Idaho Wineries Use Laser Bird Repellent to Protect Crops from Birds

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The problem with birds and grapes
"This is the time of year we've spent all the time training, pruning, spraying, keeping everything in check for," said Koenig Vineyards owner and winemaker Greg Koenig. "We're literally a few days from harvest and it's at that point that the birds also want to come and eat them. They're beautifully purple, they're the right flavor, and as they get sweeter the birds get more and more addicted to this."
Koenig said he has seen birds damage up to 40 to 50 percent of a wine crop before.
"Sometimes we'll see flocks of robins or starlings that will come, and when there's 10,000 birds, they can easily take large chunks of the vineyard crop away in a short period of time," Koenig said. "Bird control in vineyards is a big deal."
This isn't a new problem for vineyards in Idaho or anywhere in the world, but in the past, vintners have relied on canons, fake bird noises or netting to try to protect the grapes.
"Canons annoy the neighbors, and netting is very expensive and labor-intensive," Koenig said.
Lasers: The new alternative
None of the previous bird-deterring measures had worked well, so Koenig said he started looking into other methods. Noting that several major international airports and a handful of wineries in California were using lasers to spook birds, he started doing some research on their effectiveness. Pleased with the results, he wanted to try the technique out in Idaho.
There is one laser posted at Koenig's facility in the Sunnyslope region, and two others posted at one of the state's newest vineyards, J Victor Vineyards. The solar-powered laser sits on top of a pole, mounted so that it can scan over the vineyard in a random, computerized pattern that aims to keep birds from settling in the vines. The lasers are programmed to run at dawn and dusk, when birds are typically most active.
"It goes through its cycle through the vineyard every eight minutes, so if a bird is...in the Merlot and gets startled, the dot will be back in eight minutes while it makes its way to that place," Koenig said. "That's not much time. The bird is going to fly away."
But Koenig said so far, birds haven't even wanted to try to settle back into the vineyards where the lasers are scanning. The lasers are active at dawn and dusk, but are extremely dangerous to the human eye. Because of that, the laser located at Koenig Vineyards (which is also a tasting room) never runs from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. when the tasting room is open for visitors. The lasers at J Victor Vineyards are specifically programmed to stay away from any nearby homes or other populated areas.