Birds nesting in a dryer vent
What do I do about a bird nesting in my dryer vent?
An exterior vent hood is a sheltered cavity at height, out of the weather, with warm air coming out of it. From a bird’s point of view that is close to ideal, and every spring some of them act on it.
Nesting material blocks a duct faster than lint does, and it blocks it completely rather than gradually.
How to tell
Scratching or rustling from the wall near the dryer is the obvious sign, and usually the first. Beyond that the symptoms are the same as any severe blockage: clothes that will not dry, a hot laundry room, and a hood flap that does not move when the dryer runs.
The distinguishing feature is how suddenly it starts. Lint takes months to become a problem. A nest can close a run in days.
Why it happens here
It needs a way in, which means a hood whose flap no longer closes — seized by salt air, painted shut, or missing altogether. A working flap shuts whenever the dryer is off, and there is no opening to occupy.
So a nest is nearly always a symptom of a failed termination rather than an unlucky bird. Clearing the nest without addressing the hood means doing it again next year.
What has to happen
The nesting material has to come out of the duct — not be pushed further along it — and the run then has to be cleaned along its whole length, because material breaks up and travels.
Then the termination needs to be put right, or it will simply happen again. A proper flapped hood is a flat $225, and it is the part that actually solves the problem.
Please do not screen it
The instinct is to put mesh over the opening. That is prohibited under IMC 504, and it fails on its own terms: lint mats on the screen until the outlet is closed, and the mat itself becomes nesting material.
Last reviewed Sunday, August 30.
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