You can disconnect the dryer vent hose from the wall, put a pair of pantyhose over the end to collect the lint and safely use the dryer until the babies are gone. Put a rubber snake near the entrance once they leave to discourage them from coming back.

Unclipping a dryer vent is not a big deal if it is just sealed with one of those pressure clamps. Unseal it and block that side with a guest towel. Many vents are 4" diameter, your hand should fit in there and you can get the nest and move it. Or if you have an extra dryer vent on hand, install it and leave the nest in the vent but remove it from the outside vent port and put the whole vent tube in some safe spot outside.

Bless you for not wanting to harm those babies! I have used one of these indoor dryer lint traps. You add water to the catch-pot and the lint gets trapped in the water.

Indoor lint trap

I don't have anything to help with your situation, but I love, love that you don't want to run the dryer and cook the little tykes. Bless your heart, Cynic :-)

Disconnecting the dryer vent and running the exhaust into the house is a bad idea, most especially if you have a gas dryer. A very bad idea. And if you have rigid metal duct (as is recommended), disconnecting it may not be all that easy.

You could always take your wet laundry to a laundromat to dry for the next few weeks.

Do you have something long like a long curtain rod that can poke into the vent from the outside and pull the nest out? How long is this vent?

My grandmother never had a wall vent. She had a long, flexible hose duct for her electric dryer--in the summer she'd open the window and put the end outside. In the winter, she'd cover it with a length of pantyhose as adellabedella suggested. Do you have a nearby window?

Mine is flexible but is joined to a wall vent. It is easy to disconnect. I agree running an unvented dryer is not good, but if you remove the chicks, you can reconnect the vent hose in about a minute.

Flexible dryer duct material is widely used but it's dangerous, a real fire hazard because lint is very flammable and it gets stuck in the nooks and crannies. The plastic coated type is the worst in this regard. The rigid stuff may take a bit longer for DIY but the parts are easily obtained and the end result is much safer.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. When I replaced the dryer a few years back I changed to rigid vent pipe from the flexible hose. I didn't think about it until mentioned that I could disconnect at the dryer and run a flexible hose out the window temporarily. (Another why didn't I think of that moment!) It wouldn't really need a sock over it, just let it vent outside and the birds can use the material for nesting if they so desire. I had a couple of the internal "heat saver" things I used to use and they were great. And BTW, it is an electric dryer so no gas issues. I liked having the heat and humidity inside during the winter, but wouldn't want it now. I should look and see if I still have a flex hose and could do something with that. The problem is this dryer has the vent outlet at the bottom of the dryer. The other dryers I had featured the vent outlet at the top of the dryer which made it much easier to get a hold of and work with when needed. The dryer sits next to the wall so it's a short vent, from the bottom of the dryer to the vent hole in the joists.

I thought about inviting my sister's cats to a feeding of fresh tender foul. But, no, I wouldn't do that to them. Contrary to what so many people think of me! :D

Maybe need to make a trip to Menards. I heard a rumor a while ago that they couldn't even sell the flex hoses anymore because of the number of dryer fires. But that wouldn't make sense since they use those same hoses (I'm guessing) for portable a/c units. Oh and the vent outlet is one of those with the angled cover so there's no way my hand will fit in there. I'm thinking the best thing is just take the whole thing off and replace it since the flap is damaged anyway. Maybe con a buddy into helping with it since my maneuverability ain't what it were a few years ago.

The good thing is there's not a big bug issue right now (yet anyway) so I wouldn't have to worry about sealing up the window too much to make a temp vent. I used to use the leaf blower to clean the vent and that worked so slick. A good hard blast blew the dust and flotsam a long way. Probably what damaged the flap too!

Thanks to all for the great ideas. Need to do some checking. And take the load out of the washer and hang it somewhere. Jasdip, might I borrow your balcony for a few hours??? :D Bring it over! I'll buy lunch.

Ah, just hit me that I probably shouldn't just leave it lay on the ground without something over it or a rodent might try to see about possible vacancies.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

The babies shouldn't be there too long. It's amazing how fast they grow. Do you have a really great neighbor? That's another option for a temporary fix. When the birds move out, do put up some screening. We had that problem many, many years ago. In our case, we didn't have any birds because the eggs got cooked before they fertilized. It made me sad, but I didn't know the nest was there. Right now we have five little furry things in the wreath on my front door. As soon as they leave the nest, the nest will leave and I will put a bright red bird on the wreath. That usually works.

Cynic, does your dryer have an option to "air dry"? That is, to have unheated air? If so, do you think that having it set to "air only" would cause the birds to leave? At least it wouldn't cook them...

If you are going to not use the vent till the babies fledge, let me suggest that you cover the inside end of the vent so that the bird mites do not infest your house. As soon as the birds fledge, the mites hunt for another source of blood and they are persistent and numerous.

But, cynic, you haven't told us what kind of birds they are. Last year I had a robin build her nest on a wooden bench on my back porch. She laid four eggs and took good care of them. And then, a grackle stole them. I didn't know grackles are famous for doing that. Broke my heart, and probably hers too. This year my feeders have everything grackles don't like! So beware of grackles. They might steal your chicks.

Georgysmom, I understand about the eggs and that's why I was concerned. I've had a lot of trouble over the years with birds building nests on the motion detector light on the garage. Years ago I had some either 150 or 300 watt bulbs in it and those things obviously put out a lot of heat and before I could catch the nest (was gone for a couple weeks) came home and they were cooked. I felt bad about it so I watch it closely. One year I heard a flurry by the dryer vent and went to check and a bird stuck its head out, looked at me and popped back in! Yeah, surprised me as much if not more than it surprised Birdy!

Lindsey_CA I do have the no heat option and thought about that, even to let the clothes dry that way, but I'm a little softhearted if not softheaded in my old age and I'm concerned that the flying debris or even the airflowcould injure them or something. I thought about turning it on and off a few times but I doubt mama will move them at this point. Had the nest been under construction the air and even the heat would probably prompt them to look elsewhere rather than feeling like they're living in the deep south but I just don't think they'll move now. At this rate I guess I've resigned myself to roommates for a couple weeks.

Never thought about mites sheilajoyce_gw, thanks for the suggestion.

I know grackles are not the friendliest types! I haven't said what type of birds they are because I don't know. I didn't see mama fly away, just heard her. Made quite a noise flying, possibly intentionally to take me away from the nest.

I gave thought to putting up a birdhouse and see if I could get the nest out and move it. Mama would find it no doubt and she'd probably be watching me the whole time, cussing at me too. But I just started thinking maybe I'm making too big a deal out of this whole thing. Once gone, deal with the issues at the time. I'm a crippled old fart that doesn't need to do a lot of laundry so it really isn't going to hurt me that badly to put up with some inconvenience and let the birds be. I like nature. Part of the reason I stay where I am.

One update though... I pulled the laundry from the washer and hung it up to dry, no big deal, it'll dry. And BOY were they chattering away! Presumably it was feeding time and the chorus was singing away. I thought about my fairly recently deceased cat who used to lay on the shelf above the laundry sinks and thought maybe her smell has kept them away in the past. I've heard suggestions that you can spread cat fur near places you don't want birds and rodents and thought maybe her smell could have had something to do with it. Soooo, I was hanging clothes and reminiscing about the cat and the chirping got louder and louder and I couldn't resist giving out a good loud MEOW! two or three times. BOY did THAT quiet the choir! I've fooled a number of cats with a meow before and apparently they were possibly taken in. I didn't hear any suitcases or packing boxes being filled though. Few more things being hung and the chirping started again. Couldn't resist. Meow! Dead silence. Hey, simple things amuse simple minds as they say.

Since this is already way longer than planned, might as well toss in one other bird story. Decades ago at the family cabin in the middle of the woods I was sitting there and didn't give much thought to the birdhouse that was very close to the picnic table at which I sat. I had a little tape recorder playing some music and was watching the lake and enjoying the fresh air. Well mama wren didn't appreciate me sitting so close to the birdhouse. She was zipping back and forth then stopped about 5-8' away from me and was cussing me out bigtime. I started thinking I wonder what she's saying to me. (I ponder such things in the middle of the woods) and looked at the tape recorder and thought, "why not?" So, I flipped it on to record and recorded probably 10 seconds of her dissertation and played it back to her. OH WHAT I MUST HAVE SAID TO HER! She started divebombing me and was NOT going to give in! It was hilarious. I said OK mama I'll move somewhere else. And did. The end.

You are SO funny! And so softhearted. And not an old fart, you always have interesting stuff to say.

Until those little birdies fledge, I suppose you are stuck with taking your wet wash to a laundromat for drying. The alternative is to evict the bird family and that most likely would be a death sentence for the little ones. If you know the species of bird, you could look up their nest time.

About bird proofing after the nestlings leave, do not cover the vent with mesh or netting of any kind. In a short time, that will collect lint and greatly restrict the vent leading to other bad troubles especially if it a gas fired drier. When the vent is restricted, and if everything is working right in the dryer, a reduced air flow will cause the fire tube to overheat and the overheat switch should shut off the flame. However, this overheat switch is all that is between you and a drier fire. When the tunnel and overheat switch cools, the burner will again operate. This cycle continues until the dryer cycle is complete and that will take longer than normal due to another quirk. On many gas dryers, the cycle timer does not start until the air around the clothes exceeds a set temperature. (This is how the dryer detects that the clothes are getting dry. This sensor is nothing more than a temperature switch somewhere in the exit air stream and may be called a humidity detector.)

The best bet is to insure that the flap valve on the exit vent is in good working order.

"OH WHAT I MUST HAVE SAID TO HER! She started dive bombing me and was NOT
going to give in! It was hilarious. I said OK mama I'll move somewhere
else. And did. The end."

Now you know how to swear in two languages. :-)

Am loving this adventure! Thank you,Cynic. I needed a good laugh today and you've given it to me...along with some warm insight into your caring personality.

We had a nest of Starlings last year move into our bathroom vent that went through the wall to our laundry room. I ended up having to call a licensed pro trapper to come clean out the vent & get the birds out. They packed the vent so full with nesting material, that it smelled soooo bad inside that area of the house. He told me that the birds can do lots of damage to the vent, and get stuck in the walls. Luckily that didn't happen with us. The starling momma was lifting the slats to the vent with her beak, and getting in that way. We installed a bird guard. You can get them at Lowe's for about $7. It also happened to my neighbor a few days before us. I started making a yearly warning before spring gets here on nextdoor.com for our area neighborhoods to try and stop this from happening so much.

I've been dive bombed by nesting hawks. Those can give you a scare! And in another area, an owl was so aggressive, signs were put out to warn people. I heard it was drawing blood on occasion.

Cynic...you may call yourself an old whatever, but you are lucky to grow old and especially wise because you've kept your great sense of humor. Enjoy you. Pink

anne_ct and pink_warm_mama_1, careful now. It took a long long time to build my reputation, don't go spoiling it!

Nothing really new here. Got a great crop of dandelions again this year. Lots of things on the to-do list, or better known as the procrastination list.

no ideas... but glad we the side discussion about changing out the plastic dryer hose...we did ours maybe 10 years ago?

Interesting setup there graywings123. I was thinking about something similar and using chicken wire to minimize lint buildup but I think the holes in chicken wire would still let some of the determined squatters in.

I was looking at something like this when I was at Menards a while back.

As for the visitors, I'm guessing they've flown the coop. Haven't hear any serenading now for a while so now the digging begins. And I won't have to wear wet clothes anymore... (Don't say it!!)