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People call sweet cherry a bird berry. Not surprisingly - starlings, blackbirds, sparrows, titmice, jays love to feast on the fruits of this tree. And the crows don't mind trying a delicious dessert. If you don't take any action to somehow scare the birds away from the cherries, you may simply not get the long-awaited harvest. An hour is enough for a flock of birds to completely destroy the berries of a large cherry tree. It wouldn't be so scary if the birds didn't harm the trees themselves.
What birds eat cherries
Summer residents and gardeners know firsthand how much harm is done by rooks, starlings, sparrows and other birds that live near garden plots. With their raids, young bouquet branches of trees are damaged, which, in this regard, do not bear fruit in the next season. In addition, damaged berries are a breeding ground for infections and parasitic fungi. The struggle of the owners of gardens and summer cottages is conducted with birds every year. Various options for bird scarers are used.
Some summer residents, tired of fighting with birds, are engaged in their destruction using toxic substances. But this is not a solution to the problem and it is not humane. You cannot exterminate all the birds, but the site will still be attractive to them. Therefore, how to protect cherries from birds is a question that worries summer residents and gardeners, it must be solved in a different way.
If you look closely, in the spring, the same sparrows, starlings and tits save the gardens from insects. Sparrows feed their offspring with tree-dwelling pests, collecting from 500 to 700 insects. A pair of starlings consume up to 300 grams of insect larvae per day. A pair of titmouses eats up to 400 pests a day. Therefore, you need to look for humane methods and think about how to scare away sparrows from cherries, without depriving them of their life.
Cherries
What to do if birds peck cherries
There are various ways to protect cherry orchards from bird pilgrimages, they are divided into two groups. The first includes all kinds of physical barriers that prevent birds from getting to the berries, the second includes all sorts of events and systems of visual and sound scaring of birds from trees, which can be made from improvised material with your own hands.
Physical fences include nets and films. They are used by owners of country houses and townspeople who have summer cottages. During their absence, they try to protect trees from birds that peck at cherries. What to do in this case? Low cherry trees are covered with a film that develops in the wind and scares birds, or they use special bird nets that are sold in stores.
How to scare birds away
For a long time, a common folk way to scare off flying thieves from a dessert they liked was the installation of an ordinary scarecrow that imitated the presence of a person. The scarecrow is small in size and can "drive away" birds near small trees of columnar cherry or young low cherry trees. Flying into large trees, the flock pays no attention to him.
Long-forgotten techniques sometimes help. For example, older gardeners knew how to save cherries from annoying sparrows. They hung a fur hat on the top of a tree. Sparrows are afraid of cats, so when they see a “cat” on a tree, they fly away.
Speaking of cats, it is worth noting their help, which they provide to the owners of gardens and summer cottages in finding nests, equipped with pigeons and sparrows under the roof of houses. No one can cope with this task better than cats. With unwanted tenants under a roof, it is difficult to fight them to save your harvest. But it is better to prevent nesting of birds by covering the exits to the attic under the roof with a net.
How to protect cherries
It is worth paying attention to the fact that starlings and blackbirds in a flock are bolder than lonely representatives of birds. But, even having bumped into a tree, the flock will not begin to peck at such mouth-watering berries when its attention is distracted by bright, flickering objects or constant sounds that fill the garden.
Flock of starlings
Having studied the behavior of birds, experts recommend adopting this feature of bird behavior. Foil strips and shiny, reflective objects (CDs), windmills, Christmas tree tinsel can be used as a deterrent material. All these remedies are good, as they can protect cherries from starlings, but they work when there is wind, and are not effective enough to protect the entire cherry crop.
Homemade paper spinners on a stick can also be scary objects. These simple methods of protection will help gardeners, without large expenditures on expensive devices and fixtures, to protect cherries from starlings, sparrows and thrushes.
Garden owners are well aware that birds get used to different options for scaring away, therefore, in their recommendations for protection, you need to combine several techniques, up to moving the hanging objects on the cherry.
Gardeners include a modern scarecrow in the form of a large inflatable ball, painted with bright drawings in the form of eyes, as a means of scaring away birds. Such a ball is mounted on a spring, at the top of a cherry tree, and it sways even without wind. Birds are afraid of moving objects and do not fly up to the tree. Having such a ball above the trees, you can save the lion's share of the harvest, summer residents and gardeners believe. The main thing is that large expenses are not required, except for filling the balloon with helium.
Gardeners recommend to look into the specialized shops "Everything for the garden / vegetable garden", where you can find stuffed animals resembling birds of prey on sale. They can be placed on top of a cherry tree in your garden. Such scarers as kites in the form of eagles and falcons are now popular. Feathered gourmets are very afraid of these birds. It is worth launching them into the air, tying one end to a tree, as not a single starling, rook or sparrow will even fly close to the cherry.
Scarecrow
Treating trees with protective equipment
Noteworthy are the advice of experienced gardeners who recommend an effective way to preserve the harvest by spraying the top of the tree with infusion of pepper or garlic. These infusions have a strong odor and an unpleasant taste. The pepper infusion is made as follows: cut 10 bitter pepper pods and pour 3 liters of water, leave for 3 days. This infusion is sprayed onto the top of the cherry. Garlic concentrated solution is made from 200 g of minced garlic and 1 liter of water. Infused for 5 days. The infusion is filtered and stored in a dark place.If necessary, 100 ml of tincture per 5 liters of water is taken for spraying. It should be noted that if it rains, you need to repeat the spraying.
Experienced summer residents say that birds do not like the smell of onions. They hang the cut onions at the crown of the tree. If the “old-fashioned” methods of struggle do not help, you should turn to the modern chemical industry. There are special gels on sale that have an unpleasant odor, which are sprayed on the tree. They are absolutely harmless to human health.
The latest technology
In recent years, electronic scarers: acoustic, laser and ultrasonic devices have been used to combat bird raids and crop destruction.
Acoustic devices include a hunting or gas gun. The bird reacts immediately to the shots fired, but no one bothers her to return and continue to peck berries. There are sound installations that imitate the alarm calls of the birds themselves. This works much more efficiently, but the constant birdcalling is very disturbing to the neighbors. Also, rattles are an irritant not only for birds, but also for neighbors and summer residents themselves.
The mushroom picker's gun. Designed for hunting birds
In addition to these inconveniences, sound scarers have a significant drawback - to use them, you need an adapter from the mains. The bioacoustic repeller has the same inconveniences as the sound one, only it is more equipped with electronics that allows the device to be turned off at night. The cost of such devices is significant, sometimes not even comparable to the harvested cherry harvest.
The most effective remedy is ultrasonic bird repellent. It is silent and not dangerous to humans. The range of sounds emitted by the ultrasonic device is not perceived by the human ear, but birds perceive these signals and respond to them. Sounds cause a feeling of panic in birds. They do not return to the garden while the repeller is on.
Ultrasonic scarers are compact, cover a large garden area and are affordable. After harvesting, they are turned off and harvested until next year.
Ultrasonic Bird Repeller
How to make a starling fence
Experienced gardeners believe that a flock of young starlings, when they begin to fly from their nests, cannot be scared away from the cherries by anything, except to limit their ability to get on the tree. Many, having quite extensive experience in dealing with these voracious birds, know how to save cherries from starlings and their winged relatives. It is difficult to drive a flock of birds away, but you can prevent it from reaching the cherries by creating a frame around the tree of poles and a mesh synthetic mesh. The polymer filaments used to make these nets are strong and resistant to sunlight. To determine the required amount of mesh, you need to know the height of the tree and its circumference. The shop assistants will help you calculate the required quantity.
This framework is done as follows:
- Prepare six pieces of wooden poles, 4.5-5 meters long on a cherry tree, 4 meters high.
- Purchase the net in the store. On a large cherry tree, a grid should be taken 4 meters wide. The length should be greater than the circumference around the tree. Usually 10 meters is sufficient.
- The net should be finely meshed so that birds cannot peck berries through the holes. Typically, the size of the cell in "bird nets" is 15x17 mm.
- As a net you can use a fishing net with a small mesh.
- The poles are laid on the ground, and on top there is a net, which is tied with wire or rope in three places to the pole: above, below and in the middle. This construction can be done on the whole tree at once, using the entire grid and all the poles, laid out at regular intervals. You can make a fence in two parts, reinforcing the mesh with three poles and three more, and connect them near the tree.
- Pass a cord along the top of the net so that after the structure is installed, the net can be pulled off.
- You need to install the structure together, slightly at an angle to the tree.
- Tie the side poles, and pull the rope over the top of the tree, thereby closing the access of starlings to the upper part of the crown.
After harvesting, the net must be carefully removed so that the tree begins to grow branches. The mesh is purchased for more than one year, so it must be stored in such conditions that it does not dry out, in a room protected from sunlight. If the mesh has been used for several years and begins to tear in your hands, then its service life has expired.
Some summer residents, having their experience in fighting birds, recommend that those who have columnar cherries in a row in the garden, make a grid tension over them. It is a simple design that can be assembled and disassembled. Consists of a frame along the entire row of cherries, completely covering them, covered with a mosquito net on all sides, perfectly transmitting both sun rays and air. After harvesting, the frame is disassembled. Summer residents are satisfied with their invention, since the harvest is completely harvested, and the trees do not suffer.
Many summer residents recommend non-woven material as a shelter for trees from birds, such as that sold to shelter growing crops. This material is light and moisture permeable. The canvas is light, it does not harm young shoots and can reliably rid a young tree with a small crown from voracious birds.
Tree shelter
None of the methods listed in the article to protect the cherry crop from birds does not give a 100% guarantee. But you can determine the effectiveness of these methods. As practice shows, and, based on the experience and knowledge of gardeners, the most effective way to protect cherries from birds are net covers. But the choice of protection methods is the business of every gardener.
Nevertheless, experts recommend, when looking for options to protect the cherry crop from voracious birds, not to forget about the benefits that they bring to the garden. Any methods of protection must not harm the birds. History remembers the sad fact of the anti-sparrow campaign in China and the damage the country's agriculture suffered as a result of this campaign.
