Page 32 - Grapevine March-April 2020

Around The Vineyard

Photo Courtesy of: Nixalite of America Inc.

Wildlife Control in

the Vineyard By: Alyssa L. Ochs
M any vineyards focus their pest control “Many different avian species can damage vine-

efforts on small common insects, but
yards, but the most aggressive ones are flock-
there are much larger animals that put
Gellerstedt, Co-president of Nixalite of America.
grapevines in danger as well. Rodents, birds, deer ing birds like starlings and blackbirds,” said Cory
and other larger mammals feed and trample on “Even one bird peck to a grape can leave detrimen-
grapevines, putting production at risk and compro- tal pathogens that can alter the taste of the fruit.”
mising the quality of wine grapes. Based in East Moline, Illinois, Nixalite specializes in
pest bird and wildlife control products, including
Types of Wildlife in Vineyards bird netting, bird spikes and deer fencing.

Depending on what region of the country your “In larger vineyards, the loss of crops due to bird
vineyard is located, you may be faced with many damage could be as high as 10-30%, resulting in
different animals that love to wander into your millions of dollars’ worth of lost revenue, and in
grapevines. Some of the most common wildlife smaller vineyards, that percentage could be much
species that negatively impact vineyards are deer, higher, sometimes resulting in a total loss,” said
rodents, birds and raccoons. Birds, in particular, are Vahe’Alaverdian, master falconer and founder of
notorious for pecking through fruit and damaging it Falcon Force.
so that it cannot be used for winemaking.
Even if wildlife pests don’t eat the fruit on your

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