July 01, 2017

Tree Frogs and Water Troughs

While working on the barn wiring Steve and I have noticed that we hear a really load trilling sounds sometimes.  I've identified the call to a tree frog called Copes Gray Tree Frog.  Lo and behold one evening we heard the sound not up in the barn roofing but near the water trough.  There there were two tree frogs handing out on the rim!  So cute! 


I knew that there was a build up of gunk in the troughs even though I scrubbed them and refilled them weekly.  It builds up so fast and sometimes no amount of scrubbing work will reduce that thick layer bio-film.  I would only scrap the surface with my scrub brush, it was frustrating.  


So I took out our power washer and spent a hot day powering through all that gunk; soaking myself in the process but I didn't mind.  It working like a charm.  I'll still scrub every week but will most likely have to do a deep cleaning on a more regular basis.  I've also gotten some apple cider vinegar to add to the tanks again so help reduce the rate of growth; I'm only adding a cup per filling and we'll see how that goes.


The scum builds up pretty fast with the heat and humidity but at least the power washer makes the trough look almost new.  I'm sure the horses don't care either way as long as the water is clean and fresh but come on....frogs were starting to like it so they were well overdue for a good cleaning.  Yuck...so embarrassed to post this!


Just look at it now, brand spanking new and shiny looking!  The frogs have since moved on but water beetles continually like to inhabit the trough within a day or so.  Luckily I've yet to see mosquito larvae so my weekly dump and scrubbing prevents that issue.  A power washer is such a great investment.  I've got another power washer post coming up!

5 comments:

lytha said...

It looks brand new! I have this problem in Summer too, and I dump and scrub twice a week at least (mine is much smaller than yours). Finally I wasn't having much luck getting the scum off so I took it out of the horse area, filled it with water, and added a half cup of bleach. A few hours later all the scum was gone! I rinsed the heck out of it afterwards, paranoid the water would taste wrong.

Mrs Shoes said...

I never had a problem with my auto waterer - until cows. When only horses drank from it, the Richie needed deep cleaning once a year. 3 dumb cows later & I keep a sieve in the barn to go out and clean all the green algae that clings to the sides about 3X a week. I think cows must have dirtier mouths than horses, by far. I've even wondered if I could try using snails in there......... any thoughts on snails Christie?

Christie said...

I'd be worried about lung worms or flukes from snails. For me I'm gonna just be better about cleaning move often and using cider vinegar. Do you think you can use that in the auto waterer, albeit you'd have to add it regularly.

L.Williams said...

I love finding frogs in my stall!

Christie Maszki said...

Yes we have a lot of frogs and toads around here I love them! Just worried that if they were liking my water trough it was getting to ucky for horses. Thing is la..st night I heard the little frog singing right by the trough again. Guess it doesn't matter how old the water is or how clean the trough is. Hopefully he'll eat some flies or maybe even a horsefly!!