Pests in agriculture

[Guest guest]

Our big problem here is a type of bird called a pukekohe. About the size of a

large duck with a beak like a pair of pruning shears. They not only risk the

spread of avian TB to our cows but will dessimate a seedling crop of whatever

you plant overnight. It is soooo disheartening to have planted out an acre of

various seedlings, only to find the next morning 70 % of them simply pulled out

of the ground. They dont even eat them, just basic vandals !! they are

profusious breeders hatching 4 - 5 eggs about 3 times a year. They also wreck

young trees that we plant having very strong beaks. So when I'm out fencing

etc, I regularily come across nests and admit the thought entering my mind to

stand on the nest. they arent scared of cats either. - hmmm maybe I need a

Tiger !!

Your thoughts

Ananta Krsna Dasi

 

ann (AT) aucklandinsulation (DOT) co.nz

[Guest guest]

>I regularily come across nests and admit the thought entering my mind to

> stand on the nest. they arent scared of cats either. - hmmm maybe I need a

> Tiger !!

> Your thoughts

> Ananta Krsna Dasi

 

Personally, I wouldn't think twice about destroying the nests.

 

An old rural trick is to kill one, then hang it in the field you want them

out of. Pretty effective.

 

Have you looked into the Japanese "scary eye" balloons? They are balloons

you hang around the perimeter of the field. The "eye" on the balloon evokes

an avoidance response from birds who are prey to raptors. They are hung on

string so they move some in the breeze.

 

Back when I was trying to maintain 200 blueberry plants for NV, birds were a

major headache. Netting would work, but was a big job setting up and taking

down for that many highbush blueberry plants, and made picking more

difficult. Plus one time a snake got tangled in the netting. That was a

whole drama getting it freed. It was nonpoisonous but a 6 foot long black

snake, and I have a normal fear of snakes. :-)

 

Anyway, so I tried the scary eye balloons. They did stop the mass attacks by

the flocking black birds (cowbirds, starlings, red winged blackbirds, others

of that sort) that could land en masse and wipe out a bush in minutes.

 

However, other fruit eating birds like robins and thrushes weren't detered.

They would enter the area on nearly ground level flight patterns, using the

bushes themselves as cover from the balloons. Or maybe they realized it was

a sham. They would come singlely, but over the course of time would consume

a great amount, as a lot of them came.

 

Of course, what finally caused me to abandon the project wasn't the birds,

tho they pushed me to the tipping point. It was the devotees, who would

never lift a finger to help, but as soon as the berries were ripe would

swoop down and take whatever they wanted.. No respect given to orderly and

systematic picking. No notification of when they intended to pick. They

would pull up the netting. pick berries, and then not bother replacing it

correctly. They would damage twigs by rough picking techniques. Of course,

zero gratitiude. Naturally, management couldn't be bothered with such a

trifling afair. So I stopped taking care of them and the rose bushes took

over.

 

An old Native American method of protecting fields from larger pests, was to

build a platform in the field and have someone sit on it. It was sometimes

tied to courtship, as the young girls would sit there and the suitors would

come by and chat. Maybe you could find someone so absorbed in the

scriotures that they would sit there and read and chant. When the crow or

animal would come, clapping and dancing in ecstasy would frighten themaway,

or a loud "Hari Bol" might work.

 

A modern twist on this would be use of a carbide cannon. At sort of regular

intervals it goes off in a loud "Bang" scaring away birds, but the problem

is that soon the birds would realize it was no real danger.

 

I remember living upstairs in the old barn. Deer would come out and eat in

the corn field on the other side of the hollow. I would go up on the barn

roof and shoot my .308 into the far slope. At first, they would run away and

not come back until the next day. After a few weeks, they got used to it

and eventually wouldn't even flinch. If I would shoot really close to their

grazing head, and kick up dirt right in front of them, that would scare

them. But next day they would be back. Ammo cost started to be an issue,

and devotees were complaing the random timing of the discharge noise and the

crack of the sound barrier being broken over their heads by the projectile

was disturbing them. Plus, at the distance, I wasn't that confident of my

ability to judge windage, elevation , and hold steady, so as close as I had

to get, inevitablely I would have killed one of the deer by mistake, and

didn't want to do that, so I stopped. We eventually abandoned that field as

deer pressure grew. It has grown steadily worse over the last 30 years.

[Guest guest]

We've got squash and watermelons that are getting eaten by something, I

think perhaps voles. I wouldn't mind so much if they'd eat a whole

squash, but they usually eat about the size of a ping-pong ball and then

do the same with another one. I don't know why they're not satisfied to

eat the compost and instead go for tiny watermelons that aren't even

close to ripe yet.

 

Hare Krishna.

[Guest guest]

These birds are so brazen they only sqwark when a .22 goes off in their ear

and even if you throw a fire cracker at them they just jump 5 cm and then

try to eat it !! They attack any other bird and if one of their own is

left dead in the paddock they have a go at that too !! We also cover small

vege gardens but pretty impracticle when cropping 5 acres. Its almost us or

them !!

cheers

Ananta

 

> >I regularily come across nests and admit the thought entering my mind to

> > stand on the nest. they arent scared of cats either. - hmmm maybe I need

a

> > Tiger !!

> > Your thoughts

> > Ananta Krsna Dasi

>

> Personally, I wouldn't think twice about destroying the nests.

>

> An old rural trick is to kill one, then hang it in the field you want them

> out of. Pretty effective.

>

> Have you looked into the Japanese "scary eye" balloons? They are balloons

> you hang around the perimeter of the field. The "eye" on the balloon

evokes

> an avoidance response from birds who are prey to raptors. They are hung on

> string so they move some in the breeze.

>

> Back when I was trying to maintain 200 blueberry plants for NV, birds were

a

> major headache. Netting would work, but was a big job setting up and

taking

> down for that many highbush blueberry plants, and made picking more

> difficult. Plus one time a snake got tangled in the netting. That was a

> whole drama getting it freed. It was nonpoisonous but a 6 foot long black

> snake, and I have a normal fear of snakes. :-)

>

> Anyway, so I tried the scary eye balloons. They did stop the mass attacks

by

> the flocking black birds (cowbirds, starlings, red winged blackbirds,

others

> of that sort) that could land en masse and wipe out a bush in minutes.

>

> However, other fruit eating birds like robins and thrushes weren't

detered.

> They would enter the area on nearly ground level flight patterns, using

the

> bushes themselves as cover from the balloons. Or maybe they realized it

was

> a sham. They would come singlely, but over the course of time would

consume

> a great amount, as a lot of them came.

>

> Of course, what finally caused me to abandon the project wasn't the birds,

> tho they pushed me to the tipping point. It was the devotees, who would

> never lift a finger to help, but as soon as the berries were ripe would

> swoop down and take whatever they wanted.. No respect given to orderly

and

> systematic picking. No notification of when they intended to pick. They

> would pull up the netting. pick berries, and then not bother replacing it

> correctly. They would damage twigs by rough picking techniques. Of course,

> zero gratitiude. Naturally, management couldn't be bothered with such a

> trifling afair. So I stopped taking care of them and the rose bushes took

> over.

>

> An old Native American method of protecting fields from larger pests, was

to

> build a platform in the field and have someone sit on it. It was

sometimes

> tied to courtship, as the young girls would sit there and the suitors

would

> come by and chat. Maybe you could find someone so absorbed in the

> scriotures that they would sit there and read and chant. When the crow or

> animal would come, clapping and dancing in ecstasy would frighten

themaway,

> or a loud "Hari Bol" might work.

>

> A modern twist on this would be use of a carbide cannon. At sort of

regular

> intervals it goes off in a loud "Bang" scaring away birds, but the problem

> is that soon the birds would realize it was no real danger.

>

> I remember living upstairs in the old barn. Deer would come out and eat in

> the corn field on the other side of the hollow. I would go up on the barn

> roof and shoot my .308 into the far slope. At first, they would run away

and

> not come back until the next day. After a few weeks, they got used to it

> and eventually wouldn't even flinch. If I would shoot really close to

their

> grazing head, and kick up dirt right in front of them, that would scare

> them. But next day they would be back. Ammo cost started to be an issue,

> and devotees were complaing the random timing of the discharge noise and

the

> crack of the sound barrier being broken over their heads by the projectile

> was disturbing them. Plus, at the distance, I wasn't that confident of my

> ability to judge windage, elevation , and hold steady, so as close as I

had

> to get, inevitablely I would have killed one of the deer by mistake, and

> didn't want to do that, so I stopped. We eventually abandoned that field

as

> deer pressure grew. It has grown steadily worse over the last 30 years.

>

>

>

>

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