Farm in Irvine tries bird-on-bird pest control - Spectrum News 1

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IRVINE, Calif. — Tanaka Farms in Irvine is trying out a nature-driven method to keep pests off strawberries this year.

What You Need To Know

Tanaka Farms lost 60-70% of strawberries in 2020 because of small birds

Birds like goldfinches eat seeds off the fruit, causing it to shrivel up and rot

James Yu, a falconer, was hired by the farm to help with pest control

The predatory birds’ goal is to fly around through the strawberry plants, and in a natural and humane way, scare away smaller pest birds

The many fields of strawberry plants at the farm start producing fruit in January all the way to June, depending on the weather, according to Kenny Tanaka. But Tanaka said for the past few years, small birds have been destroying the fruit by snacking on the seeds of the strawberries.

He said that’s despite trying several methods to keep the tiny birds away.

“We’ve tried lasers to go around and scare the birds. We’ve tried wind chimes. We’ve tried these little taped papers that’ll wave in the wind. Nothing has been really working,” he said.

And for several years, the farm has lost a lot of its crop because of the small birds' snacking habits.

“Probably last year we lost 60-70% of the strawberries just from the birds. So, we have to go through and strip it off,” Tanaka said.

He said they have to get rid of what would have otherwise been good strawberries. So this year, for the first time, the farm is trying out bird-on-bird pest control.

That’s where Jekyll and Hyde come in. Jekyll and his brother Hyde are hawks.

James Yu is the falconer who cares and trains the hawks. He was hired by the farm to do some natural and humane pest control using Jekyll and Hyde.

“They’re like bouncers. Yeah, so, they just kind of stand there. They’re very intimidating. Fly around. The other birds see them and just don’t want to come in,” Yu said.

The predatory birds’ goal is to fly around through the strawberry plants and scare away smaller pest birds. Yu said the hawks rely on their vision to get the job done.

“They can see a mouse running under brush from a mile away. They have that kind of clarity,” he said.

And at Tanaka farms, that super vision comes in handy when trying to find the pest birds — like goldfinches, which virtually blend in with the strawberry plants, as they eat the seeds off the fruit. Some goldfinches could be seen hanging upside down from the fruit as they chowed down.

“They’ll attack the berry and pull the seeds off the top of the strawberries. And that actually causes the strawberries to harden and kind of rot from the inside,” Yu explained.

He said the predatory birds, the hawks, are there to keep away the smaller birds with an intimidation factor. It’s what’s called falconry-based abatement, and Yu said the demand for what he does is high. He said he thinks there are more jobs than falconers. (Yu is an independent contractor with Adam’s Falconry Service.)

At Tanaka Farms, Yu works from sunup to sundown. And his work doesn’t stop when he leaves the farm. He cares for Jekyll and Hyde and all of his animals at his home, which is several hours from Irvine.

“I have 12 birds and eight dogs at this point. So, I have kind of a zoo,” he said.

It’s a line of work the former pharmaceutical salesman said he never imagined would become his career.