Home: Roof
Symbiotic Gutter Cleaning   (+3)  [vote for, against]

Feed the birds while they clean your gutters. Throw some sort of seed or grub up onto your roof (shaped to roll into the gutter). While brids nose around in the gutter they will end up tossing out the gutter junk.

Saves you from all the ladder climbing and life risking involved with cleaning gutters.

While out in the yard one day I was showered with debris. When I looked up there was a bird in the gutter pulling out leaves and dirt and throwing them over the edge (presumably it was finding some food).
-- blahginger, Feb 14 2003

I've quite often observed birds looking through piles of leaves. They are either looking for juicy bugs or for just the right stick to make their nest look good.
-- DrBob, Feb 14 2003


Rather more likely your brid was trying to make room for a nest in the gutter.
-- DrCurry, Feb 14 2003


Brid ?

Brid of Frankenstin ?
-- 8th of 7, Feb 14 2003


Nice try, but I see gutters full of birdshit in your future.
-- Zircon, Feb 14 2003


Yes, just what I was going to add to my anno before I was rudely interrupted by a customer.
-- DrBob, Feb 14 2003


I suggest that you toss *sterilized* birdseed to the gutter in implementing this, as a fertile seed would find the mulch of the gutter to be an ideal place to take root.
-- X2Entendre, Feb 14 2003


Aw, c'mon, don't tell him that - I was looking forward to seeing a ring of greenery around his eaves.
-- DrCurry, Feb 14 2003


[Zirc] - or was that bridshit?

Now, tell me this. You want to unclog your gutters, so you throw more stuff into them in the hope of enticing birds (or brids) into chucking what was in there originally out. But can you guarantee that the birds (or brids) actually remove more than you (and they) put in in the first place? Time to reinforce those gutters.

This is simply not gadgetty enough. You need a wall climbing robot with gutter cleaning brush attachment, sweeps all leaves, birdnests, brids and seed from your gutters.
-- PeterSilly, Feb 14 2003


How about (long axis) rotating gutters that invert automatically once a week and spill all their gunge around the base of your house, then a little brush on a rail runs around the outside of the house and pushes all the dirt and stunned birds into a little sunken bin that sits next to you main bin and may be emptied at the same time.

You may think this is an over-engineered solution, but I remind you where you are.
-- Zircon, Feb 14 2003


Throw up some rice, the brids die in the gutter and the neighborhood cats clean the gutter while digging out the brids.
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 14 2003


What happens when the neighborhood dogs pounce on the cats while the cats are otherwise engaged, killing them and leaving the gutters crammed with leaves, twigs and dead cats?
-- snarfyguy, Feb 14 2003


Send up a team of dog catchers. Maybe the gutter will come crashing down and will be much easier to clean.
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 14 2003


I don't know why she swallowed a fly...

Rods, symbiotic, not symbolic. (Just to let you know at least one person got it. Your genius is not unappreciated).
-- egbert, Feb 18 2003


I read Zircon's 'rail runs' as 'rail guns.' A more 8th of 7-ish method of handling the issue.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 18 2003


I've never known a brid that kept their nest spotless, so why would they treat my gutters with any respect? No, I think PeterSilly and Zircon are on the right track, if you'll pardon the pun. We need an engineered solution here. How about a miniature, solar-powered, radio-controlled, front-end loader with an on-board camera so we can sit in a comfy chaise lounge with a bracing refreshment in one hand and the remote in the other, watching TV while the little buzzard digs and slops its way through the accumulated muck and debris? Guys would stand in line just to play with the remote!

If we can figure out how to add a PDA, GPS, AI, and a credit card slot we could make it a fully automated self-contained gutter cleaning service that maintains its own list of clients and bills them each time the job is done.
-- Canuck, Feb 19 2003


/and bills them /

Would that be a bird bill?
-- egbert, Feb 19 2003



random, halfbakery