The Sonoma County Farm Bureau held two workshops recently in order to introduce growers to alternative techniques that serve to protect their treasurable wine grapes – namely, falcons and dogs. Current, and most common, methods of vineyard grape protection include bird netting, noisemakers, mylar strips, visual repellents (scarecrows), and poisons, but each of these preventative measures has its own drawbacks.
Once the high numbers of starlings, cedar wax wings, and other avian pests descend on vineyards, it can be difficult to control the amount of damage they inflict. Noisemakers and mylar strips are effective for a short while, but the birds quickly become used to these devices and then they tend to ignore them, rendering them practically useless. Bird netting is particularly effective. However, it is also expensive, time consuming, and potentially harmful to birds. And then there is poison … Poison is a difficult preventative measure to argue for, because of the many negative effects it imposes upon precious natural resources, the food chain, and the environment as a whole.
So, in walks (or flies) the answer to most of these growers’ avian pest problems: the dog and the falcon. Dogs are quite the successful little bird keeper-outers, since they leave their scent wherever they roam. Once the wine grapes begin to color and ripen, a small pack of dogs can be run through the rows of the vineyards, twice a day, for roughly half an hour in the morning and in the evening. When the birds fly over the vineyard rows, they can smell the scents left over from the dogs. The birds then typically assume the dogs are still present and free roaming in the vineyard rows, so they leave the wine grapes alone and move on.
However, these dogs must be properly trained to be able to tackle such a demanding task. Also, certain breeds are much better than others at keeping the bird damage to a minimum. English Hunt Terriers and Terry Roosevelt Terriers are said to be good options, due to their histories as vermin-hunting animals.
Falcons are known for their acute eyesight, great speed, and terrific hunting skills. This is why they are implemented in numerous locations requiring bird management, such as airports, landfills, fruit orchards, berry farms, and military bases.
One of the main advantages of using dogs and/or falcons over the other protection techniques is that the pesky birds being prohibited from destroying valuable crops are not killed, but instead simply inspired to move on to other sources of food. This is a major benefit over bird netting, which can trap, wound, and even kill birds, and poisons, which do much more damage to the surrounding area and food chain than just eliminate the targeted pests.
In addition to keeping out harmful birds, dogs are being used in other vineyard protection arenas, too. Golden retrievers are being used to sniff out diseases in vineyard vines. Their insanely powerful noses can sniff out and identify vine mealybugs. These mealybugs are known to contaminate grape clusters with larvae and egg sacs, which eventually kills the vine.
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