How do I keep birds from eating my ripe strawberries?!?

Question

There are a several woodpeckers who keep an eye on my strawberry patch. When my strawberries are about 3/4 ripe and need just another day to be fully ripe, I go out the next morning around 6:30 to 7:00 and those woodpeckers are chowing on my strawberries. They only take a few bites out of each one, but they destroy every one.

Answer 1

I would not use netting for fear of them getting caught in it and possibly getting hurt.

Make domes out of chicken wire and stake them.

Once you have enough strawberries – you will be able to feed yourself and the birds also.

You could always eat them one day before the birds do.

Answer 2

netting works very well.

Answer 3

I use bird netting which you can get at any hardware store including the big box stores.

cover the berries with the netting and the birds are instantly excluded from the berry patch and after screaming at you for awhile will go away.

Answer 4

strawberry netting from lowes or walmart.  In lowes the netting is in the garden center near the landscaping fabric.  Get some tens stakes and put in the ground around the perimiter of the garden and streach the netting accross the garden hooking the edges to the tent stakes.  That simple.

Answer 5

Build a low frame to cover your strawberry patch and cover it with chicken wire. Make sure you bring the wire past ground level and weigh it down with some stones or bricks as Blackbirds are very good at getting in and under things. Bird netting may also work but it can sag in the middle and the birds may still get to your strawberries.

Answer 6

Put stakes up around your berry patch and attach the netting about a foot above your berries.  I use bird netting and I have yet to find a bird caught in it.  

You can also tie aluminum pie tins to the stakes and let them flap in the wind. Scares the birds off.  the fake snakes and owls only work if you keep moving them around your garden.

Answer 7

bird netting is about the only thing that works for large areas.  you can prop it up with stakes or cheap PVC pipe.  fake snakes or fake owls are useless.  check netting often 'cause sometimes a bird gets caught in the net and should be released.  

Answer 8

We put ours where the cats are more apt to roam.

Then the birds don't bother them.  

Answer 9

Put a chicken wire dome over you strawberries. Not to close to the actually plants, because they will reach through. Make sure you can get it off easily. Good Luck!

Answer 10

Netting will trap and kill birds. Build a solid cage of quarter-inch mesh well over the top of your planting (giving yourself access in and out!!)

It is extra work but beats the awful feeling of guilt when you go outside and find little birds dead and dying in the nets.

Also, when you are buying your quarter-inch mesh, don't forget to get enough to nail to the underside of your raised beds...then you won't have moles and other varmints plowing right up under and into your beds!!!