Hello, After my several posts about bug netting I have some preliminary results. Last winter I bought 600’ of 2X3 mm bug netting 15’ wide, we sewed it together using sail boat thread to make 30’ X 20’ nets with one end sewn down to provide stability then placing it. We grow Purple Heart plums and several other varieties which the Japanese beetles love and we have had near 80% holing in the fruit tops on some trees. We placed the nets after the fruit started to ripen (to late for some) sweeping the beetles off the trees with a broom before placing. The results are very good, the beetle holes on the unripe fruit healed making the plums good for jam, no increase in brown rot was seen (trees sprayed with indar 1 week before netting, 3 weeks ago). We have not seen any brown rot in the trees and the damage has essentially stopped. Our pickers like working under the nets since they do not get beetles dropping down the front of their blouses (funny to watch), or on their heads.
If the time the netting is in place is immediately before and during ripening do not see any issues so far.
I used green twist ties to hold mine together! Works well! This netting was over my Montmorency cherry and not one bird got in. It is now on my italian plum. More netting was added to close the large gap.
Hello, we got 300’ lengths from Oesco. We use “skirts” of 15’ material to cover what the top net does not cover on large trees. We use clothespins to tie it together. Heavy duty ones are the best. Birds get in sometimes, but if you pin up one side and scare them towards it they fly out, and don’t come back.
Hi, we went out and picked today under the netting, and I would have to say it is the cleanest harvest ever. Little or no beetle damage (there were a few left under the net), not wasp or bee damage (the bees are really aggressive this year, must not be enough wild flowers around, creaming the early euros, sounds like a swarm when you are picking in the trees, which just have bird netting on them). If we move these around they might pay for themselves in just 1 year.
No mosquitoes while picking? That might be the best reason in the world for me to use bug netting! Every single one of us here gives up on picking once we can no longer stand the itchy biting. We seldom finish what we went for in a single trip.
MM, its a tightly woven white mesh netting that I would love to find again! Nope, not a bug, not a mosquito and perfect cherries with only one spray. New England is infamous for its mosquitoes (RI is not as bad as Maine!) but it really works. Bird netting does not work and easily gets stuck on limbs.
It looks lighter weight than what I used over the veggie gardens in the spring and then moved to cover the strawberries for awhile, and eventually the blueberries. That worked very well for me as protection, not only against bugs, but birds, rabbits and hail. I think lighter weight like that appears to be would be better for using on trees, especially ones already laden with fruit.
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