Bird Net for Squirrels?

General Fruit Growing
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Anybody use bird net to keep squirrels out of fruit trees? How did it work?

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I did. I made a tent over my blueberries and secured the bottom of net on the ground…A few birds got trapped on it. Some animals (squirrels, groundhog or opossum) bit a chunk of the net and made quite a large hole.

This is good quality American netting so I could get those birds out without much damage (to the birds and the net). Still miffed with the hole in the net by an unidentified rodent.

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I also tent my blueberries, its the only way I get any. But I never tried it on a fruit tree since I have too many. Katia traps have been my squirrel control method.

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I have a pic that I netted cherry trees. My trees are about 8 ft tall. I just threw a net over it and secured the bottom as needed.
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image.jpg2592×1936 1.04 MB

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I net most of the 35 trees in my orchard. The squirrels do not seem to like the netting when the wind blows it. Any moving thing seems to give them a scare. I have had huge success with the American Netting Co. also.

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I have had netting succeed and I’ve had it fail where squirrels would have taken the fruit without it. I get more reliable protection with long straight trunks stapled with cylinders of roofing coil.

I use that netting pictured only for birds. They usually don’t get tangled in the green woven type.

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Reviving this old thread … I have been in the netting business for some time, first for blueberries as you can see I was doing back in 2015, and more recently for deer. I had a problem with deer poking at my deer fencing around trees and getting at the shoots, but the bird netting (the cheapest plastic grid stuff, no weave) is small enough to deter them. I think @Robert got me on to this idea.

Anyway in working with this cheap bird netting the stuff gets stuck on everything. I used to use it on my blueberries but I was killing dozens of birds, they get stuck in it. But, this got me to thinking it could perhaps be a useful trunk wrap to deter squirrels from getting up a tree?? Their claws are sure to get stuck in it. They should be able to rip the netting to break free, but the aim is that the experience will teach them to look elsewhere for food. I did notice that a couple trees I had wrapped with it for deer protection did better against squirrels last year. I am thinking of picking a few of the early ripening trees and wrapping them with this stuff. It is similar to the baffle idea, but much easier to install… just wrap a 3’ or so strip around the trunk a couple times and tie in place. I will have to do a whole stand of trees as they are close enough that otherwise the squirrels can hop from tree to tree.

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Let me know how that works. I’m currently using cheap metal flashing (simple wrap) for the squirrels , but I still have like a hundred foot of that cheap bird netting I could use on newer trees.

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I put tangle foot around my cherries. I think the squirrels can jump to some lower branches. Maybe deters coons? I don’t know. I’d like to do some sort of laser show to deter birds. Maybe one of those XMAS decorations that people beam onto the side of their house…? Ideas, ideas…

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