If you are tired of walking outside to find your strawberries {or any other fruit or vegetable for that matter} with chunks missing, you might want to give bird netting a try.
Bird Netting is highly effective in keeping birds and other smaller critters out of the garden beds and away from the fruits and vegetables we all try to grow each year. Not only is it safe but bird netting can be taken down at the end of the season and reused the following year.
For the netting be effective, you’ll need to give it a little support so it’s just not laying on top of the plant foliage. You can do this by using wood stakes at either end of the row and draping the netting over the berries. Be sure and anchor the bottom of the netting with rocks or something of the like. The main goal is to keep those pesky birds reaching the berries and to keep them from getting caught under the netting.
Unless of course your hoping to catch a bird for a nice pot of stew.
How do you keep the birds out of YOUR garden?
~Mavis
Need some bird netting to protect your fruits and veggies? Amazon sells it in various sizes or you can probably find it in your local hardware store too.
Marcy says
Or you could tether a couple of cats out there…LOL!
Sakura says
The birds always get to my seedless green grapes before I do. I haven’t tried to keep them out, I’ve just surrendered them over peacefully. Maybe this year Ill fight for them!
Megan C. says
Does the netting work for squirrels? Last year I lost all of my strawberries to them!
Jen says
I can’t bring myself to use bird netting anymore – I came home to find a small bird with its head stuck in the netting. It had twisted around and around trying to get out and I had to cut it from the netting. I felt so bad. I just use reflecting pinwheels to try to scare away birds now and accept that a few of my berries will get eaten.
Jodie says
Our biggest problem is potato bugs! How do you protect them from that? They got our first good strawberry of the season. 🙁
Susan says
I tried bird netting once, and I caught 3 snakes. They try to go through, realize it’s too small, and try to back up, but their scales get caught in the netting. It was horrible!
Chris says
I am going to try sheer curtains. They are really cheap, will let the light in, and the birds won’t get caught.
Pat Gaston says
I’ve tried the fine Tulle! Works great { But it’s hard to remove from blackberry thorns! }
T. Wimes says
I use tulle also. Very inexpensive and works great.
Erika says
I think the lizards have been nibbling on some of my strawberries. They’re the ones down by the dirt, under the leaves. I think a determined lizard would make it under netting, and anyway, they also help keep down the other bugs so I don’t mind having them.
Ursula says
I used a 50% coupon at Joann Fabrics and bought the whole bolt of hunter green tulle! 40 yds – that bird netting stuff is lethal for hummingbirds.
Ursula says
I forgot to add – attach with clothes pegs for easy on/off. Now there will be more currants, gooseberries, raspberries, logans & blacks for me!
Danielle H says
I saw where Renee from Renee’s Garden Seeds used a plastic berry basket (the little boxes berries come in), turned upside-down, to protect seedlings. I’d imagine if you had a tall enough one you could put it over your entire strawberry plant. Maybe even let the leaves grow through, then let them remain as a permanent fruit protector!
mary ann grohman says
i use the wildlife netting around the bottom of my chicken pens. amazing how many chicken snakes i catch in it. that way i get the eggs instead of the varmints.
Trish Sarfert says
You probably don’t want to use sheer curtains or tulle, because then the pollinators like bees can’t get through to pollinate the flower buds to make more fruit. My problems isn’t the birds- it’s the skinks! They LOVE strawberries, and I watched one of the little buggers take a bite out of one of my ripe berries, right in front of me! Cheeky little bugger…
Don Sheets says
I found that plastic and rubber snakes placed in cherry trees and in the strawberry patch keep the birds out. The snakes must be moved each day to a different position but this is better than netting in my opinion. I buy the snakes at Dollar General for $1 each, I get the brightest colors I can find. The squirrels haven’t paid my beds a visit either.