Since the wisteria is a huge and powerful vine unless kept diligently pruned to remain unnaturally small maybe having it wrapped around the post etc. is not going to work out anyway - and the plant should be removed. This would of course also take away the place for the birds to hang out. There are tall native conifers in this region with wisteria vines growing all the way to their tops. In time the trunks of full-sized wisteria vines become quite stout. I have also seen a big one sending out runners across the top of a bed, like a sheet of piano wire. Not really a plant for a small space in a modest setting.

kahbear - in case those inflatibles stop working, a hotel I went to every summer had a pool very close to the ocean...within 100 yards or less. They actually had thin guy wires that stretched from the third level from different positions across the pool to a pole that was fixed to the pool house on the other side of the pool. They had a lot of fly-bys from the seagulls, but I never saw any mess around the many years I went there, and believe me, seagulls can make a huge mess very quickly.

There are all kinds of household anti-bacterial disinfectant cleaners available that are safe to use on plastics. Some ready to use, some you dilute in water. If nothing else you can use what many use to disinfect their plastics - a 10% clorox bleach solution. 1 part Clorox bleach to 9 parts water and spray. Dave

Congrats Lesli! Giant caterpillars will eat any citrus, rue, hoptree, prickly ash, Hercules club and wild lime.