How do I stop pigeons stripping my cabbages and sprouts?

Wood pigeons take brassicas apart from the outside in, leaving a skeleton of stripped midribs and torn leaf edges. It is easily confused with caterpillar damage, but the timing gives it away: caterpillars are a summer problem, pigeons are at their worst between November and March when a green plot is the only food in the landscape.

Step by step

1. Confirm it is pigeons.Ragged tears and stripped leaves down to the midribs, damage on the outside of the plant and on the tops, big splashy droppings, and it happens in autumn and winter. Caterpillar damage is neat holes with frass and happens in summer.
2. Net before the damage starts, not after.A flock that has learned a plot has food comes back daily. Getting the netting on in autumn, before the first raid, is far more effective than reacting.
3. Choose the right mesh.About 2cm mesh is right for pigeons — small enough to exclude them, large enough to let light, rain and pollinators through. Very fine insect mesh works too but costs more and is unnecessary for birds alone.
4. Hold the netting well clear of the plants.Pigeons will stand on netting and peck through anything touching a leaf. Use hoops, canes with bottle tops, or a timber frame to keep at least 20–30cm of air between net and foliage — more for tall sprouts and kale.
5. Secure every edge.Peg the net down with ground pegs, bury the edge in a shallow trench, or weight it with timber. A pigeon that finds a gap will walk in and then panic; a bird trapped under a net is the main welfare problem with this job.
6. Use taut netting, not loose drapes.Loose netting sags onto plants and is the main way birds get tangled. Pull it tight over a frame and check it after wind.
7. Check the netting weekly through winter.Storms tear nets and snow collapses them onto the plants. A weekly walk round, particularly after bad weather, keeps the barrier doing its job and frees anything trapped.
8. Build a permanent frame if you grow brassicas every year.A simple timber or blue water-pipe frame that lifts off is far easier to work under than a net thrown over plants, and it lasts for years.

Tips

• Damage is worst in hard weather. A frosty February with snow cover is when a pigeon will destroy a row of sprouts in a day.
• Pigeons are less interested in kale with very curly or purple leaves than in smooth cabbage, but 'less interested' is not 'safe'.
• Wood pigeons are a legal grey area for control and there is no need to go near it — netting solves the problem outright and takes an hour.
• Netting also protects against the cabbage white butterfly in summer if you use a finer mesh, so a single frame can do both jobs across the year.
• A stripped plant often recovers if the growing point is intact. Net it, feed it and give it time before pulling it up.

Common mistakes

• Laying netting directly on the plants — Birds peck straight through it. The gap between net and leaf is what makes netting work.
• Leaving the edges loose — Pigeons walk under, then cannot find the way out. It is both ineffective and a real welfare problem.
• Relying on scarers — Every visual and audible deterrent works briefly and then stops. Pigeons learn faster than the devices vary.
• Netting only in spring — The worst damage is between late autumn and early spring. Winter brassicas need protecting through exactly the months people stop looking at the plot.

Alternatives

• Netting on hoops: The standard answer — cheap, effective, quick to put up. Needs edges secured and checking after wind.
• A walk-in fruit-cage-style frame: The best long-term solution for a plot that grows brassicas continuously. More expensive, but you can work under it and it excludes butterflies too if you use finer mesh.
• Individual cloches or mesh covers: Useful for a few plants in a small garden. Fiddly for a full row.
• Scarers — tape, CDs, kites, models: Work for a few days while the birds are unfamiliar with them. Pigeons habituate fast. Worth using only as a temporary measure while you get netting up.
• Growing through winter under fleece: Gives some protection plus a little warmth, but tears easily and cuts light. Better for young plants than for a mature winter crop.

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