We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and
wondered if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the
birdies from feasting on our just now ripening strawberries?
Anyone tried this? Kinda snake version of a scarecrow....

"Doctoroe" wrote in message
m...
We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and
wondered if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the
birdies from feasting on our just now ripening strawberries?
Anyone tried this? Kinda snake version of a scarecrow....

It wont work!

I feed my dog outdoors and the birds get more of her food than she does. I
bought a rubber snake thinking the sight on it might chase the birds away.
It DELAYED them for about five minutes the first day. After that, even when
I placed the snake in my dog's food dish, the birds went back to feeding on
dog food.

I understand there is an owl designed for scaring off birds. The ad for the
owl states the head of the owl moves up and down in the wind, and that
movement is what makes the birds think the owl is real and stay away.

The owl costs, I think, around thirty dollars which is much more than I want
to pay for a maybe toy.

My dog now gets fed after dark when all the birds have roosted for the
night, and I cover what's left in her bowl to keep the squirrels and other
things from filling up on dog food.

Shepherd

In article
,
"Shepherd" wrote:

It wont work!

I feed my dog outdoors and the birds get more of her food than she does. I
bought a rubber snake thinking the sight on it might chase the birds away.
It DELAYED them for about five minutes the first day. After that, even when
I placed the snake in my dog's food dish, the birds went back to feeding on
dog food.

Ditto my experience.


I understand there is an owl designed for scaring off birds. The ad for the
owl states the head of the owl moves up and down in the wind, and that
movement is what makes the birds think the owl is real and stay away.

snip

My former neighbor had one and it didn't work.

The OP is better off (IMO) covering the berries. I used cloth that is
designed for baby grass; it allows moisture & sunlight through but it
keeps critters out.

On Wed, 21 May 2003 21:10:34 -0400, montana
wrote:

In article
,
"Shepherd" wrote:

It wont work!

I feed my dog outdoors and the birds get more of her food than she does. I
bought a rubber snake thinking the sight on it might chase the birds away.
It DELAYED them for about five minutes the first day. After that, even when
I placed the snake in my dog's food dish, the birds went back to feeding on
dog food.

Ditto my experience.


I understand there is an owl designed for scaring off birds. The ad for the
owl states the head of the owl moves up and down in the wind, and that
movement is what makes the birds think the owl is real and stay away.

snip

My former neighbor had one and it didn't work.

The OP is better off (IMO) covering the berries. I used cloth that is
designed for baby grass; it allows moisture & sunlight through but it
keeps critters out.


I was going to try some floating row cover myself to see if I could
save some of the raspberries...

Dave
Dave Fouchey, WA4EMR
http://photos.yahoo.com/davefouchey
Southeastern Lower Michigan
42° 35' 20'' N,
82° 58' 37'' W
GMT Offset: -5
Time Zone: Eastern

On Wed, 21 May 2003 17:21:12 -0700, Doctoroe wrote:

We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and wondered
if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the birdies from
feasting on our just now ripening strawberries? Anyone tried this? Kinda
snake version of a scarecrow....


I have found that the snakes don't work well. I have use flash tape though
with great success. Flash tape is about the size/shape of a roll of
masking tape but is made of mylar ( excuse the spelling ). It's silver on one
side and red on the other. String the flash tape over the strawberry bed,
with a few twists in the line and tie it to something. The birds think
it's fire (so I'm told) and other wize stay away. I have done this for a
customer with an r.v that is parked under a power line. We strung the tape
over the top of the camper and sure enough the pigions moved down the line
not wanting to have the flash tape under them. I'm going to experiment
with AoL cds and hang them on an apple tree that get's picked on by crows
and jays. We'll have to see if it works. Hopefully I can find a use for
all these aol cds I get.
Good luck keeping your berries safe...........

--
http://yard-works.netfirms.com

"Timothy" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 21 May 2003 17:21:12 -0700, Doctoroe wrote:

We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and
wondered
if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the birdies
from
feasting on our just now ripening strawberries? Anyone tried this?
Kinda
snake version of a scarecrow....


I have found that the snakes don't work well. I have use flash tape though
with great success. Flash tape is about the size/shape of a roll of
masking tape but is made of mylar ( excuse the spelling ). It's silver on
one
side and red on the other. String the flash tape over the strawberry bed,
with a few twists in the line and tie it to something. The birds think
it's fire (so I'm told) and other wize stay away. I have done this for a
customer with an r.v that is parked under a power line. We strung the tape
over the top of the camper and sure enough the pigions moved down the line
not wanting to have the flash tape under them. I'm going to experiment
with AoL cds and hang them on an apple tree that get's picked on by crows
and jays. We'll have to see if it works. Hopefully I can find a use for
all these aol cds I get.
Good luck keeping your berries safe...........

--
http://yard-works.netfirms.com


The CDs work great in fruit trees. Glue them together so the shiny sides are
out. I taped fishing line on the label side, glued the two CDs together and
then hung them in the trees. Different levels, not just along the bottom. I
did this for my girlfriend last year who hadn't had a cherry to harvest for
years. You need quite a few, I think we put about eight or so in each tree,
they spin and flash with the least amount of breeze. I have a boxful of AOL
and whoever else sends those freebie CDs through the mail, I'm going to make
another batch for a friend who looses his apricots and plums every year.

Val

On Thu, 22 May 2003 03:50:31 GMT, "Timothy"
wrote:

Hopefully I can find a use for
all these aol cds I get.

We use ours for target practice. Keep 'em comin'!

Doctoroe said:

keep the
birdies from feasting on our just now ripening strawberries?

Couple of cats maybe?

--
Bob
Kanyak's Doghouse
http://kanyak.com

In article ,
(Doctoroe) wrote:

We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and
wondered if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the
birdies from feasting on our just now ripening strawberries?
Anyone tried this? Kinda snake version of a scarecrow....

It might work a day or two on whichever birds are the dumbest in town.
About day three you'll have to hook the snake up to some sort of gizmo
that will make it wiggle as it move back & forth between the rows of
strawberries. That'll work for about four more days until the birds start
riding on it. But the trick is to keep the birds off-guard, & as soon as
they have adjusted to the trundling-wiggling snake, you stick a transister
radio in its mouth & tune into whichever station runs the most ads for
Monster Truck events. When a few days after that they adjust to the radio
ads, you add "ears" to the roving gibbering rubber snake & make the ears
out of sparklers or road flares. This should keep the snake up-to-date
enough to scare off birds for at least three, maybe five weeks all told,
at which time you switch to a big rubber iguana & start the process from
scratch.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

"Doctoroe" wrote in message
m...
We saw a fairly realistic looking rubber snake the other day and
wondered if it were placed in a high visibility spot would it keep the
birdies from feasting on our just now ripening strawberries?
Anyone tried this? Kinda snake version of a scarecrow....

Birds will eventually get used to any device you use to scare them. What
worked best for me (but not forever) was aluminum pie plates, strung with
cord through their centers to they'd wave in the breeze and make strange
reflections. But, they're ugly, and the birds eventually said "Ha".

You need an actual mechanical barrier. Garden stores sell black plastic mesh
with 1" holes. It's designed for this purpose, and for providing a trellis
for some plants to climb. It tangles anytime you try to handle it, so the
thing to do is immediately attach at least two ends to sticks, so you can
roll it up and store it when you're done with it. Figure out a way to mount
it at least 6" above the berries, so birds can't use it as a perch, reach
in, and continue with dessert.

Or, you can do what I've done in the past: Get bulletproof and build a box
covered with chicken wire. Assemble the box using wing nuts, so you can take
it apart when the berries are done blooming. Do NOT use treated wood. It's
not safe around food plants and it's bad for your skin while cutting and
handling it. I made mine out of poplar 1x2 lumber, and it's lasted 5 years
so far. Make sure all sides are covered with chicken wire. Use plastic wire
bundling ties to attach it to the wood frame. They're easy to cut when it's
time to take down the box.

When I used to plant melons, I would have trouble in the dry season.
Crows would peck at fruit to get water, and they seemed to like the
melons best. I got some stakes and tied some 8 pound monofilament fish
line on them at a height of about 3-4'. The fish line I used had a
slight fluorescent blue cast, otherwise it was transparent. The line was
strung in parallel rows about 5' apart throughout the melon patch.

What seemed to happen, was that the crows' eyesight was good enough to
see that there was something there, but not good enough to see what it
was (blue is not focussed well by human eyes, so it's possible that the
same problem occurs in birds). And since it was above them when they
were in the melon patch they didn't like it. I had no problems with
crows in the melons. (melons that grew out of the covered area got
pecked.) This is my guess as to why it worked, but it did.

I have not tried it in strawberries. Part of the problem there is that
the strawberry damage is done by smaller birds and by rodents. The small
birds are maneuverable enough to avoid the fishline, so it probably
won't bother them. The rodents don't seem to look up much (so that they
provide food for our local hawk). Consequently I don't think it would
work on strawberries, but it's cheap and easy, so you might try it. If
you do, let us know how it works.

"Dwight Sipler" wrote in message
...
When I used to plant melons, I would have trouble in the dry season.
Crows would peck at fruit to get water, and they seemed to like the
melons best. I got some stakes and tied some 8 pound monofilament fish
line on them at a height of about 3-4'. The fish line I used had a
slight fluorescent blue cast, otherwise it was transparent. The line was
strung in parallel rows about 5' apart throughout the melon patch.


That sounds like a great idea.

Thanks for all the colorful suggestions. We've gotten a couple of
different looking fake snakes. Plan to move them around every couple
days. I will report back. May try the CD thing and flash tape too...
Fresh strawberries are WONDERFUL. Spring has sprung.
Thanks again.