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Fruit & Orchards

footies vs birds, winner gets my apples

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX

14 years ago

Put the nylon footies on nine dwarf trees of Fuji. This was in June. We haven't had any insect damage on apples the last two years. But birds, mainly house finch, take 90% without protection. This year there was nearly zero bird damage. Much better even than I'd hoped for.

I know some people tie them on. I continue to find it very easy to attach them with a small hand held stapler. Easy, no loss of apples, and the apples stays securely and completely covered until harvest.

The Fruitnut

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Comments (6)

myk1
14 years ago
House finches are messing with apples?

I've got finch feeders and the yellows are everywhere even where the feeders aren't. The red ones with the huge beak (which I assume is the House, but may be Purple) are rare to see at the feeders but that's because they're easily spooked.
The only bird damage I get on apples are from their sharp feet trying to land on them (English Sparrows). Occasionally I'll find one that was knocked down with a beak mark on it.

My finches seem more worried about eating rather then pecking apples.
scaper_austin
14 years ago
amazing,
I wish these were the conditions in my area of Texas. In my hood the birds eat everything and I do mean everything. Apples, pears, peaches, tomatoes, limes and even very imature oranges. The birds in my back yard will eat the fruit entirley to the core. It looks like Alphred Hitchcock back there! Bags and footies have provided no protection at all against the grackels and mocking birds. They simply peck right through them. This year I came up with an innovation though that so far has worked wonders on the birds. I simply covered a ziplock bag on both sides with aluminum screen door material and then attached the bags with a hand held stapler. It worked great this year as I watched birds land on the fruit, try to peck it, apparently not be able to and move on. Hopefully these bags wil continue to work as they allowed me to harvest a variety of fruit so far this year that would have been totaly destroyed if not for these bags. I still have citrus and some apples in these bags yet to be harvested so I hope these bags will last.

Thanks,
Scaper
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theaceofspades
14 years ago
scaper, that's pretty funny that you have to put zip lock and aluminum screen to armor your fruits. Alfred Hitchcock land...LOL
fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
Original Author
14 years ago
scraper:

Wow, those are Texas size birds!! Not sure I'd venture out there without a 12 gauge. It is good to know what works where. But if my birds were as bad as yours, I'd either find another hobby or build a very big shelter. Working with that Al screen gets old in a hurry.

The Fruitnut
scaper_austin
14 years ago
Its crazy back there I'm tellin ya. Earlier this year when I transplanted my veggies into the garden, I placed the plastic tags with the variety names on them into the soil next to each transplant. Later that afternoon I watched a grackle rip up and eat the plastic tags! I'm not kidding. Want to get more birds in your yard? Just add plastic plant markers to your bird feeders.

You know as crazy as it sounds making the screen bags hasnt been too bad. I'm able to construct and install several in a day. Talk to me about it in a few years and this may be a much diffrent story.

See ya,
Scaper
steveazroses
5 years ago
It is now 9 years later. Are you still using aluminum screening? Do you think it would work against rats?

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