22 - Friday, March 13, 1987 - ~ North Shore News

DS TO. CONTROL

table

WE DON’T usually think of birds
as pests.

Some of them are a gardener’s
best friend and devour large
numbers of injurious insects.
Others, however, can be very an-
noying to the home gardener.

Starlings, robins and crows are
all very fond of cherries, and
crows frequently attack plums and
apples. Starlings and robins are
also serious pests of grapes,
blueberries and occasionally
strawberries.

Newly sprouted corn plants are
often pulled up by crows and
pheasants, and newly-seeded
vegetable gardens or lawns may be
damaged by rock doves (domestic
pigeons) and several kinds of fin-
ches and sparrows.

BIRD CONTROL

Most of the available bird con-

trol methods are based on either
excluding birds from the crop or
frightening them away. Killing
birds is generally unnecessary and
undesirable, especially since many
crop-damaging species (even star!-
ings) are mainly insectivorous and
highly beneficial during much of
the year.

Excluding birds from a crop
usually involves netting. Nets have
the advantage of being harmless to
the birds, and offer complete pro-
tection from bird damage which
scaring devices cannot guarantee.
One good type is Vantage Utility
Netting, which has a small mesh
size (1.6 x 1.9 cm, or 5/8 x 3/4 in.)
and is widely available in garden
supply shops throughout B.C. ~

NETS HARMLESS

It can be stretched over a straw-
berry patch or newly-seeded

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vegetable garden by means of sup-
porting stakes, or can be draped
over a grapevine or blueberry
bush.

Keeping birds out of a large
cherry or apple tree can be much
more difficult; netting is generally
impractical and expensive for large
trees. Brightly colored (yellow or
red) plastic streamers or shiny
aluminum pie plates suspended
from the branches will reflect light
and act as a visual repellent,
although their effectiveness is
variable.

The best protection may be to
pick the fruit just before it’s com-
pletely ripe and thus keep ahead of
the birds, although this isn’t
always possible because birds may
also attack unripe fruit.

BIRD FEEDER

For newly-seeded gardens, other
approaches are possible. Since
birds prefer a concentrated food
source to a scattered source, one
way of minimizing damage may be
to supply wild bird seed at a feeder

ging

mardens and lawns

in the opposite end of your yard
from the garden, at least until the
young vegetable plants are well
above ground.

A lifelike scarecrow, especially
one that moves in the wind, may
discourage birds; a dead bird or
two of the offending species (if
you can find one), suspended from
a pole, may do likewise, especially
with crows,

Also, do not overlook the ob-
vious — a cat or two patrolling the
garden may do the trick.

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