Cherries, along with other stone fruits – peaches, nectarines, and apricots- are some of the hardest-hit when it comes to crop damage caused by birds. Crop losses can reach $5000.00 to $1000.00 per acre. On a 250-acre orchard, growers can lose well over a million dollars annually.
Desperate for solutions, growers will try nearly anything. One of our clients was paying a crew of eight full-time employees to chase birds with bullwhips and other noise-makers, flashy gimmicks and other products that birds rapidly assimilate to. Crows, robins, magpies, sparrows, finches, starlings and jays may all attack stone fruits. Bird control measures need to be tailored to fit the bird species.
As the leader in Agricultural Bird Control Solutions, Flock Free is taking the bird knowledge gained in the structural arena into crops by creating products and partnerships that will be cost-effective and will reduce crop damage to acceptable levels.
The basic premise is called Integrated Bird Control. We understand that birds are smart, adaptable and willing to go through any minor irritation to nest or to get food. That stated, the amount of pressure you need to drive them away must be intense enough that birds cannot adapt to it. This requires negative stimuli be applied to as many of the senses as possible and mixing and matching of bird control products is usually required to “train” birds to stay away.
Hazers were developed by Flock Free Bird Control and emit an invisible, lighter than air haze of methyl anthranilate, a food-grade grape extract that is acidic and irritates the trigeminal nerve in the bird’s beaks. Our new solar-powered hazers are very versatile and are highly effective in many applications where electricity is not available. Hazer installations on Cherries in Brewster, WA have been very successful on crows.
Sonic Net is communication disrupting speaker system that has been university developed, tested and proven are very different from the bird call replicators or propane cannons that have been on the market for years. When birds are unable to communicate distress signals, they are hesitant to be in the area and move elsewhere.
Along with our existing products, we have some amazing new technologies we will be unveiling at the World Ag Expo in Tulare in February 2017. New hazer models, Sonic Nets, Vortex Generators (VRAD) and Drones will all be on display. Flock Free Bird Control does not continue working with or developing products that do not work or products the birds overcome or adapt to. In most cases, a combination of two or three of these new technologies may be required for complete control.
Contact Flock Free Bird Control for the solution to your Agricultural Bird Problem
