Recommendation for strawberry protection

[Juniper]

I have some strawberry plants, and the birds keep beating me to the berries.

Can someone recommend a kind of netting to use to keep them out? What size holes? You know what I mean --- the intersteces between the intersections or whatever. My grandmother used to drape old curtains over the blueberry bushes, but these are strawberries, and the sun and rain need to get through.

Thanks for any help!

Priscilla

[Frank]

Netting I use for deer with one inch openings should also keep out birds, but it is not just draping but keeping off the plants or birds will just peck around it. So you would have to put together a frame to keep off the strawberries.

[David Hare-Scott]

I use galvanised weldmesh. It is a wire mesh in a square pattern welded at each junction that is much stiffer than chicken or bird wire so it can stand on its own without a frame. I use a 12mm (1/2 in) mesh. It keeps out birds quite well, horses not so much.

D

[songbird]

are you sure it is birds and not ground squirrels instead? i have very little damage from birds here, but much more from ground squirrels (chipmunks).

songbird

[Steve Peek]

and terrapins (land turtles)

[Priscilla H. Ballou]

It's odd, but I've *never* seen a chipmunk near my property. We have some squirrels, but no chipmunks at all. I've lived there almost 13 years now. Very strange.

Priscilla

[Priscilla H. Ballou]

Never seen a turtle near my place, either. I live in a city. Slugs, snails, worms, salamanders, cats, birds, squirrels, a woodchuck, etc., but no turtles.

Thanks anyway.

Priscilla

[Peppermint Patootie]

Thanks. I don't have much problem with horses poaching off my berries. ;-)

Priscilla

[Priscilla H. Ballou]

Thanks!

Of course, right after I posted I started googling, and I ended up ordering some 5/8" net and hoops to hold it over the bed in question from Gardeners' Supply. They're pricey, but I've always found the quality very good.

Thanks again, to everyone who replied.

Priscilla