Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

This will sound silly but it has worked so far on my fig tree.

Take your old AOL CDs and tie one end of a long single strand of
fishing line to it. Tie the other end to a tree branch. Single line
helps it turn more. Tie quite a few throughout the tree. The slightest
breeze make it look like a 70s disco. I have not had one bird in my
fig tree since doing this.

Bruce

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 14:23:43 -0400, "pixi" wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

In article , "pixi" wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

The most likely to succeed method is netting. Since my fruit trees are for
looks foremost I wouldn't like them netted, but I admit it is sometimes a
nuisance that I cannot beat the birds to many of the sweet cherries, & it
gets more & more tempting to get a net from an orchard supplier. Netting
must either be pegged to the ground, or literally tucked under the lower
limbs & bound around the trunk, or smarty-pants birds will go right under
it, pig out, & then hop to the ground to leave.

All other methods are extremely secondary:

The fake horned owl trick doesn't work for long; some birds (crows for
instance) will figure out its a big fake-out within seconds, but others
will be fooled for a very few days. Nevertheless, if the owl is put high
in the trees for a BRIEF period (and moved daily) while the fruit is just
coming ripe, this may give you the day or two you need to get a harvest.
It will have to be taken down as soon as it's not needed or it might not
work the next time it is needed, like for something ripening a couple
weeks later.

If you could somehow convince merlins & owls & red tailed hawks to live in
your orchard, that'd work much better. Sometimes a barn can be rigged up
with a permant opening near the roof, so that owls will live there & come
& go at will. Alas, they tend to eat only rodents caught in nearby fields
at night, with day-hunts for birds a back-up plan only if rodents are too
few. But hey, at least you'd have owls in the rafters & that's something
all by itself.

A very few birds dislike sudden noises. Most are used to it or they
wouldn't live near noisy humans and roads to begin with. But if your fruit
trees are being visited by sound-sensitive birds, then hanging obnoxious
wind-chimes may help. If your neighbors' house is near though, windchimes
would be wicked.

Some orcharders claim that hanging shiny things in trees fools birds into
thinking there's a fire, and some of them will not fly near trees with AOL
discs, shiny pie tins, or strips of metal hanging in them, as the flashing
lights makes them think "yikes! a forest fire!" Sounds like something that
would work if at all for the day or two it took them to realize it's
nothing to worry about, then they'd just get in fights with their pie-tin
reflections like any crazy old budgy.

A technique that seems to work in some rural areas is to plant berry
bushes around the periphary of an orchard. Used to be that English
blackberries were planted along river banks & roadsides to form natural
barriers to keep cattle from drowning or wandering into roads, & also
there'd be plenty of wild fruits in nearby woods, so it was not as
necessary for birds to resort to large fruits like pears & apples & plums
& peaches, though they'd still go for cherries even In Those Days.
Nowadays the nearby woods are pushed further & further from human
habitation, & the pastures (hence the enclosing briars) are divided up for
suburban housing tracts, until there is nothing left for the birds but to
eat whatever is growing in some homeowner's tidy yard. But the general
idea is that birds prefer fruit that is bite-sized rather than has to be
ripped to shreds, and if an orchard is surrounded by various kinds of
fruiting shrubs, birds will go for the berries foremost, getting to the
larger fruit only if the berries run out.

One of the dumbest plans I've ever seen suggested was to use motion
detectors to turn on sprinklers when birds land in trees. Detecting motion
up in the trees seems a bit of a problem, but even if it worked, in my
yard he birdds appear from all over when I'm watering things, they LOVE
the sprinklers.

Anything done that actually harms birds is illegal, as most of them are
much more fully protected than are squirrels or racoons or other animals
that enter onto private properties & eat stuff at risk of being sumarily
shot.

The only method seriously apt to succeed beyond a couple of days is the
netting. The final great option is to just feel proud of yourself for
helping to make the environment more inviting for birds, & be glad you can
feed them.

-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/

bird netting. tangle foot on the trunks for the squirrels. altho trapping and
killing squirrels might help. blood meal on my garden has stopped the worst of the
digging, dont know if it works on trees tho. Ingrid


Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

pixi wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

My son hung several of the free AOL CD's you get in the mail from
his cherry tree with string and a paper clip. Worked like a champ,
they got to eat the cherries!

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 14:23:43 -0400, "pixi" wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

One thing you might try, also, is a sports horn! I have driven hoards
of starlings from 2 friends' backyard trees.

I have bird netting on my peach trees and it has pretty much stopped the birds
from getting into the peaches. My netting goes up over the tree and then it is
gathered at the bottom and secured. As far as keeping the bird out it does the
trick but now all my trees look like they are wearing hair nets.

Marty

On 8/5/2003 4:32 PM, wrote:
bird netting. tangle foot on the trunks for the squirrels. altho trapping and
killing squirrels might help. blood meal on my garden has stopped the worst of the
digging, dont know if it works on trees tho. Ingrid



Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit? Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished. Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "pixi"
wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit?
Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished.
Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

The most likely to succeed method is netting. Since my fruit trees are for
looks foremost I wouldn't like them netted, but I admit it is sometimes a
nuisance that I cannot beat the birds to many of the sweet cherries, & it
gets more & more tempting to get a net from an orchard supplier. Netting
must either be pegged to the ground, or literally tucked under the lower
limbs & bound around the trunk, or smarty-pants birds will go right under
it, pig out, & then hop to the ground to leave.

snip

-paghat the ratgirl

I managed to keep the birds out of my peaches by using netting, but I had to
be careful about birds getting trapped. That meant a trip around the trees a
couple times a day. In the course of a week, I had to free a half dozen
birds.

John

"B & J" wrote in message
...
"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "pixi"
wrote:

Anyone know how to discourage the birds from snacking on my fruit?
Between
birds and squirrels we have had our peach crop pretty well demolished.
Now
they are working on the plums. HELP!!!

The most likely to succeed method is netting. Since my fruit trees are
for
looks foremost I wouldn't like them netted, but I admit it is sometimes
a
nuisance that I cannot beat the birds to many of the sweet cherries, &
it
gets more & more tempting to get a net from an orchard supplier. Netting
must either be pegged to the ground, or literally tucked under the lower
limbs & bound around the trunk, or smarty-pants birds will go right
under
it, pig out, & then hop to the ground to leave.

snip

-paghat the ratgirl

I managed to keep the birds out of my peaches by using netting, but I had
to
be careful about birds getting trapped. That meant a trip around the trees
a
couple times a day. In the course of a week, I had to free a half dozen
birds.

You could always have a cat or a black snake take up permanent residence in
the netting