How to choose a deterrent

Gardeners and farmers the world over compete with wildlife to harvest their crops. The ideal of tree-ripened fruit can be a real challenge to achieve! Green Harvest offers two main choices, either exclusion or deterrence. The choice you make will depend upon your individual circumstance and the plant you are trying to protect. Deterrence is particularly useful for ornamental plants and when the problem is widespread, affecting many plants. It can work well on birds, possums and fruit bats depending on the product used.
Often more than one strategy is needed, with the strategy changing over time, as animals can get used to the deterrent and ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. The aim is ‘behaviour modification’ so to be successful, a strategy must be repeated often enough to retrain every individual animal that is a threat to your garden. A ‘once only’ encounter may not change forever the patterns of behaviour of an individual animal. Starting early enough is critical; once a crop is already being enjoyed it is very difficult to change the behaviour.