Of wasps and gutter guards

As evidenced by the comments to this September 2007 Q&A on fall cleanup, we receive lots of requests from readers to review gutter-guard systems. You'll be happy to know that we've added gutter guards to our list of products to test.

I've lusted after gutter guards, too, no time more strongly than when I recently hauled out my ladder to clean some debris from my gutters and the area under my elevated deck.

I had a willing helper in my 4-year-old daughter, Thea, who loves to work with me on household chores. But as soon as I propped the ladder onto my deck and rested it against the gutter, Thea let out a sharp cry; she'd been stung by a wasp. I carefully removed the stinger ASAP (some good advice I remembered from our summer-safety quiz) and dashed into the kitchen to mix a paste of baking soda and distilled vinegar to apply to the sting.

As I was searching for the wasp's lair, three of his cohorts dive-bombed me from above. I swatted away one, but two stung me on the chest. Fortunately, some of the baking soda-vinegar mixture was left over. Having had enough of these stinging pests, I ushered Thea inside and donned my sailing anorak, drew the hood and the face mask tight, slipped on some work gloves, and got back to cleaning the gutters—very carefully.

You see, several years ago while cleaning a friend's gutters, I put my hand directly into a wasp nest and got stung on four fingers; it felt as if a lit cigarette was being applied to each one.

So like you, I'm awaiting our tests of gutter guards. I know I'm not the only weekend warrior to suffer injuries—read more in this blog entry—but as they say, once bitten, er, stung, twice shy.—Gian Trotta

Essential information: It's not too late to check out our Guide to Summer Health & Safety, including a review of the best insect repellents.

Comments

[orange fan]

one time a friend and i killed a whole nest of wasps with a small broom and a piece of bamboo. why did we use those you ask? i was in argentina and didnt have any bug killer

[KimJSCP]

Don't forget the Looj by iRobot. I love my scooba. Which reminds me of a big gaff by Consumer Reports in a report on the Scooba. In may of '06 you said "The bottom line. Don’t toss your mop. It cleans faster and more thoroughly than Scooba, and costs far less." My mop doesn't clean my floor at all - I do using my mop, but my Scooba does the actual cleaning all on its own, freeing me to do something more fun. The time I used to spend mopping cost me a lot.

Of course, all of what I just said is irrelevant if CR has a magic mop that cleans the floor by itself.

[pest control]

hi where can i find more info gutter guards this sounds interesting

[G Rohrer]

I have been doing some research myself on gutter protection and came across a website called askthebuilder.com. The guy who runs the site, Tim Carter, has done lots of testing over the years on all kinds of home improvement things, including testing gutter guards (all of which he says failed, apparently until now). There is a Youtube video of Carter having different gutter guards installed on his house for testing this Spring, when he thinks debris is the worst. He just posted on his website a few days ago that he finally came up with a winner, but hasn't said which one yet. Thought this might be helpful in your research and testing. Here's the link: http://www.askthebuilder.com/August_24_2008_AsktheBuilder_News.shtml. Look under "Gutter Guard News." Would love to hear what CR has to say about it after your testing finishes up. Sorry about the wasps.

[keli gatlin]

I also have a hugh wasp problem I live out in th county and have had many nest built under my awnings from the roof where on top are the gutters and wd40 works well I have only had two nest built after spraying underneath it works wonders!

[Adam Roy]

I have found one of the gutter protection products out there to be very effective in keeping most everything out of the gutters. The product is called gutterbrush. It is very affordable and I have not had any nesting in any of my gutters for the past three years. The site is www.gutterbrush.com if you want to see if it is the product to solve your particular problems.

[Charley K.]

At my "co-housing" community we are trying to come up with an effective gutter guard system for a 26 unit complex. Currently most units have rigid metal guards which were installed by a roof cleaning service. Unfortunately they're the wrong size and are were sloppily tucked under the bottom row of shingles, causing the shingles to start curling up. I experimented with some cheap, flexible gutter mesh that I'd used successfully before at my previous home; but that stuff seems to depend on closely spaced gutter nails for support, as the new ones have already collapsed into the gutter, making a bad situation worse. I can't wait to find a decent product. ~ CK

[Mary C.]

Dear CR,

During your review, please try to include pine needles in the testing process. My house is surrounded by several types of trees. The trees I love are the trees that have a greater deposit of debris: my white pine and my maple tree. I have to hire someone twice a year to clean out my gutters. With a 2-story, as well as my garage, I spend approximately $200 a pop each time. I want to purchase gutter guards, but I know how those pine needles get into EVERYTHING. I can't see spending money on guards if I'll still have to hire someone to get the pine needles out of the crevices, or in the case of a mesh covering, each little hole. PLEASE HELP and if you can, try to post your findings before Spring 2009.

[Faith S.]

I'm interested to know how gutter guards work exactly. I have a site on safe pest control so I'm always looking for information on evironmentally friendly pest control products. Sadly many pest control products on the market contain harmful and toxic chemicals that can cause more harm to your family and surrounding eco-system than the pests themselves.

[John Norton]

In addition to testing gutter guard type systems, please do a cost effectve analysis.
After getting rough estimates on various systems, I conclude the most cost effective way for me to combat a mass of leaves and debris in my 6' gutters around the top roof (170 lineal ft), and 5" gutters around the lower level wing ((120 lineal ft) is to contract for once-a-year manual cleaning,at about $120. I have this done each winter after the leaves have fallen from my neighbors very tall oak tree next door, which overhangs my space, the principal source of leaves at my house. I calculate I can do his for many years before equaling the high cost of metal or mesh guards which aren't totlly effective, according to some of my neighbors who have installed various systems, but still have problems.

[John Hutton]

I'm very interested to see how your review works out. The best product I heard about is a kind of polyurethane foam that almost fills the gutter. I have a severe problem with pine needles and the little flat hemlock needles in the fall, as well as maple seeds in spring.
For wasp nests, the paper kind with a small hole in the bottom, I found the best tool is a vacuum cleaner with a long extension applied to the hole. Then spray wasp killer into the vac hose before they come back out!

[keith]

Thanks for the update! I'll be looking forward to your review of gutter guard products.

Regarding the use of a baking soda & vinegar mixture for treating stings, I believe that is incorrect. Baking soda is a base, which (when mixed with water into a paste) is great for treating acid-based stings such as wasps and bees. Vinegar is an acid which is great for neutralizing base-based stings such as jelly fish. Mixing the two together causes them to neutralize each other, and I'm assuming was effective for you only because you didn't add enough vinegar to completely neutralize all of the baking soda.

[matthew jones]

I've been considering topped gutters when i get a new roof in a year or two. One friend of mine put them on 8 years ago and says he hasn't had to climb up there since. Another neighbor has the gutter brushes and says he still gets some small stuff caught in them but the water always flows perfectly.

[John Rigby]

That’s great, I never thought about wasps and gutter guards control before.