Protect Garden Berries From Hungry Birds With An Unexpected Item You Already Own

Do you plan to plant garden berries this spring? Looking forward to delicious berry pies? If you want a decent harvest, then you'll need to protect your berries from hungry birds. Unless you use a deterrent, you can count on birds eating your blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries. These creatures will strip your plants bare, leaving you with few to no berries. 

Many types of birds can pose a serious threat to berry yields. Bluebirds, robins, woodpeckers, yellow-rumped warblers, and cedar waxwings all eat berries. Larger birds will eat the entire berry while smaller ones, like robins, only eat part of it. Berries make up the majority of some birds' — specifically cedar waxwings —  diets. 

The good news is that there is a simple item that you likely already own that can deter birds from eating your berries — and that is a radio. Simply mount it near your berry bushes and turn it on. The birds will leave as they don't like noise. 

A radio is effective at keeping birds out of the berry bushes in your yard. However, playing music all day long will likely irritate your neighbors. So, if you live close to another house, this might not be a viable option for you. Another option is to use lightweight foil or tape to keep birds from eating the fruit. You can also use holographic bird tape, which is made specifically for driving away birds. This tape makes a noise when it moves in the wind, which helps deter birds. Once you have the tape, cut several strips off. Tie these pieces around your berry bushes, and this should be enough to safeguard your berries.

If you don't have foil tape on hand, you can also use another item easily found at home — aluminum pie plates. This is a great way to recycle used plates when you are done with them. Simply save them for deterring birds from picking at your spring berry plants. Aluminum pie plates work much in the same way as foil tape. The birds don't like the shininess or the movement of these tin pans. To use aluminum pie plates, punch a hole in them and hang them near your berry bushes.

One of the disadvantages of foil tape and other shiny objects is that they don't always work. That is because birds will simply ignore these objects if they are hungry enough. If foil tape doesn't work, a good alternative is to use bird netting. Netting is highly effective at keeping birds off berries and it's pretty inexpensive. Garden netting can also be used to keep other unwanted pests like squirrels from snacking on the berries as well.

To deter birds effectively with garden netting, you can drape it right over the bushes. However, this can sometimes cause damage to bushes. If possible, you might want to construct a frame or structure around the bushes and then drape the netting over that. Then, simply secure the netting to the ground using garden staples. Remove the bird netting after harvesting so you can use it again next year.