On 12 Jan 2012 14:25:04 GMT, wrote:

CT wrote:
Last year, birds ate all my sweetcorn before it had a chance to grow
and ripen. What are some inexpensive ways to prevent or repel birds
from eating my corn and other vegetables?

I use fleece for seeds and netting for fruit/veg that's a bit more
grown up. Try eBay for cheapness.

I throw netting (the more robust stuff, then reuse it each year, rather than
the pea netting, which rips) over fruit.

Never had birds eat sweetcorn before. You sure it's not rats? (OP, not CT)

Jays/magpies will eat sweetcorn from the plant and any netting will
need to be strong to deter them - magpies will easily nip through the
weaker plastic stuff if they want to get at a food source. Strong
netting is the only real solution as they will very quickly get used
to any "bird scarer" type of thing and simply ignore it. I've read
that only 2cm chicken wire is "magpie proof".

Cheers, Jake
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Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay.