Clearing up mess from Suet Balls under Bird Feeder

quirkydeptless

My local birds, especially the sparrows, are loving the suet balls I am putting out for them in the garden.
However a nasty mess is building up underneath on the patio slabs. The birds are feeding off the ground too, but not enough to keep it clear.
Can anyone suggest a good natural way to clean up the current fat build up?
I am also thinking longer term to put some garden trays under the feeder to catch the debris to still allow the ground feeding birds to still get their fill, and then I can take these trays back inside for a proper clean.
Any other ideas welcome 

Farway

Get a dog?

quirkydeptless

Farway said:

Get a dog?

Well the local rats were helping until I poisoned them all, but their extra mouths feeding didn't help with the clean up crew.
Anyone know of a good fat dissolver that I can use on the mess that won't cause a problem for my garden visitors?

roddydogs

Hot water and a Karcher?

twopenny

Can it be scraped with a hoe? Get the worst off till almost clean.

I was using a plastic scraper that came with my freezer to remove debris from a broken gutter that clung to the windows. You can get mini hoes for decorative gardening but any blade would do.

quirkydeptless

roddydogs said:

Hot water and a Karcher?

 I have a window cleaning Karcher, i hadn't thought of using that, thanks.

quirkydeptless

twopenny said:

Can it be scraped with a hoe? Get the worst off till almost clean.

I was using a plastic scraper that came with my freezer to remove debris from a broken gutter that clung to the windows. You can get mini hoes for decorative gardening but any blade would do.

I could have a go with a paint scraper

kazwookie

Put a sheet of newspaper down to catch the debris?

in_my_wellies

I also had this problem. I didn't want to encourage the ground feeding birds to where cats could catch them.

I hang the feeders inside two old hanging baskets joined with clothes pegs. I place a large plant saucer in the bottom which catches the bits. Robins and dunnock feed from the tray. I have never seen a sparrow here in over 30 years

My diagram isn't much better than my description but here goes:-

MalMonroe

Oh, I'm just so sad that you poisoned the rats. There are brown woodland rats in the woodland behind our property but we very rarely see them and they don't try to come inside or anything like that at all. I don't put birdfood out because I don't want to encourage any vermin but I wouldn't ever poison them. If you didn't move them after death, other animals and/or birds that you're so fond of could have eaten them and died. Or could even have been killed by whatever poison you did put down. 

How can you differentiate between one species and another? I know people who hate birds, think they're nothing but dirty germ-spreaders but they are just like any other creature, wanting to survive. You're feeding birds, loving birds but hating other animals and killing them.

This has really upset me and I don't think you should be feeding birds if it means you have to kill other creatures when they leave a bit of debris. 

203846930

Fit a tray directly to the base of the suet ball holder, a plant pot saucer or a used take-away dish and that way it will catch a lot of the spillage and the birds will eat it from the trays as well.
This is what we have been doing for years and that combined with 'no-grow' bird seed means that there is very little cleaning up needing done.