The Logic Behind Banning Birds In Orchards

There’s a group of consumers who love fruit so much, they actually fly from miles away to enjoy blueberries, sweet cherries, and grapes. Yet, growers hope this group never finds out about their delicious and nutritious crops, and it’s easy to see why. These snackers are birds!

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Rob Johanson from Goranson Farm in Dresden, ME, knows that when birds decide to call your farm home, it means trouble. “A flock of 100 seasonal crows can do immense damage in a short amount of time,” Johanson says. Bill Ingersol of Concord, WI, has a 180-acre farm and he has seen that bird damage can occur very quickly. “Just before dusk, huge flocks containing hundreds of birds swarm, including starlings, grackles, red-wing blackbirds, and others,” he says. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), supports these growers’ first-hand observations with these sobering statistics: “Unchecked, birds can completely destroy an entire crop. A flock of 5,000 starlings can consume up to 1 ton of food over a 10-day period, and blackbirds were blamed for an estimated loss of 15 million tons of food worldwide in 1968. This is enough to feed 90 million people.”

Often, because a farm is such a great food source, the birds will roost in indoor structures nearby including barns, garages, warehouses, and homes in order to stay close by. This increases bird interaction with humans and therefore increases the chance that they can spread one of more than 60 transferable diseases including the potentially fatal West Nile Virus, histoplasmosis, and E. coli. When working to combat a bird infestation, it is important to address both the indoor and outdoor environments for maximum effect.

While the logic behind bird control relies on removing the environmental factors that attract birds to a particular place, growers cannot remove their crops. Instead, they must add elements that make the birds feel vulnerable so that they will be motivated to seek out another, seemingly safer, habitat. There are a large variety of solutions available to growers, but there are some underlying principles that are important to consider when choosing the strategies that will work best for each farm.

• Clear the environment before beginning. Clearing roosting/nesting sites of droppings, feathers, dead birds, etc. weakens the territorial link that birds feel toward the site and allows you to place products where birds congregate most. This ensures that your investment in bird control products will be used most efficiently, as they will be able to operate most effectively.

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• Remember the idea of synergy for long-lasting results. In the industry we see that using multiple strategies allows for each one to have more success. For instance, combining visual scare balloons with a sonic machine will have a greater success rate than the products have individually.

• Long-lasting results come from addressing the environment rather than the birds only. When lethal methods are used, they open up your farm to a new infestation from another flock. It is also dangerous for public relations — especially when other animals who might be interested in poison bait, or the poisoned birds themselves, are affected. Shooting birds is also a waste of time. While there might be a positive scare effect, birds will return. Even a great marksman will not be able to make a significant dent in any bird population, as the majority of birds will temporarily flee at the first shot. Look for a sustainable result; birds are smart and they often look for open real estate, or simply wait for a time when it is safe to return to their favorite haunts.

You can also look into the following strategies:

• Visual scare devices are designed to scare birds by tapping into their instinct to avoid predators. They can take the form of light reflecting tape, decoys that mimic the appearance
of a predator, or a combination of both elements.

• Distress call generators replay recordings of birds’ distress calls. Birds will scatter as they instinctively react to the sounds.

• Taste deterrents fall into two different categories. One form uses the ingredient anthraquinone which has been proven to be a carcinogen and is therefore not recommended (or even legal in some areas). The other uses a food grade chemical called methyl anthranilate which can be sprayed directly on crops and harmlessly yet effectively repels birds.

• Nets placed around fruit trees are a highly effective way to create a physical barrier between your crops and the birds and protect against damage.

• Spikes are used for indoor structures like barns, homes, and garages to permanently block off areas used for roosting and nesting.

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