- ALMOST every new planting season of farmers faces disturbance from insects, golden snails, mice as well as a flock of heron after planting.
- Chiefly for expelling herons, some farmers make simple reel powered by small shower flowing from upstream dike
Farmers do not only face pests in the form of birds when the rice begins to bear fruits from the disturbance of the cereal-eater birds and their friends. When coming in groups, once session they can empty the grains of rice.
On that account, they have to be on guard every day to keep the birds away. The birds of munia families that come are usually scaly-breasted munia, chestnut munia, javan munia, white-headed munia and even the Java sparrow, too.
However, recently, a number of farmers in Bali, like in the Subak Bulungdaya (Balinese irrigation cooperative) and its surroundings, Tabanan, have been harassed by flocks of heron birds after planting rice. Previously, they were also harassed by golden snails that tore the stalks of the newly planted rice plants. Therefore, they also have to pay extra to eradicate the golden snails and spray it up to three times.
Now, let’s get back to the heron bird problem. Actually, they do not come to devour the rice plants, but look for grasshoppers, crickets, frogs and the like among the newly planted rice that had not fully recovered. Of course, they trample the new plants. In case of more serious damage, the farmer has to replace the damaged plants.
The farmers are also annoyed because of the insistent disturbances they have to face. To prevent this, there are farmers who set up silver tapes or magic tapes from one side to another to make them appear sparkling when exposed to the sun. Hopefully, the birds are afraid or reluctant to approach. There are also those who make waterwheels or reel from used plastic mineral water bottle to generate a noise that makes them boisterous.
Meanwhile, there are also farmers who make waterwheels combined with kepuakan or bamboo blade that beats the stone pad after another end of the blade pours out the water flowing down from the upstream paddy field shower.
Hopefully, this simple water-powered bird repellent can help farmer expel the herons. By that way, they do not have to wait in the fields all day to chase away the herons. They can take a rest for a while.
