If you grow berries, then you likely have experienced the misfortune of heading out to your garden only to find that birds and other pests have stolen your harvest. It truly a battle of gardener vs nature. Luckily there are several simple, inexpensive and humane ways to defend your garden and protect your blueberry bushes from animals.
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Which Animals Eat Blueberries?
Unfortunately, humans aren’t the only ones who love juicy blueberries. According to Garden Guides, there are a host of wild animals that will happily snip blueberries or devour other parts of a blueberry bush, including:
- Deer
- Birds
- Bluebirds
- Cardinals
- Catbrids
- Robins
- Mockingbirds
- Mourning dives
- Wild turkeys
- Rabbits
- Foxes
- Skinks
- Bears
- Squirrels
- Mice
- Opossums
- Chipmunks
Whew – that’s a lot of competition!
20 Ways to Protect Blueberry Bushes from Animals
Fortunately, there are several options for defending your blueberry bushes from neighborhood birds and pests. These 20 methods are divided into these four categories:
- Physical Barrier
- Scare Tactics/Decoys
- Repellant Spray
- Hospitality
All of the below methods will give you some success in protecting your blueberry bush. But as described below, some have been proven to be more effective. And there are pros and cons to each.
Note that many of strategies to protect blueberry bushes from animals work on other berry bushes – strawberry, raspberry, etc.. Heck, most of these also work your entire vegetable garden. I’ve used a couple of these, with varying successes, and intend to try out more.
Also note that some animals are beneficial to your garden. For example, birds eat insects that can actually be more harmful to your garden. So consider a balanced approach in defending your garden and allow some animals in to enjoy the benefits.
One last note (and transparency). For reader’s ease, I’ve added products with Amazon links. I have not personally tried these products, but placed based on favorable reviews. If you try one of these products, I’d love to hear your experience!
Physical Barriers
While all the below methods protect blueberry bushes, physical barriers tend to be the most fool-proof in keeping out animals. However, it can be the most expensive option.
1. Netting
Simply drape netting over your berry bushes and plants to prevent pests from getting at them. Simple yet effective.
We tried this method a few times, but ran into a few issues. For example, the first year we didn’t drape and secure the netting to the ground. And that allowed chipmunks and birds to get right under the bush and access the berries. The second year we used mesh with too-big opening which allowed the birds to reach right in and pick berries.
UGH!
2. Cages
But the following year, we finally figured it out. We took the netting method up a level. After our failures with draping netting, we decided to build a simple DIY cage for our blueberries. We built the cage using PVC pipe, covered it with mesh and secured with garden staples and zip tags. The directions can be found here.
And I’m happy to report that we are going into season 3 with this cage and it’s still going strong!
But if you don’t want to go the frugal DIY cage route, there are some gorgeous options – pop-up tents, row cover frames – at garden centers.
Scare Tactics
Decoys and scare tactics are a fun group of shiny, noisy, moveable objects that startle and frighten off birds and pests. Here the concept is the animals believe there is a potential predator near your blueberry bushes and stay away.
Several of these scare tactics bring a fun design element into your garden. However, birds and pests are smart animals and quickly catch on that these objects won’t actually hurt them. So you must be vigilant about moving them around the garden to keep animals on their toes.
3. Scarecrows
Time to get click your heels 3 times and get your Wizard of Oz on.
If you’re super organized (not me) and think ahead (again, not me), pick up a scarecrow during the fall in your local garden supply store. Or you can easily just make your own scarecrow. What I especially like about the scarecrow idea is that they add a bit of fun and quirkiness to your garden.
Unfortunately, birds and pests will eventually figure out that your scarecrow isn’t a danger and their confidence to pick over your berries will return. To keep the birds guessing, move the scarecrow to a new position in your garden every week. A few tips:
- Ensure it is lightweight to easily move
- Add a tie or accessories that will flutter in the breeze for extra scare
- Change the scarecrow’s outfit or accessories to keep birds on their toes.
4. Plastic Snakes
I’m petrified of snakes – like freeze-in-my-tracks petrified. So this method to protect blueberry bushes from animals is my very least favorite. It’s just not happening in my garden.
But if you are braver then me, placing plastic snakes around your garden can help stop birds and pests from attacking your berry bushes.
Use snakes with brighter colors so they are easy to spot, BUT still look realistic. The best time to place them is right before harvest time so that the birds and pest don’t get too used to them so soon. And like scarecrows, you must continue to relocate them around the garden.
5. Plastic Owls
For a more “furrier” decoy option, consider placing a plastic owl above your berry bushes in an obvious location. I haven’t tried this tactic, but if I did, I’d want one with a moving head and light-up eyes. One that would scare my kids AND the animals!
Unfortunately, like other scare tactic, these owl decoys need to be moved at frequent intervals. So be mindful of moving them on a weekly basis. This job might be a good family chore. Pass this task around your children to increase their responsibility and lighten your workload, plus inspire a future generation of gardeners.
6. Terror Eyes Balloon
Before I wrote this post, admittedly I have never heard of terror eyes balloon. And after seeing one of these online I completely understand how this would work to protect berries from birds and pest. Forget the birds, I’M scared of the terror eyes balloon! ?
This decoy is a large, inflatable vinyl 3-D balloon painted with bright colors and “fierce” features to mimic natural predators like falcons. It’s lightweight so it moves easily in the wind, adding to the scare factor.
Once inflated, install terror eyes balloon overlooking your berry bushes. Birds or other small pests who happen to stop in your garden will get a fright thinking this terror eyes balloon is a predator about to swoop down and gobble them up.
Apparently NASA uses terror eyes balloon to keep birds from the space shuttle launch areas. (older video below). If they work at NASA, these decoys should work in our gardens too, right?
7. Pets
In addition to children helping to protect your berry bushes, it might be time for Rover to also work for his/her rent. If you have a dog or outdoor cat, let them roam outside to announce their presence.
But be prepared for the consequences. Our beloved dog Dulce – all 90 pounds of her – once jumped up and caught a bird mid-air while near our garden. It was a grisly scene I’d rather not describe….
8. Foil Tape
Moving on to a “shiny is scary” idea, attaching strips of foil tape or Mylar flash tape to your blueberry bushes may frighten animals away.
Simply tie strips of Mylar or foil tape to the bushes, let them shine in the sun and flutter in the breeze. Animals don’t like the shine and are nervous around the tape’s movement and clattering sounds.
Like other scare tactics, over time animals will eventually catch on that it won’t hurt them and eventually gain the courage to approach your blueberry bushes. Therefore, you’ll have to either move the tape or try another scare tactic.
9. CDs or Aluminum Pie Plates
A slightly more DIY approach than foil tape is hanging CDs or aluminum pie plates. Tie some string through some old CDs (admit it, you don’t need those Michael Jackson CDs anymore….) or make a hole in the pie plate and hang it on a post near your berry bushes.
Similar to the foil tape, CDs and pie plates move in the wind and reflect light in different directions. These shiny noisemakers will offput birds and pests from feasting on your berry bushes.
10. Garden Spinners
Shiny pinwheels reflect light and create movement and noise, a trifecta of scare tactics that will make birds and pests think twice about approaching your berries. Cost of garden spinners can run the gamut – from frugal dollar store to ones specifically designed for scaring pests.
Place pinwheels around your garden so they will easily capture the wind. If they are placed in garden nooks, they won’t spin and do their job!
Similar to other stationary scare tactics, be sure to move them around the garden so that animals won’t recognize them as fakes. And since spinners are short, you might need additional strategies (like wind chimes) for larger blueberry plants.
11. Wind Chimes
Noise, noise, with a side of noise from wind chimes will deter birds and pests from your berries. Windchimes placed in your garden not only adds a whimsy note, but also provides sounds and movement that deter animals from approaching your berry bushes.
Windchimes can run the gamut on cost, but they don’t have to be expensive to be effective. Recruit your kids with DIY wind chime kits or use things around the house. Personally, I love these DIY ideas from HomeBNC and The Garden Glove.
12. Fancy Dancy Contraptions
If you’re looking to invest money into protecting your blueberry bushes, there are some serious machines that scare away birds and other pests from your blueberry bushes.
For example, “scarecrow” motion-activated sprinklers. These target larger pests such as deer, raccoons and rabbits. Using a motion detector, they startle pests using a sudden burst of water, noise and movement.
If you do buy one, just be sure you remember where you have it. Otherwise you risk walking inside the sprinkler’s range, setting off the motion detector, and get doused with water.
And your neighbors are going to laugh themselves off their patio chairs….. ?
13. Decoy Berries
This is a very creative way to ward off critters from your berry bushes. One gardener decided to paint rocks to look like strawberries and placed in her garden before her real strawberries ripened. When the predators went for a snack, they got a huge surprise! It confused them so that they didn’t return when the real strawberries were ripe for the picking.
I can’t help but wonder is this strategy would work for blueberries as well. Paint brushes anyone??
Repellants
This next group of ways to protect blueberry bushes from animals requires applying a distasteful spray to impede animals from munching on juice berries. The main downside to these repellants is that they are washed away during rainstorms. So you must be vigilant about constant spraying in summer rains.
14. Predator Pee
Maybe this one grosses you out. Maybe it doesn’t. But the scent of urine from dogs, cats, or wolves will keep animals like squirrels, rabbits, and deer away from your blueberry bushes.
Word of warning – apply AROUND the bushes and NOT on the actual fruit.
Note that all repellants need to be re-applied after it rains to keep a strong scent.
15. Homemade Concoctions
Is pee not your thing? (Don’t blame you….) For a slightly more palatable strategy, try creating your own concoction with strong-smelling and/or strong-tasting foods. For example, many small predators dislike the taste of peppermint oil, vinegar, cinnamon, cayenne and garlic.
There are a DIY bunch of recipes out there, such as this combination of chili peppers, water and vinegar.
Pour the concoction in a spray bottle and apply it on blueberry plants when the blueberries started to ripen. Depending on the ingredients you may want to just spray on the parts you won’t eat. And don’t forget to reapply this solution after it rains.
Truth be told, I’ve tried my own DIY concoction against rabbits, but it wasn’t terribly successful. If you try one and it works, I’d love to hear from you!
16. Table Sugar
This one relies a bit on science but stick with me. Apparently birds can easily digest simple sugars found in fruit, but cannot easily digest more complex sugars, like table sugar.
A study from Cornell University found that spraying plants with a table sugar solution significantly reduced birds from damaging blueberry bushes. They dissolved 5 pounds of sugar in 2 quarts of water to create 1 gallon of spray solution. (That sounds like a lot of sugar!)
Note a potential con on this method to protect blueberry bushes from animals (besides reapplication after rainstorm). Spraying this sugar solution in your garden might actually attract insects, bugs and ants. So…. proceed with caution.
17. Grape Kool-Aid
This way to protect blueberry bushes from animals surprised me. A study from the University of Massachusetts found that birds dislike the taste of a compound called methyl anthranilate. And where can you find this compound commercially available?
Grape-flavored Kool-Aid
Yup, you read that correctly. That fruity drink that if you are a kid from the 80s (like me) probably drank more of this than you would like to admit…
To use, mix 4 packets of grape Kool-Aid in one gallon of water and spray your blueberry bush, including berries, right before harvest season. A downside is that you will need to re-apply after rain.
One thing UMass doesn’t mention is whether or not spraying impacts the taste of blueberries. If you try this method, please do me a favor and let me know if your blueberries taste a bit differently. I’m intrigued by the concept Kool-Aid flavored blueberries….
Apparently this is a legit strategy. Wildife experts at O’Hare International Airport reportedly experimented with the grape flavoring as a mitigation measure to scare away pesky birds that otherwise endanger planes taking off and landing.
Hospitality
This last group is probably the most humane way to protect your blueberries. Instead of battling nature, it allows you to coexist peacefully with animals visiting your yard. However, these tactics, if done incorrectly, could actually exacerbate the problem and bring even MORE animals to you garden.
18. Decoy Food
Dial up the hospitality and setup a decoy food base away from your berry bushes. Encourage the birds and small critters to feast elsewhere than your blueberry bush. Hang up bird feeders. Set up a feeding station with sunflower seeds and peanuts.
The concept here? If you give them their own food, maybe they will leave yours alone.
A note of warning though. You might attract even more critters to your yard. Your garden may turn into the neighborhood midnight buffet, with your berries are dessert. So proceed with caution.
19. Overplant
This method to protect blueberry bushes from animals embraces the tagline – “if you can’t beat them, then join them”. In other words, you accept that pests will get at your berries and merely plant more than you need. They get some, you get some, and everyone moves on.
While this is a very humane way to deal with pests in your berries, I struggle a bit with it. I foresee underestimating how much the birds and pests will eat. My garden will host a bunch of overweight animals, and I’ll end up empty handed with nothing to harvest.
20. Birdbath
Research shows that when birds and small pests attack berry bushes, they might not actually be hungry. Instead, they might just be thirsty. And the high-water content in berries quench that thirst.
Placing a birdbath in your yard might shift the animals’ focus away from your berries and to their true desire – water. But as mentioned in the previous two ways, you might end up just attracting more animals to your yard – and right to your berries.
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