Birds, bats and insects cause most damage to agricultural crops. This can have facund negative financial impacts on hard working agriculturalists. Installing canopies is one effective way of minimising damage from these persistent pests.
Birds
The fiscal damage to crops by birds in Australia is theorization to scuttle into the hundreds of millions of dollars. There are around sixty genre of birds in Australia that have been identified as causing approximative damage. Second the horticultural industry looks for effective ways to deal with native birds, more infuriating is the reality that some chief damage is caused by introduced sort. Indian mynas for for instance, have been published to damage fruit according to as grapes and mangoes, as well as threatening native bird genus, by captivating over their nests and destroying their eggs.
The crops most pigeon to bird attacks are fruits, nuts, vegetables and flowers.
A gamut of methods have been attempted to try and combat birds and their damage to crops. Attempting to lessen the population of birds has had limited success, with success being more likely with small, isolated populations. In practice, with many birds moving over a wide area, birds that have been killed have simply been replaced by immigrating birds from other areas. Some studies have also shown that birds can increase breeding levels when numbers have been reduced, meaning that no long term reduction in the bird population has been possible.
The use of chemicals and poisons is strictly controlled, and hasn ' t been seen to be cost effective, or effective over the long term in reducing crop damage. The use of scarecrows, and acoustic scaring techniques have also been met with limited success.
Exclusion netting has proven to be an effective way to control bird damage. This also avoids concerns over the use of chemicals, and noise pollution concerns involved in acoustic bird scaring. Whether netting should be of the drape over variety, or a more permanent structure will depend on individual circumstances, such as type of crop being grown and the severity of the bird problem.
Bats
Bats like the Flying Fox species can cause similar problems to those mentioned above for birds. Flying foxes may also be undeterred by scaring type approaches of control, leaving exclusion netting as the most effective approach. Nets with designs to specifically combat bats are available. For fruit growers, there are certain pieces of evidence to look out for, in order to identify if flying foxes are the culprits of one ' s damaged fruit. Flying foxes bite and then compress fruit in their mouths to extract juice, before spitting out what ' s left. The presence around the orchard of these remaining compressed bits of skin and flesh ( known as spats ) is a sure way to know that one is dealing with flying foxes.
Insects
The types of insects known to persistently cause problems for agricultural growers include flies, wasps, moths and beetles. While the use of pesticides can be effective in some instances, environmental concerns over the use of chemicals makes pesticide use sub - optimal if it can be avoided. A live and let live approach can also be followed here, again with the use of exclusion netting. While bird and bat type netting may be ineffective, specific solutions to combat insects are available. Finely knitted and woven netting ( with hole sizes around a tiny millimetre or two in width ) effectively keep these minuscule pests away from crops.
Birds, bats and insects cause major damage to Australian agriculture. Exclusion structures have been shown as one of the most effective ways to combat them. Bird Netting and canopies to ward off insects can be tailored to suit specific problems, specific insects or birds, as well as for differing environments.
