This may not be the correct forum to ask about this, but I figure a lot of people have concrete bird baths in their gardens. One of my bird baths, it is concrete, grows some sort of red crud that discolors the water. It actually cakes on the surface when there is water in it and can be chipped off when it dries. My other concrete bird bath doesn't do this. Any idea what it is and what's causing it? Is it harmful to birds? Any way to get rid of it?
Thanks in advance. Karen Portland, OR
Red tide in your bird bath?
May be a toxic bacteria growing there.
Thoroughly clean it out with bleach and start again.
That'd be "Red sales in the sunset."
-paghat the ratiglr
Can you get red tide in fresh water? I've tried cleaning it but it just keeps returning, regardless whether it's rainwater or tap water. I was thinking more along the lines of a chemical reaction with something in the concrete.... any possibility of that?
Karen
Haematococcus?
Story here:
It is classed as a free-swimming green algae, but has a lot of orange/red pigment.
Nope. What you describe reads more like an infestation of toxic so-called blue-green bacteria (I know the color is red not blue-green) fed by the bird poop.
The best way to kill them noxious critters off is by using chlorine bleach.
Yeah that's the nasty critter. Thanks Charles.
Chlorine bleach will kill them off. At least, until the next infestation.
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