Not everyone is a real-life Cinderella who can sway the birds away or call upon them through their melodious voices. This is the season for having the best corn harvest, but if birds are becoming your worst nightmare and are getting in the way of having the optimum corn harvest, then we have some solutions for you.
Crows and pigeons are the main types of birds that can hinder the corn production and harvest process. Apart from them, different types of birds from the Corvidae group tend to eat away the sweet corn plants and their seeds when only 2-3 leaves have grown.
Birds nowadays take good care of their nutrition level, and they know, just like humans do, how beneficial corn can be for their production and growth. Researchers are of the view that out of all the harvested crops, corn is among the most attacked crops of all time.
It is a crop that is attacked in all seasons from the beginning to the very end. Discussed below are different traditional and contemporary methods of swaying the birds away from your corn harvest.
Time the Process
You know, no matter what you do, the crops are going to be attacked. So, when you are about to sow the seeds, you can make sure that you dig and sow them deep in the ground so that the crows find it really difficult to reach the crop and eventually give up on reaching them.
Newly Planted Seeds
In order to protect the newly planted seeds, you can use a chicken wire (it is not what it sounds like). Make a ‘V’ shape out of the chicken wire and make a canopy using this wire so that big birds have no chance of entering that area no matter how hard they try to get inside it.
Going Traditional with a Scarecrow
This method is being used by several farmers in the rural areas as it provides them with some visuals. The crows and other birds are usually scared of scarecrows, and knowing how intelligent these birdies are, they try not to attack when they know someone is present in that area.
Talking about intelligence, one would not want them to be conditioned to their position, so it would be a wise decision to move the scarecrow from time to time so that it makes them think that it is an actual human being.
Putting up a small scarecrow would be of no use. Birds tend to vary in size, and your scarecrow needs to be big enough to scare the big birdies away.
Bird Repellent for Corn
The farmers can also make bird repellent for corn spray to sway the birds away. This solution is usually a mixture of the items listed below:
- Chili Peppers: (Preferably green and red) would affect their taste buds.
- Water: Is needed to mix all the things up and bring it to a boil.
- White Vinegar: This would affect their sense of smell and make them reluctant.
Once you have mixed all of these, bring the mixture to boil and spray it on the areas where the birds tend to attach the most.
Home Made Solutions
1. Use reflective objects
Shiny surfaces tend to repel the birds as they consider it a sign of threat, and it also affects their sense of sight.
2. Third-Party Interference
If we go up the food chain, then there are animals that these birdies are also scared of, such as cats and mice. These can be used as predators by the farmers.
3. Colorful Round Balls
Birds tend to get confused when they see round objects. The colorful element of it would help in making them decorative pieces, and two tasks will be done in one shot.
4. Spreading a Net
This is also an inexpensive way of protecting your crop. All you need to do is to measure the area that desires protection from the birds.
Next, you need to make a visit to the market to buy a net as big or as small as the area that is covered by the corn crop.
You would then want to spread the net over that area, and the birds would not be able to attack the crop.
5. Using Exploders
Birds tend to get scared quite easily by loud noises. You can set up exploders of non-harmful gasses and use the sound to scare away the birds from time to time. You can make this completely manual or automatic.
If you notice a bird near your corn crops, you can fire away from the exploder at that very time to scare away the birds.
Placing speakers in the cornfields would more or less do the same job for you. If you place one speaker for every 3-4 acres, then the sound would be loud enough to keep the birds away from the cornfields.
Put on your favorite metal songs on the speakers after it and dance to the beat inside your house as well.
Another thing that you can do is attach balloons to the cornfields. Every time a bird tries to touch the crop with its beak, the balloon would just pop, making an explosive noise and scaring the bird away, hence allowing you to protect your crop. You can place these balloons at minimal distances.
Some farmers also use aluminum plates as they tend to revolve as the wind blows, and it makes a scary sound that is loud enough to scare the birds away, allowing you to have an inexpensive solution for your problem.
Contemporary Solutions
Discussed previously were all the traditional approaches towards keeping the birds away from the corn crops.
Nowadays, some modern practices being conducted by the farmers are automatic lasers. One of these lasers is the AVIX laser which helps in carefully skimming and scanning the corn field.
When the birds see the laser light, they try to fly away in order to avoid it as they have been conditioned towards it in such a way. This laser is run by them using an app that is very easy to understand as well.
Final Thoughts!
Listed above are different traditional and contemporary solutions that you, as a farmer or as someone who is very fond of gardening, can use in order to keep the birdies away from your newly sowed corn seeds or newly harvested cornfields.
If these methods do not come in handy, then your last resort can be to hire an expert to make a trap for you to capture the birds and sway them away.
