How to make birds stop loving grapes? Fighting wasps on grapes - exterminating pests Protecting grapes from birds and wasps

Many gardeners consider protecting grape bushes with a fine mesh net to be the most effective way. However, you should not hang a fishing net, as birds get entangled in it - it is unlikely that you will be pleased to constantly free bird bodies from the net.

Caring for a vineyard cannot be called easy: what does it cost? fighting wasps on grapes! But in addition to these sweet lovers, you have to protect the grapes from birds and many small pests that can destroy healthy plants.

In the photo there are grapes

From the moment the first berries ripen, birds begin to visit the vineyard. Each time they peck at a new grape, taking the juice for their chicks, and after them the wasps appear and eat the pulp. After such visits, the vineyard presents a sad sight: the ripest bunches are pecked out, a lot of fallen berries lie on the ground... Moreover, the birds are not scared off by either sparkling cans and CDs, rattles, or stretched tape tape.

It is better to use a polymer fiber mesh so that birds, when faced with such a barrier, fly away.

Video about fighting wasps in a vineyard

You can also try stretching fishing line or white and black threads in 2-3 tiers between the wires of the trellis, to which. Like a snare, the threads will scare away birds, protecting the crop.

In the first summer months, wasps can be considered beneficial insects, since at this time they successfully exterminate caterpillars, needing protein food. But by the end of summer, wasps become real agricultural pests due to the increasing need for sweet food. Large colonies of these insects can spoil a considerable number of berries, especially in varieties with thin skin, and painful wasp stings significantly complicate manual harvesting.

It is undesirable to treat vines with chemicals, otherwise ripe grapes will be unsuitable for food, so winegrowers usually choose mechanical methods of combating annoying insects. Most Popular wasp control methods: destroying nests and hanging traps.

Photo of wasps

It is easier to find nests in the morning, when wasps fly out in search of food, or in the evening, when they return. It is better to destroy colonies in the nest at night, while most wasps are inside. When it gets dark, wear goggles, gloves, and protective clothing to prevent any areas of your body that are exposed to bites. The flashlight should be covered with something red, since wasps cannot see red light. Spray a suitable insecticide directly into the wasp's nest. You can also use smoke bombs: the smoke causes insects to fall down, and once on the ground you calmly crush them. After destroying the colony, do not forget to remove the empty nest.

You can limit the wasp population by luring them into traps purchased at a specialty store or made by yourself. Making a trap is simple: cut off the top of a plastic 2 or 1.5 liter bottle and insert it back with the neck down, after pouring jam into the bottom of the bottle. Having flown inside at the tempting smell, the wasp will not be able to get back out and will get stuck in the jam.

It is advisable to use sweet jam or syrup for traps at the end of summer; in June-July, wasps will be more attracted to a piece of fresh fish, meat or liver. The bait is placed in a small container fixed to the bottom, filling the bottom with soapy water in which the wasps will drown.

To prevent wasps and bees from spoiling the grapes, the grapes are sometimes covered with covers made of ordinary nylon tights. The leaves around the bunches should be removed, otherwise the berries will rot.

Video about a simple and effective way to combat wasps in a vineyard

Some pests cause damage to the vineyard no less than birds and wasps. Various types of caterpillars, beetles and mites eat away grape buds, damage eyes and berries, cause leaves to die, and gnaw away young shoots. All this greatly affects the harvest. In most cases, for destruction grape pests special drugs are used.

Measures to combat common pests:

• Grape felt mite. It forms reddish swellings on the leaves on the outside and depressions with a felt coating on the inside. It can damage young shoots, clusters and flowers, which is much more dangerous than damage to leaves. In summer, plants are sprayed against mites with sulfur-containing preparations.
• Spider mite. It pierces the leaves, sucking the juice out of them, as a result, growing yellow spots appear on the surface of the leaves, and then the leaves die. The tick covers its habitat with a thin web. They help get rid of spider mites by spraying grape bushes with phosphamide, neoron or DNOC.
• Biennial leaf roller. The 1st generation caterpillars damage the buds, making nests in them, and the 2nd generation of caterpillars eats the berries. When the butterflies begin to fly, it is necessary to treat the vineyard with any insecticides. It is also necessary to remove plant debris in a timely manner and provide the bushes with good ventilation.
• Grape leaf roller. Caterpillars eat opening buds, young shoots, inflorescences, leaves and berries. The control measures are the same as for the biennial leaf roller. To destroy overwintering pupae, the trunk and bark of the branches should be cleaned, immediately burning everything cleaned.

In the photo there is a grape leaf roller

• Bunch leaf roller. The 1st generation of caterpillars gnaws buds and young ovaries, and the 2nd and 3rd generations eat green and ripe grapes, entwining them with cobwebs. Get rid of grape budworms by spraying grape bushes with preparations Iskra-D, Spark Double Effect, Commander, Sherpa, Confidor, Fury.
• Grape mosquito. Its larvae bite into the leaf plate, forming swellings. With significant damage, the leaves are deformed, and the inflorescences and ovaries die. Overwintering pupae can be destroyed by annually digging up the soil in the vineyard.
• Phylloxera. Settling on the roots of a grape bush, a small insect pierces them, causing the roots to rot and the plant to weaken or even die. There is no effective control method yet; only growing phylloxera-resistant European grape varieties and careful inspection of seedlings before purchasing helps.

Despite their small size, wasps and many other winged creatures can cause serious damage to grapes. They all love to enjoy the sweet nectar of young berries. Therefore, insects pierce the thin skin of grapes and drink the juices. This spoils the appearance of the crop and makes the bunches unsuitable for sale. Yes, it will still be suitable for winemaking, but it will not be possible to sell it on the market. How to protect grapes from wasps and flies? First, let's look at the processes that occur due to their fault.

If a colony with a fertilized queen has formed next to the vineyard, you should worry about the future of the grapes even during their ripening.

In spring, the colony of striped pests increases greatly, at the same time various crops bloom in gardens. After just a month of development, at least a dozen worker wasps leave the nest, and by mid-summer their number reaches an annual maximum.

The offspring of wasps in the nest first consume protein food: caterpillars, larvae of other species. As autumn approaches, the insect menu changes dramatically. They begin to reach for sweet foods, and then the grapes are at risk. A grape that has lost its integrity ceases to be an object of interest to the wasp. But then bees and flies get involved.

How to save crops from pests

The difficulty of protecting a vineyard is that it cannot be sprayed with insecticides. The ripening of berries can be disrupted, and the contact of toxic substances with plants can even lead to their death. What can we say about the condition of young fruits? But in a critical situation, it is permissible to use a mixture of 50 grams of chlorophos, diluted with 10 liters of clean water. There are also safer methods.

The queen lives in them, as well as part of the colony of striped pests. The extermination of nests is carried out immediately after their construction, when the population has not yet reached its peak. To destroy the nest, at nightfall you need to treat the den with insecticides.

This process can cause injury; it is important to use special protection and a mosquito net.

For lighting, it is worth using a red lantern: the visual characteristics of wasps do not allow them to perceive scarlet light.

There are four common methods for destroying wasp nests:

• Burning with gasoline. When using the first method, you need to remember the possible dangers. A wasp's nest is created from a paper-like substance. Therefore it burns at the same speed. Setting a nest on fire increases the risk of fire in surrounding buildings and trees;
• Drowning in a bucket of vodka or alcohol, for which you will need a high stepladder (its task is to support the bucket from below);
• Spraying aerosol insect poisons is not a quick way to control insects. It is important to understand that some wasps will have time to leave the nest. So their asylum will have to be processed in the system;
• Calling a team of disinfectants. But this method is not suitable for everyone, since prices for such treatment vary greatly in different seasons.

Bird defense

Other enemies of berries - birds - are often the first to pierce the berries. It is grape juice that attracts birds (usually sparrows) as a good alternative to drink. If you notice that in addition to wasps, they are also visiting the vineyard, there are two things you should do.

Purchase a special mesh with fine links to cover the plants. Try placing containers of water around the garden, then the birds will receive the necessary moisture without damaging the plantings.

"Personal" protection

This method is considered the most expensive for large farms, but also effective at the same time. Each ripe bunch should be covered with mesh bags to protect it from winged insects. These can be purchased at any specialty store. If you have old tulle or mesh fabric, try making it yourself. To completely isolate the berries from insects, you need to make ties with elastic bands.

Remember that the berries may grow too much and become damaged if your bag is not made of sufficiently elastic material.

But don’t be afraid: there is a video on how to properly model a protective bag for fruits.

Smoke can also help keep insects away from the garden for a long time. Both “liquid smoke” and smoke from a simple fire. The disadvantage of this method is that the smoke settles and leaves an unpleasant odor on the leaves, berries and grape bushes.

Vinegar

Vineyard owners sometimes choose wine or table vinegar - a folk remedy to protect berries from winged pests. This is not a long-lasting method, but vinegar can repel insects for a couple of days, or even weeks. It is easily washed off the grapes by rain and water.

It is possible to catch the striped insect, but it is not a very productive way to combat pest infestations. It is recommended to leave a plastic vessel with fermented juice or other sweet liquid in the shade. A wasp or fly attracted by the smell will crawl into the neck. But it is unlikely that the insect will be able to leave the bottle, as it will drown in the solution. But you should not use honey solution. It can be fatal to harmless domestic bees. The disadvantage of using bait is that on sunny days its contents will have to be changed too often.

Chemical baits

Some vineyard owners pour chemical baits into saucers or plates. Beer, sugared kvass or fermented jam are poured into the container. And along with them, boric acid or chlorophos is added in a ratio of 10:1. Such substances are odorless and therefore will not arouse suspicion among insects. This is not the wisest method: living beings innocent of the destruction of the crop may suffer.

Insect traps

Retail chains distribute them. But in order to save money, people have found a number of ways to assemble a pest trap themselves. You can create a trap from the same plastic container.

• In a two-liter bottle, cut out the neck and cone-shaped part, set this part aside temporarily;
• Make holes in the workpiece 5 centimeters above the bottom for air circulation;
• Make two more holes to hang the trap;
• Set up a place for bait: a glass or glass no more than 25 grams in volume. Secure the small vessel tightly to the bottom;
• Place bait in the vessel: a piece of fish or meat. It is important that the product is fresh, because the smell of rot does not attract wasps and some other enemies of grapes;
• Pour soapy water into the space between the glass and the bottle;
• Insert the upside-down cut-out part with the neck into the bottle and securely fix the trap in the planned location.

It is important that the trap is not affected by wind currents. Attracted by the smell of food, the insect will crawl into the neck of the bottle. When you try to pick up the “prey”, it will not take off due to the weight of the bait, and will involuntarily end up in soapy water. Experienced winegrowers recommend installing one trap for each bush. And the more, the better.

The technologies for making feeders and traps are similar. The difference is that in this case, soapy water and an inverted neck are not needed. The bait for the feeder is cut into small pieces and treated with chemicals and caterpillar pesticides. This is necessary to ensure that insects are attracted.

A mixture of contact-intestinal damage leads to inevitable death of the insect.

The advantage of a wasp feeder is that it does not require regular cleaning of insect corpses. You just need to periodically add fruits or meat soaked in the necessary substances to it.

Getting rid of an infestation of flying pests is not that difficult. You just have to understand the issue in more detail and find the best solution for your farm. By following these tips, you can easily grow healthy grapes both for yourself and for sale.

Video instructions for protecting grapes from wasps

Quite a serious problem in vineyards. If no measures are taken, berry losses will be enormous. Birds start pecking at a new berry every day. And even if not all the berries in the bunch are damaged, they begin to rot and the bunch is completely destroyed.
Birds destroy only the berries of table grape varieties. If the berries of technical varieties are quite large and tasty, and there are quite a lot of such “techies” in personal plots, sparrows will enjoy eating them too.
In my vineyard, sparrows love to eat berries. Moreover, not necessarily mature. There were cases when they started to peck completely green berries. I tried various ways to distract the birds from the berries. I removed all the places on the site where sparrows could make their nests, and placed water in a basin on the site so that they would have something to drink. Nothing helps, probably some kind of gourmets...
This year I have decided a little bit about what determines the timing of the start of the sparrow feast. We didn’t touch the berries until we finished eating the apricots. Well, by that time the grapes were almost ripe.
I looked through a lot of information on ways to protect a vineyard from birds. I have identified two accessible methods for myself.
Mesh bags
Each bunch is covered with a nylon mesh bag. Such bags can now be easily purchased ready-made, at fairly affordable prices.
Advantages:
- if you choose bags made of mesh with a very small cell, then protection against wasps will be provided,
- in this way you can protect the berries even in the case when the bunches are placed on a plane not in a row, chaotically, for example, on the horizontal plane of a gazebo or pergola.
Flaws:
- labor costs are quite decent,
— a dense mesh quite significantly impairs the quality of treatments against diseases and the ventilation of berries,
- if you use a net with fairly large cells, birds can damage a fairly decent amount of berries even under the net. On vertical planes, sparrows sit on the wire or branches next to the bunch, and through the mesh they easily peck all the berries that are pressed against the mesh.
I don't use bags in my vineyard, so I can't show you a photo.
Protecting berries with a net
The most popular way to protect berries from birds. It is even used in industrial vineyards.
For this work, a special plastic mesh is used. Such nets can now be purchased without problems, and the cost is quite affordable.
You need to choose a mesh with a small cell, approximately 20mm by 20mm. The mesh must be protected from destruction by sunlight, then it can be used for several years in a row.
Usually the width of the mesh is made such that it can cover approximately the lower half of the plane. You should not make the grid strip too narrow. It will have to be pulled tightly:
- the leaves will be severely deformed, impairing ventilation,
— the mesh will press very tightly against the berries, while leaving unprotected parts of branches and leaves next to the bunch. Sparrows calmly sit here and calmly take out berries through the net with their beaks.
To ensure good ventilation of the berries and their availability for spraying, before attaching the net, all leaves near the bunches must be removed. The berries are left without protection from the scorching rays of the sun; they have to be additionally shaded with a protective net. The shade net must be removed before spraying.
Before starting work, I cut the wide mesh fabric into strips of the required width. I choose the width in such a way that it is possible to cover the strip from the bottom of the grapes to the trellis wire located above the grapes with a mesh. It’s better not to be greedy here and attach the net higher. Sparrows do not know how to stay on the surface with their paws up (like titmice), they cannot hook onto a bunch from below, and here the net can be attached close to the bunches. If only there were no twigs or wires near the bunch for them to sit on. But it’s better to attach the net on top of the bunches higher, away from the bunches. To cover both the twigs and the wire next to the bunches with a net. Then the birds will not have the opportunity to sit next to the bunch, and they will not be able to get the berries.
Well, the width of the canvas should be sufficient for free fastening at the top and bottom, so that there is no need to pull the mesh too tightly.
I always place the mesh strips on both sides of the plane. On the gazebo, I also cover the rows of bunches with separate strips of mesh on both sides, fastening them below and above the bunches. This is important for ease of harvesting.
On the gazebo, it is possible to wrap the bunches hanging down in one row with one mesh sheet, and attach it only above the bunch. But you shouldn't do that. The berries on the bushes do not ripen at the same time; the crop has to be harvested selectively. We cut off some bunches, others are left hanging. And here it is much more convenient to remove the bunch from the embrace of the protective mesh if the bunch can be pulled down, where there are no branches and nothing interferes with the work. We remove the fastener connecting the mesh strips at the bottom and calmly take out the bunch. If you wrap a row of bunches from below with one sheet, then you can only get the bunches from the top, which is very inconvenient.
To attach the mesh to the trellis plane I use a stationery stapler, metal hooks and clothespins. Below the bunch, you can easily connect the mesh strips using a stapler. Above the bunches, strips of mesh are hung on wires using metal hooks. And if you need to attach the mesh directly to the shoots and vines, it is best to use clothespins.
It’s clear how to work with hooks and clothespins, but there are subtleties when working with a stapler. It is necessary to connect the mesh strips in such a way that you can later remove the fastening without damaging the mesh. This is quite realistic and not difficult. To do this, I cut strips from newspaper. Next, I tear the newspaper strips into pieces of such a size that I can wrap the paper around the mesh at the attachment points on both sides. The edges of the mesh strips that need to be connected end up in the middle, between two layers of paper. And then I punch the paper with the staples of the stapler, securely fastening the mesh. You don’t need to aim for long to get the stapler staple on the thin threads of the mesh. And later, when you need to separate the mesh, this is easily done using the tip of a knife or a device at the end of the stapler. The staples are clearly visible on the paper, and prying and straightening them is not difficult.
The mesh must be secured in such a way that there are no large gaps between the mesh strips, both below and above. Sparrows are quite smart birds and easily find the entrance to tasty berries. There was a case when I saw a sparrow inside the net. He kicked him out, jumped out very quickly, but then I myself spent a long time looking for a place where he could get inside...
In the fall, after harvesting, the strips of mesh are rolled into small coils, placed in large plastic bags to protect the mesh from drying out, and rested until the next harvest. Next to the net, there are wire hooks in bags waiting for the next harvest, which can also be easily removed from the trellis wire...
Video on this topic -

Growing grapes- the matter is quite labor-intensive. You must be able to choose and plant a bush correctly, grow a seedling, feeding and watering it on time, and as a result, wait three to five years for fruiting. The long-awaited berries will need to be protected from various pests and diseases. But often gardeners have to deal with another problem - birds.

Birds do not ignore ripe berries; they can swoop down in a whole flock and peck off a large number of grapes. Sometimes birds destroy up to 80% of the entire crop. Most often, birds arrive to feast on grape berries in the early morning, and then bees, wasps, ants and other insects gather on the pecked fruits. How can you preserve your grapes without harming the birds? There are several solutions to the problem that will help you cope with it.

Birds pecking grapes

Not all birds love, but only certain species. It is worth keeping in mind that different types of birds eat a certain variety of grapes. For example, jackdaws peck white muscat grapes the most. They can fly in one bird at a time, or they can attack the fruits in a whole flock.

Sparrows eat almost all grapes, even those that are just beginning to ripen. In addition to sparrows, tits actively peck grapes.

Orioles and starlings like dark grapes. Therefore, those who have a garden are not recommended to install birdhouses.

Bird protection methods

Types of protection against birds can be reduced to two methods: brush insulation and repelling.

(advertising) Bird scaring

To scare away birds, you can use sound, visual and combined methods. To scare away, you can use thick plastic bags cut into ribbons. It is best to take blue bags.

You can also use CD discs for scaring, which will scare birds with their mirror surface. In addition, you can take various objects to scare them away: balls, toys, or make a scarecrow in the garden. However, the birds quickly realize that there is no threat from such objects, and they begin to peck the berries again. Therefore, a combination of visual and sound repellers would be more optimal. You can add, for example, ratchets to the discs. In windy weather, you can scare away small birds using a kite.

Isolation of grapes from birds

This is a fairly effective method, but it is not always convenient. Insulation involves the use of a protective bag for each bunch of grapes in which it will be packaged. You can use different materials for bags. You can purchase ready-made plastic bags for these purposes in stores. Or you can make them yourself by taking, for example, a vegetable net and folding it in two layers. It is not recommended to make protective bags from gauze, because such fabric will take a long time to dry after rain.

It is convenient to use this protection option when the vineyard is small. On a large area, carrying out such protection will be very labor-intensive and costly.

For a large vineyard, a polypropylene fiber mesh is better suited. With such a net it will be possible to cover the entire trellis at once. In addition, this grid can be used next year. Some gardeners use a fishing net to cover their vineyards, which is cheaper. However, you must understand that such a net is very soft, so birds will often get entangled in it and die.

You can use a cheaper method - stretch black and white thick threads or fishing line along the trellises. Birds will perceive such an obstacle as a snare and will not fly up to the brushes

An August day... The kind you get at the end of summer. The heat melts the air and the sap of the trees, the sky is clear, but already slightly gray and faded. Harvest time, joy and reward for work. You worked, the sun warmed, the water nourished, the earth fed. And here it is, the reward - luxurious bunches of grapes are filled with juice and sweetness. Clusters of black, pink, and white grapes please the eye and improve your mood. And you are waiting for this last moment, the moment when you pick a ripe sweet brush and taste the juicy fruit. You approach the vineyard to admire the long-awaited harvest. And you see that the largest berries, the sweetest clusters, are spoiled. Some are simply pecked, while others are gnawed and hang like skeletons.

You can imagine the state of a person who raised, watered, cared for his grapes, and someone simply destroyed them. You can give up in despair and give in to despondency, you can get angry, stamp your feet and get nowhere.

Or you can try to eliminate the obstacle that has arisen and save the harvest. Start acting like in the fairy tale “The Little Humpbacked Horse” - go to the vineyard and guard it in anticipation of robbers.

The darkness of the night gradually dissipates, the pre-dawn breeze rises, and a cloud appears on the horizon. She flies in search of free breakfast. Having become hungry during the night, it looks out for delicacies and descends into your vineyard in a friendly, noisy flock. Then you jump out and start clapping your hands, scaring away the birds. The birds take off in a wild flock and rush to look for another place of bread. You will have to guard the vineyard all morning, clapping your hands, until the feathered robbers have their fill in other areas. If you observe further, you will notice that after the morning breakfast, our thieves are relaxing, enjoying the loot. But somewhere closer to sunset, when the heat subsides, everything will happen again. Hungry clouds of birds fly over their territories in search of prey. One winegrower I know sets off firecrackers during these dangerous times of day, scaring away thieves. In his case it helps. His vineyard is located quite far from other farms, and the birds, frightened, fly far away in search of prey and do not return until the next attack of hunger.

This method was not suitable for our vineyard. The neighbors' gardens are nearby, and birds fly nearby. And their intelligence is well developed. One or two birds appeared, looked for a treat, and the whole flock was right there.

The approach to protecting your vineyard from birds is individual in each region and even farm. And it depends on what birds are dominant in the region, how the vineyard is located (as in the case of someone I know), and what you have available for protection.

The harvest is especially affected by birds when the chicks hatch. The first brood is in June and the second in August, the second just coincides with the ripening of the grapes.

Usually small birds such as tits, sparrows, warblers, and wagtails peck at a grape only once to get drunk, then throw it away, and then the wasps take over. If you provide birds with fresh water every day, then in some cases this is enough to stop crop damage.

Big birds are not so harmless. Starlings, rooks, jays, magpies - just expect serious mischief from them. If small birds only peck, then large ones simply eat them to the ground.

Some summer residents install rattles, others hang shiny ribbons or brown tapes from tape cassettes, and for some reason plastic bags are always blue. In our case, these methods helped, but not for long.

At first, we also hung up various ribbons that fluttered from the slightest breath of wind, and put up scarecrows - it didn’t help, the birds adapted after a few days.

We tried installing ratchets, they helped, but only for one season. After a new generation of chicks grew up under the rattle, it stopped working.

It is known that at airfields they scare away birds by recording the calls of birds of prey. I wanted to test this method, but didn’t know who could scare this bird. Once we managed to record the calls of birds on a voice recorder when the snake reached the nest and ate the chicks. We tried this recording. As soon as the recording was turned on, the birds reacted and immediately flew away.

It didn't take long to rejoice. The next year, on the contrary, a lot of curious birds flocked to these cries. They flew up to the source of the screams, sat down in a row not far away and looked at the place where the sound came from. Then they ate everything they could eat in the immediate vicinity of the source of the sounds, and were done. They adapted.

They say that when Uzbekistan decided to shoot them, they responded by laying more eggs and increasing the number of broods from two to three.

The birds continued to harass us.

There was nothing left to do but start covering the grapes.

On occasion, we bought some scraps from a hosiery factory, several kilograms of white synthetic elastic stockings, and began to put them on each tassel while it was ripening. The harvest was saved, but it took a lot of time to cover it in this way...

In the end we thought about covering material.

We bought a tulle-type mesh with a fine mesh at the Fabric store. It turned out great, it was fun to watch how the quarrelsome little sparrow sometimes got inside the shelter, and then called for help, not finding a way out. Such a net is good, but expensive, you can’t buy enough for the whole vineyard.

Recently we found a Chinese mesh with a fine mesh at an affordable price in the “Everything for a Fisherman” store!

It turned out well. And the brushes have plenty of sun, and protection is available.

Such a net can even be disposable, it is called “Chinese fishing nets” (90 meters) - 350 rubles. The price is amazing!

But the experience with stockings remained in the “operative”. We continue to put stockings on grape clusters when there are few of them on the bush and there is no point in entangling it with a net.

If someone is lucky enough to have an army camouflage net left at home from Soviet times, then it will do, the harvest under it is like behind a stone wall, and for many years, although it allows less sun to pass through than a thin nylon net.

In the West, special bird nets have long been used to cover trees and shrubs. Yes, and in our big cities there are supermarkets with a varied assortment of protective nets. If you have the opportunity to get into such a store, then you can pick up what you need and what is convenient.

Tatiana KARNAUKH

Oksana VINOGRADOVA