If you own a garden, especially with a fruit tree, birds may become a severe problem. In my yard, I have several cherry trees and I have been dealing with this problem on and off. I tried the more popular forms of eliminating birds, such as scarecrows, plastic animals, reflective tape and wind chimes. These corrected the problem, but unfortunately, it was only a temporary fix. You can also use tree surgeon for your trees.

It seems as though birds develop a tendency to become braver as time passes. In the beginning, my scarecrow would scare them out of their wits. Now, the birds even sit on his shoulder as they munch away on my cherries. As a matter of fact, I had designated an entire tree just for the birds. Unfortunately, they seem to never be satisfied with what they are given, as they eat off all of my trees and not just theirs. Don't get me wrong; I don't dislike birds. I actually enjoy their presence in my yard. I simply don't appreciate them eating up all my cherries.

In a few gardening stores, I noticed a thing called bird netting and decided to give it a try. Basically, it is a huge net with half inch holes that is thrown over the entire area of the tree. It was a bit of hassle installing it, but the problem went away after that. But one days as I was tending to my tree, I found two birds who had had died of strangulation in the net's holes! I felt so horrible. Immediately, I removed the net, never to use it again. The birds may be a problem, but I liked them too much to kill them off. Bugs are a different story.

After battling with guilt, I took down the scarecrow and decided to make it up to them by allowing them to feast on any cherry tree they wanted. However, one day when I was in a fabric shop, I saw a material known as tulle which gave me a change of heart. It is a different type of netting and the holes are much too tiny for any bird to squeeze its beak or head into. Not to mention, tulle is much cheaper and even cost less than the fatal bird net.

I thought the bird netting was hard to install, but this tulle was actually much harder. After it was installed, I carefully observed it for some days, making sure that just in case any bird became stuck, I could give it a hand and possibly save its life. But to my delight, it never happened. The tulle has been much more of a success than the official bird netting. Not only is the material cheaper than the bird netting, it is a safer option as well. I highly recommend the tulle if you struggle with birds in your garden. However, it is a nice gesture to let the birds have at least one tree to themselves. That way, you can still enjoy their presence without them eating all your fruit.

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