6 Best Blueberry Netting Covers For Bird Deterrent That Save Your Berries
Protect your blueberry harvest from birds. Our guide reviews the 6 best netting covers, detailing effective and safe solutions to save your berries.
There’s nothing quite like watching your blueberry bushes load up with green fruit, promising a sweet summer harvest. Then, one morning, you walk out to find half the ripening berries gone, with a few smug-looking robins hopping nearby. If you grow blueberries, this isn’t a matter of if, but when the birds will discover your patch and declare it an all-you-can-eat buffet.
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Why Bird Netting is Crucial for Blueberries
Scare tape, fake owls, and shiny objects have their place, but birds are smart. They quickly learn that a plastic owl hasn’t moved in a week and that flashy tape is no real threat. These deterrents work on the principle of fear, which fades with familiarity. A physical barrier is the only truly reliable solution.
Bird netting creates a simple, impenetrable wall between the birds and your berries. It’s not about scaring them; it’s about physically stopping them. This is a crucial distinction. For a crop as universally loved by wildlife as blueberries, you need a defense that works 24/7 without you needing to monitor it.
Think of it as crop insurance. You’ve spent months, maybe years, pruning, watering, and feeding your bushes. The netting is the final, small investment that guarantees you—not the starlings—get to enjoy the fruits of that labor. Without it, you’re just gambling with your harvest.
De-Bird Heavy-Duty Netting: Top Overall Pick
When you want a net that just works and will last you more than a single season, this is the one. De-Bird’s netting is made from a tough, UV-treated polypropylene that feels substantial right out of the bag. It doesn’t have that flimsy, hairnet-like quality that tears the moment it snags on a branch.
The 3/4-inch mesh is the sweet spot for blueberries. It’s small enough to stop robins, cedar waxwings, and other common berry thieves, but large enough to allow for good airflow and sunlight penetration. While you should always apply netting after pollination, this mesh size won’t block the smaller beneficial insects that might still be visiting your garden.
What you’re really paying for here is durability and ease of use. It’s less prone to becoming a tangled mess, which saves immense frustration when you’re trying to cover a row of bushes by yourself. You can pull it taut over a frame without worrying about it ripping, and at the end of the season, it folds up for storage without turning into a knot. It’s a reliable workhorse.
Agfabric Garden Netting: Best Budget-Friendly
Protect your garden with Agfabric netting! This durable mesh shields plants from pests, birds, and insects while allowing sunlight, air, and water to reach your crops. Its flexible design can be cut to size and reused season after season.
Let’s be practical: sometimes you just need to cover a few plants without spending a lot. Agfabric offers lightweight netting that is incredibly affordable, often sold in large rolls that can cover a significant area for a very low initial cost. If you’re new to growing blueberries or just have a couple of bushes, this is a perfectly fine way to get started.
The tradeoff for the low price is durability and patience. This material is thin and tangles very easily. Laying it out feels a bit like wrestling with a giant spiderweb, and it will snag on every available twig and leaf. It’s also more susceptible to tearing, so you have to be gentle when stretching it over a frame or securing it.
Expect to get one, maybe two, seasons out of it before it develops too many rips to be effective. While the upfront cost is low, you may end up buying it more frequently than a heavy-duty option. Still, for a quick, cheap fix to save this year’s berries, it absolutely gets the job done.
Garden Armor Netting Kit for Easy Installation
The biggest hassle with netting isn’t the net itself, but the structure needed to support it. Garden Armor solves this by packaging their netting into a complete kit, often including fiberglass hoops, connectors, and clips. This is the perfect solution if you want a grab-and-go system without a trip to the hardware store to figure out a DIY frame.
These kits are designed for convenience. They create a tidy, tunnel-like structure that keeps the net completely off the plants. This is a huge advantage, as it prevents birds from simply sitting on the net and pecking through the holes, and it makes harvesting much easier since you’re not fighting with a draped net.
The main consideration is size. The kits are built for standard raised beds or uniform rows, so they might not be flexible enough for a patch of large, irregularly shaped, mature bushes. But for a neat and orderly garden, this system takes all the guesswork out of proper installation and gives you a clean, effective barrier in minutes.
VIVOSUN Fine Mesh Netting for Total Protection
Sometimes birds aren’t your only problem. If you’ve ever lost berries to Japanese beetles or the dreaded spotted wing drosophila, you know that a standard bird net won’t help. This is where a fine mesh netting, like the ones from VIVOSUN, becomes an essential tool. With openings often smaller than 1mm, it creates a barrier against almost all insect pests.
This level of protection is a game-changer for anyone in an area with high insect pressure. It effectively creates a quarantine zone around your plants, saving your fruit from being damaged or filled with larvae. It’s a targeted solution for a very specific and destructive problem.
However, this is a specialized tool with a critical drawback: it blocks pollinators. This fine mesh must only be installed after your blueberry flowers have been fully pollinated and have started to set fruit. Putting it on too early will result in a beautiful, pest-free bush with zero berries. It also slightly reduces airflow, so it’s a tool to use strategically, not as a general-purpose net.
Easy Gardener Large Area Net for Big Patches
Once your blueberry patch grows beyond a few individual bushes, covering each one becomes impractical. That’s when you graduate to a large area net. Easy Gardener and similar brands offer massive sheets of netting—think 30×30 feet or larger—designed to cover an entire section of your garden in one go.
The strategy here is to build a "roof" over your entire patch. You’ll need a tall frame made of T-posts, PVC, or wood to keep the net high above the bushes. Draping a net this large directly on the plants would be a tangled disaster and could damage branches from the weight alone. With a proper frame, however, you create a large, protected walk-in or reach-in space.
Working with a net this size is a two-person job. Trying to unfurl and position a 900-square-foot net by yourself on a windy day is a recipe for frustration. But for the hobby farmer with a long, established row of blueberries, it’s the most efficient way to protect a significant harvest.
Bird-X Pro-Grade Netting for Serious Growers
If you’ve invested in a permanent or semi-permanent structure for your blueberries, like a walk-in cage, you need a net that matches that commitment. Bird-X Pro-Grade netting is what you buy when you want to do the job once and not think about it again for a decade. This is commercial-grade stuff, built for maximum longevity.
It’s typically made from heavy, knotted polyethylene that has been thoroughly UV-treated to withstand years of sun without becoming brittle. It’s incredibly strong, resistant to tearing, and handles snow load better than lighter nets. You’re not just buying a net; you’re investing in a long-term agricultural material.
This is, without a doubt, the most expensive option. For two bushes in pots, it is complete overkill. But if you have a dedicated "berry house" and your blueberries are a core part of your garden’s output, the cost is justified over the long run. It’s the "buy once, cry once" approach to crop protection.
Choosing Mesh Size and Proper Installation Tips
The best net in the world is useless if it’s the wrong size or installed poorly. The details here are what separate a successful harvest from a bird-pecked failure. Pay close attention to these two factors.
First, mesh size. For most people, 3/4-inch mesh is the ideal choice for blueberries. It stops the most common fruit-eating birds while allowing for good airflow. A 1/2-inch mesh offers slightly more protection against smaller birds but isn’t usually necessary. Only choose a fine insect mesh if you have a confirmed, significant insect problem, and remember the pollination rule: never apply it before the flowers have dropped and fruit has set.
Second, proper installation is non-negotiable.
- Build a frame. Never drape netting directly onto your blueberry bushes. Birds can still press the net against the fruit and peck through, and the net will get hopelessly tangled in the branches, making harvest a nightmare. A simple frame of PVC pipes, bamboo poles, or wooden stakes that holds the net a foot away from the plant is all you need.
- Secure the perimeter. Birds are resourceful. If there’s a gap at the bottom, they will find it and walk right in. You must anchor the netting to the ground all the way around. Use landscape staples, rocks, or soil to seal every edge completely.
- Timing is everything. The perfect time to net is right after pollination is finished and you see tiny green berries forming. This protects the fruit for its entire development cycle. Remove the net immediately after your final harvest to allow the plant to grow freely and to prevent accidental snaring of autumn birds.
Ultimately, the right netting depends on the scale of your patch, your budget, and your biggest pest pressures. Whether you choose a budget-friendly roll or a professional-grade system, a well-installed net is the single most effective step you can take to ensure the berries you’ve worked so hard to grow actually make it to your table.
