Birds are not always welcome in our vegetable garden or orchard. In fact, they can cause significant damage to our plants. Large birds such as pigeons can attack seedlings or young plants. Blackbirds, for their part, are rather fond of red fruits from the orchard. They can spoil the harvest of strawberries, cherries or raspberries. Find out how to keep birds away from your vegetable garden, without using a scarecrow.
To take care of plants in the vegetable garden or orchard, it is important to keep away parasites and pests that spoil the harvest. This is particularly the case for birds. Pigeons, blackbirds or starlings, these birds are a real threat to plants. They peck red berries, attack seedlings and feed on leafy vegetables such as salads or cabbages. However, you can protect your plants from these pests, without even installing a scarecrow. Let’s discover these practical tips together.
How to keep birds away from the vegetable garden?
The scarecrow has always been the most used solution to prevent birds from attacking the vegetable garden. In addition to the scarecrow, other tricks are used and rely on noise and light to scare the birds and scare them away.
- Using CDs to Scare Birds
To keep birds away from your vegetable garden, simply hang old CDs on a string, keeping the reflective sides facing out. Then, hang them in pairs in a tree, or hang the string on supports, in the middle of your plants. When the wind blows on the CDs, they collide and emit reflections and noises that scare away birds.
Note that you can replace the CDs with pieces of aluminum foil or any silver object, as it is the reflected light that scares the birds and prevents them from approaching.
- Install metal cat heads to keep birds away
You can buy metal cat heads and hang them everywhere in your vegetable garden. The eyes are made of beads that sparkle in the light and could therefore frighten birds. Note that you can make your own deterrent cats. To do this, simply cut cat heads out of cardboard, preferably using thick, black cardboard. Then glue glass beads to the head of the cardboard cat to imitate the eyes.
- Install a nylon wire to chase away birds
To keep birds away and above all protect your plants, it is recommended to install thick nylon wire, such as fishing line. To do this, you can stretch your nylon threads 10 cm above the young shoots of leafy vegetables and seedlings. These wires must be parallel and spaced approximately 10 cm apart. This invisible obstacle will disturb the birds and scare them away.
- Noise to scare away birds
Noise is an effective way to scare birds and scare them away. To do this, you can plant stakes in your vegetable garden and hang a thin plastic bag at the end. When the wind blows and rushes into the plastic bag, it produces a noise and slight movement, which may frighten the birds. You can also put a radio under the tree targeted by birds or near your plantations by choosing a channel that broadcasts music, but also news. Indeed, the radio will be more dissuasive if the content is varied.
In addition to these tips, you can also keep birds away by using olfactory repellents, such as cade oil, lavender essential oil or the smell of certain spices such as cinnamon, cayenne pepper, curry and the pepper. Birds cannot stand these odors which scare them away.
Thanks to these tips, you will be able to keep away the pest birds that devastate your vegetable garden, but also the fruit trees in your orchard, without having to install a scarecrow and without using chemicals that could harm them.
