A birdbath makes a great addition to your landscape, but the debris and algae they collect are far less than attractive. Here’s a tip for getting the bath clean and keeping it clean.
- Remove the leaves, debris and stagnant water.
- Spray out as much gunk as possible with a garden hose.
- Mix up a mild bleach solution and use a stiff scrub brush to clean the bath (this will kill the algae and remove the stains it leaves behind).
- Thoroughly rinse the bath out with clean, fresh water.
- Finally drop several copper pennies into the refilled bath to prevent future algae growth (the chemical reaction between copper and water stops algae growth).
I don’t know if the pennies work but as I’ve posted elsewhere, only pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper. Newer ones are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. Use a piece of copper pipe instead.
How do I keep hummingbird feeders from becoming stagnant. How often do they need to be changed.
When using bleach/water to clean the birdbath, will the solution kill the plants around the birdbath?