How to Buy Bird Netting

Bird netting is designed to efficiently and economically keep birds from accessing certain objects, structures and openings. Bird netting can also prevent birds from nesting and roosting where you don't want them to, and keep them from eating your fruits, berries and garden vegetables without injuring them. Bird netting is durable--some lasts for decades--so it can be well worth the investment. Some types of netting are also effective groundhog and deer deterrents.

Instructions

1. Take your time when shopping for bird netting, because there are many options available to you. This material is available from numerous types of sources, so you should be able to easily find exactly what suits your specific needs. Check with specialty retailers, like garden supply centers. Netting is also carried by department, hardware, and home improvement stores, and it's also readily available by mail order and online.

2. Decide how much bird netting you're going to need by measuring or estimating the square footage of the areas you wish to exclude birds from. Remember that large pieces of netting can be easily cut down with good sharp scissors. If you have multiple small objects such as individual plants to protect, take a bedsheet out into the yard and toss it over them one by one. Write down the separate dimensions required. That will help you to visualize how much netting you'll need to purchase. Typically suppliers carry only one or two specific brands of bird netting, but they will have a variety of sizes available. You can buy rolls as small as 7x20 feet, or as mammoth as 17x5000 feet. The netting is usually manufactured from UV resistant polypropylene, and color is usually green, gray or black.

3. Determine the mesh gauge that is right for your particular applications. Bird netting is available with different size mesh openings, usually ½ or ¾ inches. Choose a size based on the sizes of the birds you are trying to deter. If in doubt, opt for the ½ inch mesh, which is appropriate for keeping most birds out of small areas without anything becoming hopelessly entangled in it. Go with the ¾ inch for very large planting areas.

4. Shop for smaller rolls of bird netting for covering or wrapping single plant specimens. It can be cut for draping over multiple small plants, window boxes, small gardens, or container gardens that are being plagued by bird pests. Small bird nets can even be stretched over a simple frame to enclose areas and objects. Pieces of netting can be used by the creative homeowner to exclude pigeons from decks, windowsills, eaves, gutters, chimneys, and favored roosting and nesting sites.

5. Look for commercial suppliers for bird netting to protect very large planting areas. Most crops won't require special netting hardware to be installed any more than your strawberry plant does. There are huge rolls of netting available that merely need to be draped over large rows and quadrants of plants.

6. Choose bird netting for protecting your ornamental fish pool or pond from predatory birds, which is done a little differently than the method for protecting plants and other areas. Buy a piece large enough to cover the water, with extra to accommodate a means of securing it into place. This can be done easily with garden spikes or by placing heavy decorative stones or tiles on the edges of the net to prevent birds from wriggling under it. Opt for the ½ inch mesh, particularly if you have frogs or other amphibians living in the pool because they could become entrapped and killed by ¾ inch mesh. The same is true of the many harmless wild birds that have surely already established your pond as their regular watering hole.

7. Purchase bird netting to set on the top layers of garden mulch to reduce topsoil erosion. It's also useful for holding and collecting grass clippings, leaves and other lawn refuse, and for covering compost piles to help keep them intact. Fasten netting to trellises or garden poles to train your climbing plants and vines.

References

• Build an Easy Garden Net