If you’re a keen gardener, you’ll know that birds can be a real nuisance when it comes to your fruits and berries, but this clever reflective garden deterrent may help keep them at bay
16:00, 29 Apr 2026Updated 16:00, 29 Apr 2026
This simple solution will keep birds from eating the fruit and berries growing in your garden (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)
With summer nearly upon us, countless gardeners will be delighted to spot berries and fruits beginning to emerge. But humans aren’t alone in their anticipation for this season, as birds will frequently manage to reach the ripe fruit and berries before you’ve had a chance to pick them yourself.
While this can be irritating, there’s a straightforward method to help deter birds from your garden without resorting to any harmful measures. Posting on her Instagram, Brooke Morgan, who regularly documents her gardening adventures with her 139,000 followers, has revealed the clever way she’s keeping birds at bay this year by giving an old trick a modern twist.
“So, a really cool lesson I learned from the elders at my old community garden is that birds will stay away from your fruit and your berries if there’s reflective things,” she explained.
She continued by noting that people have traditionally hung CDs or DVDs in fruit trees to ward off birds. But
Brooke admitted she didn’t possess any of these, prompting her to devise an alternative approach.
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“What I do have is free will and an Amazon account,” she declared while unveiling her solution.
Brooke explained that, rather than sourcing old CDs or DVDs, she chose to purchase some small disco balls, which arrived with string already fitted, making them ideal for suspending in fruit trees.
Brooke then showed of she’d hung numerous small, glimmering disco balls at varying heights in her fruit tree to protect the growing fruit.
The comments section quickly filled with admiring responses, with one user writing: “I don’t know why but this made my day.
“Another reminder I need to enjoy my free will more,” a second user said, while a third commented: “This is incredible.”
Another helpful follower chipped in with: “Second hand stores often have DVDs and CDs, you can look for scratched up ones and get them for really cheap.”
Why you should add reflective items to your garden
Shiny objects such as CDs, tape, and mirrors deter birds by producing sudden bursts of light, unpredictable movement, and startling visual distortions that replicate the appearance of predators or threats.
Combined with the metallic rustling sounds produced by moving tape, these trigger a flight response in nuisance birds, establishing a “distraction zone” that stops them from settling or nesting nearby.
These methods are widely favoured as they are completely harmless yet highly efficient as a short-term visual deterrent, whether used in gardens, on balconies, or across rooftops.
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