Keeping bugs out of balcony

valor rorghulis

Hi Everyone

Last year I grew some raspberries and strawberries on my small balcony but the fruit got ruined as they always had a green caterpillars in them which I think came from butterflies. They also savaged an avodado tree leaves

Also the strawberries in particular often some has some sort of brown cocoon grub type thing, no idea what was laying them.

Finally place is prone to pigeons landing and would like to keep them out.

So I'm thinking of putting up some netting covering the entire balcony opening to keep these out. Bit of an eyesore but preferable to the berries getting ruined,

Any type people would recommend? The opening is about 2m high and 4m wide

I'd ideally like to have something that would let bees get through but stop the butterflies.

Thanks!

SouthWesterly

Get some nets to put over the plants.

valor rorghulis

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Get some nets to put over the plants.

Was thinking that mate but have some hanging baskets and think the f*ckers could still land if the nets are sitting on the plants

and wouldn't stop the pigeons either

Hocus Focus

You can buy dedicated products such as hoops etc for supporting netting, but with a bit of ingenuity you could rig up something using canes, plastic tubing ,etc., to do the job. Surrounding the whole balcony would be the most effective solution. Here is a link to an article about insect netting:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=923

Here's some info on bird netting:
https://www.birdbgone.com/blog/bird-netting-keeps-birds-out-of-your-garden/