Hi folks,
We recently moved house, and the house comes with an under-the-house area that had been pre-set up for hanging up clothes. Fantastic for us as we go through a lot of clothes with a toddler, shirts for the other half, and theres another little one on the way. As its under the house, its sheltered - this means that even when its raining we can be drying clothes (this makes me very happy as the primary clothes washer!).
Down in the same under house area is an old Coal storage building, thats unused (by humans at least). We discovered two swallow nests down there and to be honest thought they were lovely. They chirp away and are very happy, and our three year old loves going down to watch them in the nests. We had all intentions of living with them and letting nature be. The previous owners have told us that they come back every year for the last 20 or so years.
Heres the problem - the swallows are literally shitt!ng all over our clothes as they dry. I'm not talking about droppings on ONE item (that I can cope with); they are destroying ALL hanging clothes like they are targets. They fly above the clothes lines to get to the exit and into the trees, and on their way they fire off. Our whites are no longer fully white, but have greyish stains down them. Today alone I went down to bring in washing thats there since about 10am - A double bed duvet, two pillow cases, two work shirts of hubby's, two tops of my sons and lots of underwear have sh!te on them so have to be re-washed now.
I'm really getting fed up. I don't have the time to keep washing clothes like this, and to be honest now my patience is running thin with them. Theres no alternative areas to dry clothes outside of the house, and I don't want damp in the winter. I feel like we're at war almost. I'm also hormonal (pregnancy) and I'm getting serious sick of all the extra work and anxiety from it.
Can someone please tell us a safe way to move the nests to an outdoor tree, or remove them altogether (safely)? When do swallows migrate for winter, could I move the nests then? And how do we stop them from returning? This all sounds so daft but I'm drowning in dirty washing and its going to cost us a fortune in dry-cleaning if we don't figure something out soon.
We recently moved house, and the house comes with an under-the-house area that had been pre-set up for hanging up clothes. Fantastic for us as we go through a lot of clothes with a toddler, shirts for the other half, and theres another little one on the way. As its under the house, its sheltered - this means that even when its raining we can be drying clothes (this makes me very happy as the primary clothes washer!).
Down in the same under house area is an old Coal storage building, thats unused (by humans at least). We discovered two swallow nests down there and to be honest thought they were lovely. They chirp away and are very happy, and our three year old loves going down to watch them in the nests. We had all intentions of living with them and letting nature be. The previous owners have told us that they come back every year for the last 20 or so years.
Heres the problem - the swallows are literally shitt!ng all over our clothes as they dry. I'm not talking about droppings on ONE item (that I can cope with); they are destroying ALL hanging clothes like they are targets. They fly above the clothes lines to get to the exit and into the trees, and on their way they fire off. Our whites are no longer fully white, but have greyish stains down them. Today alone I went down to bring in washing thats there since about 10am - A double bed duvet, two pillow cases, two work shirts of hubby's, two tops of my sons and lots of underwear have sh!te on them so have to be re-washed now.
I'm really getting fed up. I don't have the time to keep washing clothes like this, and to be honest now my patience is running thin with them. Theres no alternative areas to dry clothes outside of the house, and I don't want damp in the winter. I feel like we're at war almost. I'm also hormonal (pregnancy) and I'm getting serious sick of all the extra work and anxiety from it.
Can someone please tell us a safe way to move the nests to an outdoor tree, or remove them altogether (safely)? When do swallows migrate for winter, could I move the nests then? And how do we stop them from returning? This all sounds so daft but I'm drowning in dirty washing and its going to cost us a fortune in dry-cleaning if we don't figure something out soon.