When I was a kid we always went to a pick-your-own farm for cherries and there was always a loud noisemaker going off to fend off the birds. One year it was gone, and my mom asked why.
They told her that--I don't remember the name of the substance-- but they diluted it in water and sprayed it on the trees and the birds didn't like the smell and stayed completely away and they didn't have to listen to that alarm all day every day anymore.
That substance is in grape and only grape flavored Koolaid. I kid you not. Four packets unsweetened to a gallon of water is the recipe I found for home gardeners like me. I found a mention of all this on Wikipedia, which warned that what it does is irritate the birds' lungs.
Using the Koolaid version, however, seems to have enticed the raccoons to go to town on my peaches (Erva bunny cages around the trunks solved that problem) but the birds left my cherries alone.
Until it rained, which is rare in northern California that time of year. I went from a full tree to four cherries left by the time the rain stopped. But whatever, I thought I'd pass that information, for sheer curiosity's sake if nothing else. Catoctin Mountain Orchard in western Maryland was the source of the original information. (I'm 65 now so it has been awhile but they are still there...)
Are you an are that today, September 26th, is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johnathan Chapman, “Johnny Appleseed?”
more wildlife licking cameras please...
There's not a lot of meat on a ground squirrel but, judging by cartoons, coyotes are always on the lean and hungry side!
When I was a kid we always went to a pick-your-own farm for cherries and there was always a loud noisemaker going off to fend off the birds. One year it was gone, and my mom asked why.
They told her that--I don't remember the name of the substance-- but they diluted it in water and sprayed it on the trees and the birds didn't like the smell and stayed completely away and they didn't have to listen to that alarm all day every day anymore.
That substance is in grape and only grape flavored Koolaid. I kid you not. Four packets unsweetened to a gallon of water is the recipe I found for home gardeners like me. I found a mention of all this on Wikipedia, which warned that what it does is irritate the birds' lungs.
Using the Koolaid version, however, seems to have enticed the raccoons to go to town on my peaches (Erva bunny cages around the trunks solved that problem) but the birds left my cherries alone.
Until it rained, which is rare in northern California that time of year. I went from a full tree to four cherries left by the time the rain stopped. But whatever, I thought I'd pass that information, for sheer curiosity's sake if nothing else. Catoctin Mountain Orchard in western Maryland was the source of the original information. (I'm 65 now so it has been awhile but they are still there...)
Those bins of apples are so beautiful! That's some gorgeous poison oak in the fawn video, beautiful, too, but not one of my friends.
Have you tried scarecrows to keep the birds away? Maybe store mannequins would work?