My goal is to see birds as garden teammates — as they eat insects that can be pests, such as aphids — and not as enemies as they peck the fruit on my trees. As far as my experience goes, the best way to accomplish this is to prevent birds from access to the fruit.
If a fruit tree is large or if there isn’t too much fruit on a tree, then bagging individual fruit or small clusters of fruit is effective and economical.
I’ve used mesh produce bags, like this one from Earthwise that is protecting a bunch of grapes:
I’ve also “bagged” fruit using swatches of breathable fabric held together with clothespins. Here are a couple peaches protected like that:
The other effective protection I’ve used is netting, but I’ve never used the nets that are actually sold for that purpose. Those nets have mesh so large that the net gets snagged on the ends of branches too easily. And if you leave the nets on, branches will grow through them.
I like to use tulle fabric. Specifically, I buy “Economy Colored Polyester Tulle in Bolts” from Papermart, and I buy a bolt 108 inches wide by 50 yards long, which costs around ten dollars. This bolt has enough fabric to protect the fruit of dozens of trees.
Obviously, some fruit is still vulnerable to bird pecking so I do this only if the crop is huge and I don’t mind losing some.
If the tree is small enough, I often wrap the whole thing, as with this Pink Lady apple:
I use rocks to hold down the tulle fabric around the blueberry bushes whereas I fasten the tulle fabric around branches or whole trees with clothespins. It’s easy to poke your arm into the seams of this tulle wrap in order to harvest fruit without having to remove the netting.
(I use the same tulle fabric to protect my vegetables from rabbits. See “Protecting vegetables and fruit trees from rabbits.”)
One thing that I haven’t found effective is hanging reflective strips in a tree. When I did this in a Fuji apple tree the birds continued to peck the fruit at the same rate as before.
One of the kinds of birds I’ve got pecking my fruit is the scrub jay. Scrub jays are smart. I can’t imagine them having been deterred by a reflective strip for more than twenty seconds.
Finally, while the bags and nets have proven very effective at keeping birds from pecking the fruit of my trees and grapevines and blueberry bushes, these nets do not stop certain other critters. Rats and possums will chew right through these bird barriers and then consume the fruit. You’ve got to deal with competition from those animals in other ways. But I suppose that’s a topic for another post.
Welcome . . .
Im Greg. My mission is to assist you in growing food at home in Southern California, with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, particularly avocados. I write a new “Yard Post” every Friday.
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All you have to do to begin netting is to simply drape a net over the trees. By doing this, you can keep the birds away from your apple trees. Although netting can be labor-intensive to set up and may not always deter birds, it is an effective means of protecting your apples.
Apple season is in the fall, but if birds get to your apples before you do, you won’t be able to enjoy them. Thousands of apples are wasted annually as a result of birds pecking holes in them, causing them to rot. Fortunately, there are several strategies for deterring birds from eating apples, allowing you to enjoy them this fall. Here are some pointers to safeguard your apples from Avian Control’s knowledgeable staff.
Fall is not only the time of year for apples; it’s also the time of year for the ever-dependable scarecrow, a bird deterrent that was originally designed to frighten off crows but has since become a traditional agricultural symbol. Though years of using this bird repellent technique have shown that birds are more appreciative of the perch than they are afraid of the device, you can still try to make your best scarecrow for the birds.
It’s not a good idea to let birds take over your apple trees in the fall when you could be picking apples yourself. The best method of bird control to keep the birds away and protect your apple trees is called avian control. Contact us for more information at 888. 868. 1982 or order online in commercial or residential sizes now!.
Avian Control is a bird repellent spray that works the best at keeping birds away from your apple trees. Using avian control has numerous advantages over other bird control techniques, some of which are as follows:
FAQ
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