While it might seem easy to people, farming is a tricky business because farmers might have to deal with a number of challenges, from sowing a crop to harvesting it. Throughout all the stages, they have to be extra careful to ensure the healthy growth of the crops.
This means that if you are also a farmer, you might be aware of the fact that you also need to protect your crops from a number of different diseases with the help of chemical and mechanical means, and the safety of your vegetation from wildlife is also one of them.
Especially when it comes to controlling birds from ruining the crops, while many species are quite valuable for the ecosystem and food protection, the bird population can also increase the issues related to the crops that might require your specific attention.
One of the most accessible solutions to this issue is to try to stop bird damage by various means and methods to ensure the safety of your food growth. For this, here are some of the most valuable and smart ways to keep birds away from your crops.
Scarecrow
When it comes to protecting your crop fields from birds, scarecrows turn out to be one of the most obvious solutions to the issue. It is also one of the most effective non-toxic ways of stopping birds from coming near your crops.The basic idea is to place a fake dummy in your fields that looks like a human being to give the birds an idea that they are not safe to land in this area. This helps you to keep your tactics humane and natural to protect the wildlife along with that as well.
However, the key is to keep moving the position of your scarecrows frequently every once in a few days to scare away the birds and convince them the scarecrow is not just harmless and is rather a mobile, actual threat to them.
Bird Netting
If your crop fields are not getting any luck from the scarecrows for protection, another one of the many non-toxic ways you can opt for is to use barriers that are certainly among the most efficient methods to keep the birds away from your crops.For this very reason, you can use butterfly netting over your crops to protect them without keeping away from the small beneficial insects that are needed to make sure the pollination of the crops is done correctly without any kind of potential damage.
According to the experts, you can try to use the netting options that come with holes that are smaller than one centimetre in order to avoid providing any damage to the birds. You can also try to use high-quality nets that come with UV resistance to ensure they last longer.
Repellant Spray
If you are a rice or any other similar crop farmer, another option that can help you to stop bird damage to rice fields is getting a bird repellent spray. It will certainly turn out to be quite helpful for you to keep all those pesky birds away from your crops.These sprays are useful because they basically contain materials that birds would not like. Since the goal is to just repel away birds and not kill them, these sprays only contain chemicals that will scare them away and not actually make their lives, so you do not have to worry about being cruel.
This will simply make the birds uncomfortable, and you would also not have to worry about your pets or your crops getting negatively affected by these sprays. Also, you are likely to use these sprays every once in a while because they might get washed away when the spray comes in contact with water.
Wind Chimes
Living close to nature, almost every farmer understands that birds do not really like any kind of sharp noises. This is why if you tend to have wind chimes, you can also utilize them to repel the birds away from your crops and protect your fields from any damage.Huge wind chimes that are also reflective can be placed near the fields so that they can make noises every time they hit a breeze of air or even when slightly touched by someone. This noise will certainly help you to keep birds away from your plants.
In addition to that, if you are going to use only wind chimes as your basic deterrent strategy in the fields, you would need to make sure to place several of them within the premises of your fields and not far away from the action. You can also try to get chimes that are made of metal because they make high noise.
Ultrasonic Repellent
Just like anything else, the advancement in technology can also turn out to be quite helpful for farmers to help them protect their crops and enhance the growth of their fields. For this, one of the many modern technologies that can be useful includes using ultrasonic repellent devices.There are a number of different companies that have developed simple to use yet efficient ultrasonic bird repellents. These devices are basically designed that are not liked by animals and birds and will make them uncomfortable.
When these devices are placed within or even near your crop fields, they can simply repel away from the birds without you having to get into much hassle. To get even better outcomes, you can also get solar-powered ultrasonic bird repellent devices that will enhance your convenience.
Reflective Items
Birds and other similar wildlife are mostly creatures that are sensitive to any kind of shiny, bright, or reflective lights and high pinching noises. This is why just like noise devices, you can also use this fact in your favor to stop your crops from getting damaged by birds.You can use a number of different reflective things to fulfil your needs easily. Most of the time, many farmers also use old DVDs or CDs that reflect light and form a bulk of them to place them within their fields in order to keep the birds away.
Similarly, several other household items that are capable of reflecting light can also be used to achieve the goal. If you do not have much idea or any similar items, another easy way is to simply get reflective tapes to use in your crop fields.
Predator Decoys
Another great way to scare away the birds without using any kind of toxic method is by getting predator decoys in your fields. Just like scarecrows, these predator decoys will help you to successfully scare the birds and keep them away from the fields.There are a number of predators that birds are scared of and they might not land in the same place where these predators already are, such as owls are a typical example that most small or farm birds are pretty scared of. These owl decoys can be used to stop bird damage to your crops.
However, you will have to use multiple of these owls or any other predator decoys throughout the premises of your fields. Since birds are quite intelligent species of nature, you will also have to keep moving the decoys around to let them realize these are not fake.
