I planted a cherry tree three years ago and this year for the first time I have little green cherries. I know birds love to eat cherries when they ripen, so what to I do to deter them? I have heard that aluminum strips like from a pie pan can help. any other suggestions? Thanks for the info.

Last year and this year I've used those advertizing cd's, 3 tied together and then attached to a branch. Between various neighbors I've got lots of them. They do seem to work.

Jennifer! how interesting! CD's! What a great way to recycle them!

There's red foil tape that's supposed to flip in the wind and look like fire. That may work until they figure it out. Alternating red one year and silver the next works better.

The vineyards in California are trying things all the time to stop the birds, including red and silver foil. I just went to a seminar where they've decided to put bird netting on everything, remove it at the end of the season. I just had to snip loose a snake that got caught in my bird netting, so it's dangerous for some critters, But if you clothespin it on, don't let it drag on the ground, birds won't be able to get at your fruit.

In 2003 my cherry tree was LOADED! I keep a pretty good eye on them & when they were close to ripe, I went out a bought a cheap little cherry pitter. I went out one afternoon to check on the cherries & decided "tomorrow was the day!" The next morning, I went out with a large Tupperware bowl and ALL the cherries were GONE! X-( X-(
Last year, I put on bird netting. What a pain in the butt! But I had cherries to pick! My net wasn't big enough to close a the bottom, so the blue jay did get a few. In fact it was seeing a blue jay fly by with a cherry in his beak that sent me out picking!
I will be using netting again, but I'm pretty sure I'll be using some choice words while I'm putting it on! ] :^O

Oh, boy, I know it! Doesn't that netting drive you crazy???? What a disappointment to find your cherries gone!! What was that nursery rhyme? 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie? Now we know why!!! :^O

I just gave away all my netting because it did NOT work. The cd's are working well. I think the idea for using them came from this site or maybe the magazine. The trick is to put them up at the last possible minute so the birds don't get used to them, and then take them down when finished.

Tree ripened organic apricots, yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so many methods to scaring off birds. I know I've used the cd trick. It came to me after seeing in a gardening catalog a cat sculpture with moving gleaming eyes to scare birds. It was expensive so I thought about those ad CDs and tried it. I've posted that here several times. Any method you use to scare try and move them around and use several methods to confuse them.

Thanks, guys. You came through for me once again. I will use the couple of CD's that I have and some other shiny aluminum. I will wait till they are almost ripe and hang everything and then let you know when I have cherry pie in my tummy!