Are Birds Feasting On Your Apple Tree? Here's How To Stop Them

While backyard birds are beautiful to watch and can help eliminate some of the insects feasting on your garden, these feathered animals might wreak havoc on your apple trees. Fruit is a staple in many birds' diets, and several varieties love apples, including sparrows, woodpeckers, robins, jays, crows, cardinals, bluebirds, and even wild turkeys. Apples provide birds with essential nutrients, such as vitamins, fiber, and carbohydrates, but your feathered friends may destroy your harvest, leaving less fruit for you and your family. Thankfully, there are a few different methods for keeping birds away from your fruit trees.

Netting can be used to cover your trees, preventing birds from accessing them, though sometimes the animals could become stuck. Reflective surfaces like shiny tape, CDs, or aluminum foil may be able to scare birds away, as well as decoy owls. With these methods, you'll be able to protect your apples from these hungry animals.

Bird netting, which can be found on Amazon for $13, is a thin mesh fabric that is draped over fruit trees or other plants birds target to prevent the animals from having access to the produce. These barriers come in different sizes to accommodate the size of your tree. Once the net has been placed over your apple tree, make sure all your fruit is safely inside the net and not poking out. If your apples are being hurt by the netting, you can use wire to help prevent it from touching your fruit. To keep birds from going underneath the base of the net, bunch it up and tie it at the bottom or use a heavy object to hold it to the ground.

While these nets can be extremely effective for protecting your apples, they do have some downsides. Birds as well as other small animals will sometimes become caught in the net, leading them to get injured, stuck, or even die. If you choose to use netting to protect your trees, it's important to inspect the nets frequently to ensure that no animals are trapped. Installing your bird netting could also take a fair bit of work, and there's a chance the fabric could rip over time.

For those who are worried that using netting could harm their feathered friends, scaring the birds away might be a better option. Fake predators, such as owls, are a popular method for deterring birds, but they are most effective when they move on their own or if you relocate them often. If you place a simple owl statue in your tree that is always in the same spot, birds might become less afraid of it and continue going after your fruit. A decoy owl with a rotating head ($19 on Amazon) is a great option if you don't want to frequently move the statue around.

Another easy way to deter birds from your fruit tree is by using reflective tape or other shiny, mirror-like materials. CDs can be hung from trees near your fruit, or you could wrap the tape around the branches. If you're on a tight budget, try hanging pieces of aluminum foil on your trees.