Cleaning - WKTV Journal

Maintenance of birdhouses is important and should be done in the fall. (pxhere.com)

By McKoy Scribner
Capital News Service

In Michigan, there are over 350 species of birds.

After birds lay their eggs and their fledglings take off in the spring, you might have an empty bird box at this point. Should you clean out the nest they leave behind?

Whether to clean out nests from birdhouses at the end of summer is an ongoing debate.

Some people fear if they clean out a nest box, they might be disrupting a family of birds who might need it for future use.

Meanwhile, others claim you can lend a helping hand to birds by cleaning the birdhouse of any buildup that could cause parasites.

MSU Extension’s Elliot Nelson says there’s no clear-cut answer, but basic maintenance of nest boxes is necessary.

“There’s a lot of research still to be done on nest boxes and cleaning them, and the science isn’t exactly totally clear yet. But there are some things you can do to make sure your nest boxes are safe and healthy for birds.”

This includes making sure a nest isn’t built too close to the entrance hole, which poses the risk of predators getting in.

Annual monitoring of the box for a buildup of mold or debris is also a good idea to help prevent mites or lice.

Nelson says predators and parasites are the two main threats to birds.

If there’s too much buildup of nesting material, ectoparasites like mites and lice could attack a group of nestlings the next time birds make a home in the house.

Be sure that a birdhouse hole is the right size and that ectoparasites “aren’t going to be able to build up in there too much,” Nelson said, then clean it occasionally by removing the nest material.

If there’s a lot of moisture or mold in the birdhouse, that’s a sign to remove all nesting materials to give it a deep clean, he said.

When determining a good time for a cleaning, Some species have multiple clutches in the same summer, so it’s best to wait until fall arrives in September after all possible nestings are done, he said.

To deep clean a nest box, bird enthusiasts should use a simple bleach solution or hot water.

Sink, check. Toothbrush, check. Shower head? Yes, add the shower head to your checklist of things to replace or clean in the bathroom. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

You no doubt think that stepping into your shower will wash away dirt and germs, but a new study shows your shower head might instead dump nasty bacteria on you that may cause lung infections.

Most people know to keep their bathrooms clean, especially the toilet and sink. But researchers discovered that places in the United States and Europe where germs called mycobacteria are found in abundance in shower heads are the same places where bacterial lung infections are most common. In America, that includes parts of Southern California, Florida and New York.

“We live in a world covered in bacteria, and the bacteria in our shower heads follow some interesting geographic trends, and can be altered by our water source and water chemistry,” said study lead author Matthew Gebert.

“We’re exposed to microbes constantly in our day-to-day lives, some beneficial, some innocuous and a few potentially harmful,” Gebert explained.

He’s a research associate at the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

Bacteria thrive in shower heads and water distribution systems. Although most of these bacteria are harmless, some can cause lung infections, he said.

Still, just because mycobacteria live in your shower head doesn’t mean you’ll get sick or are more likely to get a respiratory infection, Gebert added.

In fact, researchers can’t say that a person with a respiratory infection got it through showering, but understanding the sources of mycobacterial exposure is important.

“We don’t want people rushing home and throwing away their shower heads or obsessively cleaning them every day, nor should anyone change their showering habits—swallowing the water is OK,” he said.

For the study, Gebert and his colleagues analyzed shower heads from homes around the United States and Europe, and found an abundance of bacteria. The kind of germs varied by location, and by the chemistry of the water and where it came from.

An interesting finding was that homes whose water was treated with chlorine disinfectants had high concentrations of certain germs, the researchers noted.

The study was published recently in the journal mBio.

“I don’t think there are necessarily any negative implications from the study,” Gebert said. “But because bacteria that can cause illness live in our shower heads, it’s important to understand how people can be exposed to them.”

Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, noted that bacteria grow in wet places like shower heads.

“This is a reminder to clean your shower head, which nobody does,” he said, though “most of us are likely to tolerate mycobacteria and not get sick from it.”

Bacteria in shower heads won’t cause an outbreak of lung infections, but people who are run down or who have a compromised immune system or a chronic condition may be vulnerable, Siegel suggested.

Bacteria also live on your toothbrush and in your sink—any moist surface, he said.

Siegel recommends cleaning your shower head every week or two with a disinfectant that contains ammonia to be sure you kill all the germs nesting there.

“Add your shower head to the list of things in the bathroom that need cleaning,” he said.

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum HealthBeat.