Strategies on different uses for anti bird netting

Your garden will be thriving soon enough. All the vegetables and fruits that you have been growing for months will finally be ready for harvesting. Unless, of course, you failed to employ a sufficient anti bird netting plan. If that is the case, then your hard work may be in vain. For as certain as the sun rises every morning, birds will help themselves to your ripening fruits and vegetables.

Add to the destructiveness of birds eating and destroying your crop; birds will also plaster your garden with their droppings, which are not only unpleasant but can harbor any of 60 infectious diseases. Instead of a garden filled with the smells of ripening crops, you will have a garden that smells like bird droppings.

What can you do?

Most gardeners who cultivate gardens are hesitant to use poisonous or toxic methods to rid their yard of birds. Some gardeners will try water hoses to “scare” birds away. Others will install scaring devices and noisemakers. However, these methods have proven mostly unsuccessful in the long term. The only real answer is to apply professionally recommended bird control measures. Amongst the most successful for gardens is Anti Bird-Netting.

Installing Anti Bird-Netting

Lightweight and simple to install, Anti Bird-Netting will prevent birds accessing your crops. Perfect for fruit trees and garden plants, this netting is available in various “mesh” sizes, 1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″ to stop a variety of different size pests from destroying your garden. The net is simple to install, whether you just use it draped over individual trees and pegged to the ground or use plant stakes to create a tent environment. Anti bird-netting clips made for use with the netting make for easy installation. Made from durable, UV-protected polypropylene the mesh is sturdy, light and almost invisible.

The netting comes in a number of colors. However, the color which offers the best UV protection against solar rays for longevity is black. Other colors are white, usually woven and doubles as hail protection as well as a bird deterrent, or green for the DIY home gardener commonly sold at home gardening outlets.

Anti Bird-Netting is also used to deter birds from nesting. During the bird breeding season, they can be very territorial. They will return every breeding season to the same nesting areas. Anti bird-netting is a passive deterrent, so birds naturally move on and use a different location for nesting. You can use Anti Bird-Netting in the short term if you have a seasonal predicament with birds, or install the netting permanently for all year defense.

Strategies on different uses for anti bird-netting

There are a few ways to use anti bird-netting. It will depend on the kind of bird and where they have become a pest. Here are some approaches to help you overcome the nuisance of these pests.

Exclude birds trying to nest in your eaves.

To deter birds from building their nests in the eaves of your house, hang the bird netting at a forty-fivedegrees angle under the eaves.  Ensure you have enough net to reach from the outside edge of the roof to the side wall of your house. Install the mesh using a staple-gun, tape, or hooks. Keep the mesh tight and do not leave any openings for the birds to work their way through.

To protect your small fruit trees

If you cultivate fruit or nut trees in your garden, fasten the anti bird-netting at the bottom close to the trunk to prevent birds from flying underneath from ground level and becoming tangled inside the netting. Leave a gap between the fruit and the net to stop birds from sitting on the branches and eating the fruit through the holes in the net; plant stakes are ideal for this application. To install the net, measure the perimeter of the tree and trim the netting to size, allowing at least an extra twelve inches or more around the edge. Fasten the netting with zip ties, twine, or clips made especially for this type of netting.

To protect your vines, berry bushes, and vegetable plots

To guard grape vines, berry bushes, and vegetable plots, hang the netting above these types of plants by at least 6 inches. Allowing a gap like this will prevent birds from landing on the net and eating your fruit through the holes. One efficient method of hanging the netting is by using a series of plant stakes planted around the perimeter of the garden area and attaching the net to these stakes. To deter birds from vegetable gardens, wrap each plant or group of plants in the netting.

Crop protection on a larger scale

Bird nets are useful in the prevention of damage to vegetable and fruit crops in addition to seedlings. Birds and bats can cause considerable losses to farmers as they tend just to peck one fruit, then move on to another, consequently ruining a significant proportion of valuable commercial production. Once a small piece is bitten off, that fruit is unsalable and if harvested will rot or ferment therefore damaging the remainder of the case. Bird protection applied in large-scale areas is by the installation of aviary netting which is commonly manufactured from metal and therefore more durable. This form of anti bird-netting is in the way of an enclosure, or cage, that is completely closed off to stop birds and pests gaining access to the fruit. The mesh is easy to install and simple to cut to size. The netting is available in a range of mesh sizes for deterring different types of pests. It is readily obtainable from many garden center outlets and is becoming a standard nonlethal way to ensure that the crops you grow in the future will be enjoyed by you and not the pests.