How to Scare Birds Away from Wine Grapes effectively?

Brazil, Argentina, South America and Australia have some of the highest consumptions of wine annually¹. Wine grapes are exported all over the world and there is a big competition for being the best vineyard. Just like any other farms in the agricultural industry, vineyards have a lot of problems in protecting their grapes from pest birds and are looking to know how to scare birds away from their vineyards in a sustainable and effective way.

Watch out for birds around harvest time!

There is no specific type of grapes that are affected more or less than the others, it all depends on the time that the grapes are beginning to ripen. The wine harvest for the Southern Hemisphere is between February and April, therefore the most crucial bird problems occur just before that period.

How to scare birds away from a vineyard?

Netting and spiking are some of the most common methods used to scare birds away from the wine grapes. However, these methods are short-term and not cost-effective. They also cause harm to the birds and the environment. Already more and more farmers are choosing to replace bird netting by an alternative bird repellent method that uses laser technology to keep birds away from their fields².

In Southern California a vineyard called Griffin’s Lair had a big problem with bird damage to grapes. The owner of Griffin’s Lair, Jim Griffin spent over 25,000 US dollars per year on netting and extra labour costs to control the bird damage. Griffin’s Lair wanted to know how to scare birds away from their grapes in a cheaper, more effective way, because netting was very costly and not effective enough. They started searching for a better solution to their bird problem and came across the Automated laser bird repellent to scare birds away and decided to give the laser a chance to prove itself. A few months after the installations of 4 Autonomics, Griffin’s Lair achieved a 99.8% reduction in bird numbers.

Here is how automated laser bird deterrent works:

1. Telegraph, 2017,  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/wine-consumption-per-capita-by-country/
2. Why Australian growers replace bird netting,  https://birdcontrolgroup.com/replace-bird-netting/