Do you have cherries and sweet cherries in your garden, but every year, as soon as they start to ripen, the birds eat them? In this article, you will discover several methods you can use to protect your cherries and sweet cherries from being eaten by birds.
Visual Bird Deterrents
There is a wide range of visual bird deterrents: inflatable balloons, owl decoys, hawk statues, and other predatory bird figures. To prevent the birds from getting used to these visual deterrents, it’s important that they aren’t static. They should move with the wind. It’s also essential to change their position regularly.
Set up the visual deterrent before the cherries or sweet cherries start to ripen, so the birds haven’t yet become accustomed to pecking at them. It’s better to prevent the problem than to try to fix it later.
If there are already many birds on the tree, a visual deterrent alone may not be enough to stop them from eating the fruit. In that case, use it as a supplement to other, more effective methods for bird control described below.
Bioacoustic Bird Deterrents
Bioacoustic bird deterrents emit a combination of predator sounds, such as hawks, eagles, and falcons, as well as the sounds of the birds we want to scare off, such as sparrows, thrushes, starlings, etc. When the birds hear these sounds, they think they’re hearing a member of their own species saying, “Run, danger!”
Bioacoustic bird deterrents are environmentally friendly and remain effective year after year as a solution for keeping birds away from cherries and sweet cherries.
Bird Netting
These nets are used to cover trees, creating a physical barrier. It’s important to place them properly to avoid damaging the tree. You should consider the size of the birds that are trying to eat your cherries or sweet cherries to choose the right size of bird netting.
If the net has holes that are too large, smaller birds may be able to enter the tree’s canopy and peck at the fruit. However, if the bird net has holes that are too small, it will block sunlight and hinder the proper ripening of the fruit.
For large gardens, bird nets are undoubtedly the most expensive method of bird deterrence, both in terms of initial investment and the labor required for installation, maintenance, and removal. Additionally, in the winter, it’s important to store the nets in a dry place to prevent them from rotting.
Propane Cannons for Deterrence
Propane cannons can create blasts with volumes up to 125 decibels. This makes them unsuitable for use in areas with livestock farms or near residential homes. Furthermore, since they produce constant and repetitive sounds, birds generally get used to them, and they become ineffective in the long term.
We hope that this article on how to protect cherries and sweet cherries from being eaten by birds has been helpful.