials that a bid uses to build a nest are commonly highly flammable. This makes removal of the nest a priority.
How to Know if a Vent is Clogged
Once you notice any foul odor oozing through the bathroom, the culprit may be a clogged vent. This can be from a natural occurrence or fallen leaves, but that’s often rare.
Chances are, a bird has built a nest in the cozy confines of a vent pipe.
When a Bird Gets Stuck in a Bathroom Vent
A bird stick in your bathroom vent can be an issue if a different sort. Pulling a bird from a vent after it has inadvertently gotten stuck or injured in the process of building a nest can be an hard thing to do.
You may be better off calling a professional than doing it yourself.
How to Tell if You Have Starlings Nesting In Your Home
Starling nests are made up of twigs, dry grass, and leaves as well as suitable man-made materials. There are quite a good number of ways in which homeowners become aware of bird problem.
Sounds, smells, and sights provide certain giveaways. Unlike robins that build their nests in a neat bowl-like shape, starlings will stuff and cram as much nesting material as possible into vents.
Starlings add up nesting material to the vent on a continuous basis all through the day and are often seen by homeowners as they come and go.
Birds are really messy and will leave droppings wherever they go.
A exterior or vent wall stained with bird droppings is also a sure sign that starlings are making themselves at home in your house.
Feces and urine inside the vent can produce an intense odor all through your home.
Mother starlings lay between 4-6 eggs per year, once in early spring and another in early summer.
As soon as the eggs hatch, things become very noisy as babies begin to chirp, cry and move around. Complaints from homeowners about these birds during these times are at its peak.
This is when you with bird problems will begin to hear noises from inside your home’s ventilation structures.
In most cases, these voices are a family of starlings, who have decided to take up residence.
Openings used to exhaust bathroom fans and kitchen, as well as clothing dryer vents offer great nesting locations.
These vents measure 3-4 inches in diameter and are found on a home’s exterior wall, providing an ideal substitute for a tree hollow.
Vent structure openings are typically capped with aluminium or plastic covers to prevent drafts. Unfortunately, these covers are little more than flaps or louvers that open readily to allow air to escape and are easily manipulated by clever starlings.
Bird Nesting In Extractor Fan
It is not uncommon to find bird nesting in extractor fan. The result of this is having too many twigs wedged in and around the fan blade.
Extractor fan motors are very weak, so it wouldn’t take much to stop them spinning.
Here is a simple fix to bird nesting in extractor fan:
Fix:
Switch off the bathroom fan off at mains, then clear it, After time they can get clogged with grease, dust, grime etc and a good clean makes a big difference.
Plus, do a squirt of WD40 on the axle of the blades to help them rotate freely.
Google/yutube ‘how to clean a fan’ for more!
Removal of Nests, Birds and Baby birds in Bathroom Vent
Adult birds can be easily prodded or scared away from the vent. We then remove nesting material and baby birds in bathroom vent.
The babies are placed in a container that looks and feels like the nest and that is positioned next to the vent.
This way, the mom can continue to feed them until they reach maturity. We then take away the nesting material from the vent and screen it so that the birds can’ get back in.
As soon as the adults are out, it is important to determine if there are babies inside the vent. Bbay starlings do not leave the nest for many weeks after birth and are reliant on their parents for nourishment and food.
Babies can only be removed through hands-on techniques. It is critical that all birds are removed before securing the vent cover. Birds locked inside your vent will die, resulting in bad odor, maggots and flies.
Bird Nest In A Bathroom Vent
Determining the presence of babies can be hard (if not impossible) as your ability to hear and see will be reduced by nesting material.
Special equipment and tools are often required to access the babies and nest inside. A family of starlings can easily damage and break through plastic vent tubes allowing them access into your walls or attic complicating matters considerably.
Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control employs hands-on techniques to humanely remove the nest and the babies inside.
As soon as the babies have been retrieved, they are placed inside a protective container with some of the nesting material we have collected from the vent.
Their technicians then secure that container to the exterior of your home nearest the opening. This allows the starling parents to easily locate their babies and continue to feed them until they are ready to fly on their own.
To avoid any future re-entry, their technicians secure the vent cover with a heavy gauge screening that keeps birds out but also allows the vent to function as it should.
Dealing with birds is messy business. If there is an accumulation of bird droppings in storage shed, chimney, or attic, it’s best to call in a professional who has the equipment necessary for safely removing the droppings.
Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control suggests you leave the birds and cleanup to us. Call them to find out how to remove bird nest from bathroom vent and clean up their mess, so your home, family and pets are safe! 1-888-592-0387.
Proudly serving: Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax,, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge , Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Brampton and the Niagara Region.
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