Neighbors...

Birds do that to me.
I went out to check my garden,the Italian Gourmet were ready(6 inch+ long).
I went inside,grabbed the scisors and decided to mix up a batch of fertilizer and went back outside.
9 peppers were completely gone in 30-45 min.
Next day all my Chile Negro,Fresno,Gypsy,Floral gem and bannana peppers were gone.out of all only 1 was left half eaten on the plant.
Several pods were full of pecking holes from the bird (the hotter peppers) and a couple pods had all the seeds removed through a slit the bird pecked the length of the pods.
The bird must have a sweet tooth,it ate mostly the mild and all the sweet peppers.Eats the sweets only when they are ripe.
Hasn't bothered any hots or super hots-not sweet enough I guess.They aren't bothered by caspacion(sp?) so it must be the sweet it likes.
The lot was locked up and closed.Nobody picked my peppers and a mid sized bird flew off when I returned.It flew from where the 1/2 eatn pod was.
I put up bird netting and if there is any opening it only takes the bird a few days to find it and it's not afraid to go inside to get it's pepper fix.
I hope I catch it inside one day.
Anyone for smoked Tweety Bird?

I've heard of people feeding peppers (including habs) to parrots. A few escaped here 10 or so years ago, now we have flocks. Haven't heard about them eating any gardens tho.

GD smokemaster. I would go mental in your shoes. My dad figured out how many feet per second was just below the sound barrier, so he could silently shoot possums, skunks, and coons that cause trouble in the yard. It's a sweet little pellet gun and it scares those bastards away for good. Might blow tweety bird away. Good luck man.

-HabBob

Can't use any kind of projectile here,too many brand new $200,000.00+ new motorhomes parked side by side.
Rat and mouse traps worked for some last year.Leave them dead in the pots.It scared a lot of the birds away but then I had ants...
I'm thinking about putting bird seed in the vertical smoker and when it's full of birds,close it and fire it up.
Sell hot smoked wings to the employees at lunchtime.
We have a lot of pigeons too.Smoked Squab anyone?

Find a bird cannon; they have them around here for the blueberry plantations. It's about as loud as a shotgun blast at close range (no pellets, just noise and concussion), and it'll scare the holy livin sh** out of any birds that come near it. It's motion sensitive, (so it'll keep 'em guessing) and I'm SURE your neighbors would love it!! lol

Yup,the apartment houses behind us will love it along with the customers looking at the motorhomes.
Probably break a few windows in the coaches that are 6 ft. away from my container garden.
Might be fun to sit under my habanero tree on a lounge chair watching, with earplugs on, when someone sets off the cannon while looking at my peppers.
Wonder if they'll still by a motorhome when they come out of orbit.

Ugh, birds. They generally prefer my habs to the jals and wait until they just start to change color. They seldom remove the whole pepper though, but I have very small tweeties. Grrrr...

Critter damage:

{{gwi:1187462}}
{{gwi:1187464}}

Oh yeah, almost forgot - I have a plastic owl that has a motion detector and hoots when you come near. I noticed fewer bird strikes after that. Also, I hear that a rubber snake will stop them from landing near the plants. Got to move it to a different location every once in a while though. I'm going to try one soon if the damage persists.

This is a wonderful forum - thank you all - you made me laugh!! I do have a bird feeder nearby, but it was there last year when I grew Scotch Bonnets and a yellow banana type pepper and they were not attacked. Also, the clean cut of the stem seems more like a rodent. Hope they're not rats around. I'll try first with a little wire fence and see what happens. They're about 3 more almost ready. My red chilli is full of peppers and that has not been touched. Will keep you posted.
Northerner.

This bird likes the sweet ones mostly.
It has ripped a few green pods open to clean out the seeds.
It doesn't bother the Chile Arbol,Thai dragon,red hot thai,fish,serrano,poblano or the red chile at all.
They are not sweet and the seeds are smaller so it doesn't go after them-so far.
It's deffinately birds or a bird getting my pods.
It might have been just moving through though.I haven't had an attack on my garden in a few days,almost a week.

Nothing for the smoker this week,no hot wings...

Birds don't seem to be able to taste the heat so they will happily munch on your pods and then scatter the seeds as they go...that's how peppers get to strange places where no one ever planted them. Nature's way of propagating huh? I know that doesn't solve the problem but one view of why birds like peppers.

I have 3 jalapeno plants in a pot on my deck. It sits on a shelf. I check my plants daily. This morning noticed green droppings in piles around the top of the plant and on the shelf. Further checking noticed peppers eaten almost completely.

My sympathies, Kathleen. I have lost a few more since my first post, so I have invested temporarily in a little fence made of trellis material after I also lost a green pepper. I will build something more permanent in the next while when I have time.

LOL (I think) The SAME thing happened to me this morning. Last night I had 4 chilies ready to be picked and this morning they were gone.