Kitchen Garden Forum

We made a scarecrow out of some overalls of mine that were a bit tatty last year and its effect has been pathetic, even after moving it around the plot.

Has anybody out there found that they actually work, or are they more like ours, a talking point rather than bird scarer?

I had a really good scarecrow a few years ago on my allotment. It had been there for about two weeks when the local farmer came up laughing. He had wondered why every time he had come past in the last two weeks i had been standing in the same place.
As to frightening any birds away it had no results infact it ended up with a birds nest in it.
Kind regards Old herbaceous.

My allotment neighbour hung loads of CDs along her raspberry row last year and confidently told me it was all she needed to keep the birds off. Every time the sun caught them I got blinded by the glare there were so many.

A couple of weeks later whilst toiling away, I looked up to see Mr & Mrs Blackbird happily hopping from CD to CD and using them as perches to reach the fruit. They scoffed themselves silly then came and sat almost at my feet looking for worms for afters.

Sue

The only scarecrow which I have seen work to some extent was a hanging one as it moved in the wind !

i have the same type mentioned above,got it from malvern,his name is Norman,and he frightens most things away,dosnt he liz

Definitely Grock, but only if you let him.

We have found cd`s to be useless as well, also the idea of trailing video tape out is a miserable failure.

nope mine just stands there looking stupid, doesnt do a stroke.

hi,hi,hi, just knew youd like that mine does move around a lot,but deffo looks stupid most of the time

I've got 2 scarecrows in my veg garden - Mabel and Bert - who get new outfits every year. They have flowing hair and hats, with the odd windmill strategically placed. I'm beyond knowing if they do any good but they're part of the garden now, after 20 years.
I also use CD's plus lemonade bottles full of water, both of which I find quite useful. When I put out new plants with lots of green shoots, I add ribbons, whirlygigs or anything else that flutters and rustles.
Does it work - I don't know, but I don't lose much and it looks very colourful!

those humming" polythene tape thingmees from about 20 years ago. are they still about? "bird aways" or some similar daft name.

Probably not but I bet they can claim job seekers allowance.

luv the pic,is it you and mrs pigglet?i like your orange suit,but the scarecrows not up to much!

Hi Grock - Mrs Piglet here.
Yes, that is indeed the two of us. Ain't he cute? It's usually ME who scares all the birds away, not the scarecrow!!

My plot was decoratively hung with cd's ribbon and other miscellaneous so-called bird scaring apparatus. Made me feel better but didn't seem to do much good, although how can you tell? Can't do the same plot twice at the same time with one having CD decoration and one not! Did keep the cats off tho. Apparantly bottles with water scare cats away .... really are scardy cats then eh?

Anyhoo, always good to use up the tons of cds we seem to get. Especially from 'kind' mother who brings them round as extravagent gifts when she finds them in her sunday newspapers.

Anyone got any slug scaring apparatus??? Or whitefly/cabbage fly scaring apparatus???? Or pidgeon exterminators???????? I know these are birds, but tend to think of them as flying vermin. And cabbage eaters. Grrrr....

Do slugs get scared? Or whitefly/cabbage fly, come to that? Hmmmm..... getting carried away ...