How to protect cherries from birds and save fruits, effective ways to scare away with a photo

After a successful struggle for the harvest with all sorts of pests, the gardener faces another task: saving ripened fruits from flying gangs. Protecting cherries from birds is both easier and more difficult than protecting them from pests. Chemicals are not needed here, but some species of birds are difficult to scare away from fruit trees.

Do birds peck cherries

Feathers are a real disaster for ripe cherries. They can “harvest” the crop instead of the owners. But birds eat cherries no less willingly. In addition, often in hot weather, birds “drink” cherries. That is, they peck at her, not for the sake of food, but trying to quench their thirst. In this case, even those birds that are usually not fond of fruits will peck at the cherry.

What birds peck cherries

Berries in their diet consistently include sparrows, starlings, thrushes, magpies.

These species of birds eat the pulp of cherries. But in some regions, grosbeaks cause significant damage to berries. Cherry and bird cherry are the main components of their food supply. The grosbeak does not eat the pulp, they are interested in the bones of the berries. But for the gardener, it makes no difference what part of the berries the birds eat. The crop will be destroyed.

Mostly starlings and thrushes peck cherries and cherries

What to do if birds peck at cherries

To prevent birds from pecking cherries, gardeners have come up with many ways, but they all have their pros and cons. Trying to protect the crop with:

• reflective items;
• pulling various types of ribbons or hanging them on branches;
• sound devices;
• special preparations;
• various sharp-smelling “folk” remedies.

There may even be some own inventions. But, as always, if there are many ways to cure the disease, then none works.

The fight against flocks of birds is further complicated by the fact that animals have the rudiments of intelligence, and they are able to learn from each other.

How to save cherries from birds with shiny objects

With the help of reflective objects, you can protect the cherry from sparrows. It is not a fact that even starlings with thrushes will be afraid. Magpies, most likely, will first steal shiny little things and only then they will take on cherries.

To scare away, use a special tape with a reflective layer or garlands of discs. Both are hung on the branches of trees. Swinging in the wind, reflectors let out glare, which birds are frightened of.

A similar repeller can be made from old laser discs. The surface of these media is mirrored and sunbeams on the disks are also good. Although worse than those specially made for this purpose.

How to protect the cherry crop from birds with fabric strips

To protect the crop with fabric strips, they are tied to branches. Moving from the wind, the ribbons should scare away the birds. In fact, the fabric quickly gets tangled in the branches. You can also tie ribbons to a bicycle rim and attach it to a long pole. The structure must be raised above the crowns of trees. In this case, the tapes will protect the crop more effectively. But you will have to attach such a device to each tree.

How to scare birds away from cherries with sound

In fact, a constant sound is an unreliable business. Birds quickly get used to and stop paying attention to the hindrance. Much more they are afraid of movement. In stores you can buy a variety of windmills and turntables. When rotated, they make sounds that, in theory, should protect the cherry from birds. You can make such a turntable yourself from a plastic bottle.

Birds are afraid of rustling packages. Flying snakes, designed to scare away, are made of light, rustling plastic. Such material enhances the fear of the silhouette of a predator. But this is with dull sparrows and thrushes. After a while, starlings will begin to ignore rustling objects. And magpies will sort everything out instantly.

Tubular Chinese bells “windmills” scare away birds with sound and, partly, with brilliance. Hollow tubes sway even under a light breeze and make melodious sounds. But, given their price and the required quantity, the pleasure is expensive.

In order not to spend money on “windmills”, some summer residents replace them with a pot lid with holes drilled around the perimeter. The latter are needed in order to hang various kitchen utensils on ropes: knives, spoons and forks. It turns out a very massive analogue of “windmills”, which will also ring with a sufficiently strong wind.

How and how to hide cherries from birds

A fine-mesh net protects well from sparrow raids. If you throw it on top of the trees, the sparrows will not be able to penetrate the cherries. The main problem is that it is very difficult to cover a tall tree with a net. For felt or young cherries, this method is suitable.

From the side-bottom, the birds do not climb to the cherries. But the net is not able to protect the cherries from the long-billed starlings and thrushes. They get berries through the cells.

Lightweight non-woven material protects the berries better. To prevent the wind from blowing the fabric, it will have to be tied. The main disadvantage of the mesh or non-woven material is that only low-growing varieties or young cherries can be covered with them. To protect a large tree, you need to have the skills of laying a parachute and several assistants who will “open the parachute” from different sides at the same time so that the fabric covers the tree.

A low cherry tree is easy to protect from birds by covering it completely.

How to protect cherries from birds with a repeller

Strictly speaking, all means of protecting cherries from birds are the same repellers. The use of firearms outside the hunting season is prohibited, and in settlements it cannot be used all year round. Yes, and protect the garden with a gun will not work. Flocks of starlings sometimes number several hundred individuals, and even more sparrows. As a repeller, a kite with the silhouette of a bird of prey is quite effective.

The advantage of such a repeller is that the birds are really afraid of him. They are unable to distinguish a living three-dimensional organism from a two-dimensional thing. A minus: the kite cannot be launched without wind. It cannot be left unattended, because if the wind subsides, the kite will fall to the ground and may become entangled in the branches of the tree. In addition, the kite protects the crop well, being high above the ground. Where real predators fly.

How to protect the cherry crop from birds with gas guns

Quite an exotic and flammable way to protect the cherry crop. The timed gas cannon periodically makes a sound similar to a shotgun being fired. Effectively repels sparrows, starlings and thrushes. Magpies can figure out that the sound alone is not terrible.

The gun is powered by a 5-liter propane tank. Advertising claims that this volume is enough for 5000 “shots”. The frequency of claps is adjustable. One gun is enough to protect 1-1,5 hectares of the garden. But the price of such a “tool” is from 22 thousand rubles. In addition, the birds get used to the sounds, and to maintain the effect, the cannon will have to be moved around the garden.

Here you have to calculate whether it is profitable to scare away birds from cherries with a cannon

How to protect cherries from birds using folk remedies

Birds are not insects, but they are also trying to use repellent repellents of plant origin. Often, an infusion of pepper, mustard or garlic is used for these purposes. It is believed that these compounds have an unpleasant smell and taste, due to which the birds stop pecking at the cherry.

In fact, these folk remedies have only disadvantages and no advantages:

• the smell disappears after 2 hours;
• the taste of soaked garlic is not so unpleasant, the smell, which is no longer there, would have acted more here;
• the pepper begins to bake after a while, so that a flock of starlings will have time to surround the cherry;
• the same with mustard;
• all solutions are easily washed off not only by rain, but also by dew.

In addition, to scare away birds, you will have to use very concentrated preparations:

• garlic in a state of gruel;
• hot pepper at the level of seasoning “Tobasco”;
• mustard straight from the can.

And coat almost every cherry with these products. It’s easier to just remove all the berries. Herbal decoctions will not work at all. The smell is too weak, and the taste buds in animals are different. What is bitter to people is good enough for birds. In particular, the same grosbeaks eat cherry kernels, which have a bitter taste due to hydrocyanic acid. And they don’t even get hurt.

How to keep cherries from birds with natural gels

To call any gel made by an industrial method, natural, somehow the language does not turn. And there are no other gels. But there are similar means that do not harm the birds. One of them is the PSC Bird-Free Optical Gel.

PSC Bird-Free

In fact, it is a liquid analogue of reflective objects. Its components give birds the impression of a flame raging ahead. Naturally, not a single normal bird will climb into the fire.

The disadvantage of the gel is that it cannot be applied to trees. Its consistency is too thick. Use this tool on architectural rigid structures. It is impossible to apply the gel on cherry leaves. But there is another remedy, the action of which is based on repelling birds by smell. It’s Freitenavis repellent.

Gels are still not very popular in Our Country, so it is impossible to say for sure whether the repellent is really able to protect the crop

Repeller Freitenavis

The manufacturer claims that the drug protects trees from birds and rats due to the smell. Freitenavis has the aroma of orange blossom, that is, orange flowers. The active substance is methyl anthranilate and it can be called natural with a big stretch. On an industrial scale, it is synthesized from methanol and anthranilic acid. Methyl anthranilate is found naturally in oranges and grapes. The first eat rats with pleasure, the second sparrows.

In this regard, the action of Freitenavis as a repellent is questionable. The advantage of the product is its safety even for pollinating insects.

How to drive birds away from cherries with a scarecrow

This method has probably been used since the beginning of agriculture. In the role of a stuffed animal, not even a stylization of a person, but a figurine of a bird of prey can act. But the birds quickly get used to stationary objects, and the scarecrows cease to fulfill their function.

Another disadvantage is that the scarecrow must be taller than the protected plant. If it is not difficult to install a scarecrow over the beds, then it is very difficult to pile it on a cherry tree, often growing up to 6 m. The video shows a rather original version of the scarecrow, which combines sound and reflective repellers. On a stick, such a scarecrow can be placed above the top of the cherry.

Protection of cherries from birds using modern technologies

Modern technologies usually mean ultrasonic devices that are supposed to scare away birds. For gardens and orchards, low-power devices are produced that operate within a radius of 10-20 m.

Theoretically, these devices should scare away not only birds, but also moles, cats and dogs. The main disadvantage of these devices: they do not work. At least if you read the reviews on sites like Aliexpress, you can find a lot of complaints about the inefficiency of the devices. The fact is that only the person who bought the product can leave a review on such sites.

However, even powerful deterrents are ineffective, as the case of the plane crash in Zhukovsky showed. If there are a lot of birds and they want to eat, they will not pay attention to the sounds.

Original ways to scare away birds eating cherries

Perhaps the most original way to scare away birds from cherries is to have your own tame crow on the site. This is difficult to implement, but people who had a crow’s nest near the garden had no problem with crop raiders.

Of course, crows would also like to eat berries, but they are too heavy to stay on a branch. Unless they pick one or two cherries flying by.

But this pleasure is expensive, often jurisdictional and complex: birds of prey in captivity need a special diet. Crows do not suffer from this deficiency, they eat everything they find.

The second rather original way is a balloon in the form of SpongeBob. According to the gardeners who tested this stuffed repeller, no birds were observed near the garden. Most likely, the case is due to the fact that SpongeBob is very similar to a person. Moreover, he has well-drawn eyes.

It is not necessary to look for just such a ball, ordinary ones will also fit, but with painted eyes

If old audio and video cassettes are preserved, their tapes can also be used to scare away birds. The magnetic film is stretched between the rows as high as possible. If it is possible to stretch the ribbons over the tops of the trees, the effect will be better. The ribbons gleam a little in the sun and vibrate in the wind, creating frightening sounds. But their advantage is only that it will be possible to get rid of old trash in the house. This is a one time use. The disadvantages are that such strips are easily torn, it is difficult to pull them up at a height, not everyone has them.

Another non-trivial way to protect cherries from sparrows is to feed the birds with grain feed. Gardeners claim that well-fed sparrows do not peck cherries. The problem is that if there is enough food in abundance, a lot of birds will appear on the site. You still can’t feed everyone.

A few words in defense of feathered gardening helpers

Cherry is included in the diet of the gardener’s main assistants: starlings and sparrows. But do not destroy these birds. On the contrary, they must be encouraged by all means. Feathered trees can be scared away from trees with berries when the time comes. If starlings are omnivorous, then sparrows are classified as granivorous birds. But both those and others feed their young only with insects. During the day, parents bring 80-100 insects to the chicks. If sparrows destroy only small and soft garden pests, then starlings gradually harden their young. Starting with small insects, as the offspring mature, the starlings begin to feed it with beetles, locusts and snails.

Cherry ripens just in time for the first generation of chicks to emerge. It is better not to destroy the birds, but to prepare in advance for their invasion of the berries. The benefits of birds are much greater than the harm.

The benefits of birds are much greater than the harm

Conclusion

It is almost impossible to protect cherries from birds in any one way. Types of repellers need to be changed so that the birds do not get used to sounds, glitter or movement. You can also apply immediately a set of protective equipment.