Grapevine swing bought - sterilize it????

[Clueless]

I bought a grapevine swing (it's like a T shape upside down) for my amazon at the bird fair this last weekend.

After I bought it - I asked how it had been sterilized and I think he told me in the sun? So - since I'm a worry wart - my question is - should I do something else with this before giving it to my amazons?

There is an eye hook on the end of it that has a link to go on the top of the cage. With all that - I think it's still small enough to put it in the oven if I should do that. Or I can do the birdy bleach option and rinse well - or whatever the forum members tell me to do.

I already used birdy bleach on the PVC shower stand I bought them - and yes, I rinsed well.

 

[cdog]

The best option is to soak it in GSE(grape fruit seed extract) for 1 hour then leave it in the sun to dry. GSE is totally bird safe and is a great disinfectant, I'd say just as good as bleach without any of the bad side effects.

 

[DebsFlock]

If you use GSE, get the kind that has preservatives in it. Unfortunately, the early studies that showed great promise for it were not reproducible with an all-natural product, and it is possible the benefits seen were from the preservatives not the GSE itself. I use it when I make sprouts in the hopes of having fewer spoiled batches, but I would not personally rely on it for disinfection in a situation where disease agents are present or have a high probability of being present.

In general, most disnfectants should not be used on a porous substance like wood, because they will soak in and it will be difficult to remove all traces of the chemical.
What's usually recommended for wood is baking it out in your oven. I think the prescription is something like 200-250°F for a couple of hours.

Sunlight will also do a pretty good job of killing off bacteria, but it's hard to guarantee every surface was exposed.

Heat, sun exposure, freezing all kill a lot of common bacteria. They aren't as thorough as bleach or chemical disinfectants and I'm not sure how effective they are on viruses. Likely depends on the virus. But baking the wood is probably the best you can do here, after giving it a good scrub first.