Non-destrucive way to remove ends of plastic drums?

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We were just glad to hear you weren't removing the lid so that you could stuff the wife inside...
Amateurs. If I was going to stuff the wife inside I'd chop her up and put her in a sausage grinder first, then feed the sausage through the bung holes. That way I could seal it up afterward. Otherwise what would be the point??
 
I am intrigued by all this. If I guttered the rear of my garage I would be collecting from around 336 ft². I could fill a small ornamental pond but would have to be careful of mosquitos. A wet pond could naturally achieve a balance with no mosquitos but I prolly would be going from wet to dry so no balance. If I guttered the rest of that side of the house the total collection area would be around 872 ft² but that's a lot (68 ft) of gutter to purchase, install and keep clean.
 
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At our last house we had a small bathtub-sized pond filled by rain-barrel water. We didn't get mosquitos in it, and it actually ended up attracting insects like dragonflies that eat mosquitos, so they would fly around and eat mosquitos all over our property. We achieved this by doing two things:

1. My wife bought these things called "mosquito dunks" -- it's a brick of some kind of material that you toss into the pond. The brick disintegrates and kills all mosquito larvae, yet somehow leaves other insect larvae intact and also leaves the water safe for other wildlife to drink/live in/etc. We only had to add them a few times near the beginning when we were establishing the pond. (Do a DuckDuckGo search on that term: "mosquito dunks".) After that, part 2 took over:

2. We designed the pond so there were flat rocks and moss all around the edge of it, and I let the grass all around it in about a 6-12" perimeter grow super tall. This created an ideal habitat for pond spiders, dragonflies, and other creatures that eat mosquitos. (This made the pond super fun to just sit and watch; there was always a lot of activity.) We also took a bunch of old bark, made it into a pile near the pond so that each piece of bark curled downward leaving a hollow underneath, then covered the pile in some of the sod we'd removed to dig the pond. That was supposed to be a habitat to attract frogs or toads, who are also renowned mosquito-eaters, but none ever came. Allegedly "if you build it they will come" but evidently, like with a Tesla, "your mileage may vary."

Oh, one more tip for rain barrels, if you have the stomach for it. This was something a former coworker of mine used to do: keep goldfish in your rain barrel instead of screening over top. The fish will eat any mosquito larvae (as well as algae maybe?) and poop into the bottom of the barrel. The fish-poop mixture at the bottom of the barrel creates water that is like steroids for plants. It's really good for them, I mean. You do have to get the fish out of there and keep them inside for winter though, if you live somewhere cold.

Now, I lost touch with this coworker and forgot to ask her what kind of roof she had on her house. I wonder if the tiny asphalt or fiberglass kernels that wash off the roof and into the rain barrel would harm the fish. Maybe she had a metal or stone/ceramic roof so that wasn't an issue. (Probably not based on where she lived, but who knows.)
 
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I envision the gutter feeding a gutter enclosed in a rustic pergola that I have been considering for years. The pond would be at the end of the pergola with an extension and a rain chain. THe pergola design somewhat similar to the pic. My roof is brown steel so a Plastmo brown half round gutter would sync with it.

This pergola is a little heavy looking mine would be more of a cross between a pergola and a trellis the crosspiece just large enough to enclose a gutter section.


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Cool idea. I wonder if you could construct the pergola so the top of it was one long planter, fed by the gutter on one end, dripping down a chain whose end is submerged in a pond at the other end. If you planted some creeping viney stuff (for some reason I also picture a lot of mossy stuff in between) it could maybe grow down the pergola's trellis wall. (Concord grapes would be my vote!) If you're into that kind of thing.

PS. In that picture, is that a trash can or a composter in the background? It's a weird place to put a trash can (unless that's the patio exit of a cute restaurant or something), but it's a downright dumb place to put a composter!
 
Perspective is wrong, those trees are not in the way of where the pergola would end. You can see how leaves might present a problem with gutters.

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