Prevention of Bird and Animal Damage to Grapes Using a New Labor-saving Net

Abstract

We designed a new labor-saving net aimed at preventing birds and animals from damaging bunches of table grapes on spur-pruned grapevines. The bag-like nets perfectly cover only the grape bunches, allowing many bunches to be quickly protected all at the same time; moreover, because the nets are easily hung beneath the trellis, workers do not need to use stepladders or other such implements. We investigated the efficiency of working with these prototype nets and the degree of protection from bird and animal damage. The time required to install the prototype nets was 32.8% of the time required to install standard commercial netting. We confirmed that the prototype nets almost completely prevented bird and animal damage in two cultivars. Furthermore, there were no undesirable effects of the prototype nets on fruit quality. These findings suggest that using this type of net is an effective method of preventing bird and animal damage to grape bunches on spur-pruned grapevines.