Shoot the sparrows in your greenhouse or watch them eat your pointed peppers. That is the choice Dutch grower Thimo van Marrewijk faces. Annually the birds destroy thousands of euros worth of produce. Legally he isn't allowed to catch the animals, but he can shoot them.
The sweet pointed peppers of the Dutch greenhouse grower attract plenty of sparrows. The birds peck off the tip of the peppers and leave the rest of the fruit. "If they’d eat entire peppers, I’d put a couple of boxes aside for them every day. Then they could eat that," the grower says. But that’s not the case. They just eat the tip of the fruits on the plants. It constitutes a yearly loss of thousands of euros. Neighboring companies don’t suffer from the sparrows. The animals seem to have discovered that just our fruits are remarkably sweet. "If only they'd pay for it," says Van Marrewijk.
Insect net system
Van Marrewijk has already tried everything to scare the animals away. Laser guns and slapping sounds don’t work, and even an expensive scarecrow system proved useless. "They get used to it in no time." And installing a net system? That investment is high, and since the rented greenhouse will be demolished at the end of the year, this doesn’t seem like an option.
He would mostly prefer to catch the birds to release them later - but this is not allowed. The sparrow is on a list of protected animals which cannot be captured in cages. Ironically, he is allowed to shoot them because they cause serious damage to crops. He doesn't really want that. It’s not so much out of love for animals, but mainly from a practical point of view. "Shooting with bullets in a glass greenhouse? That doesn’t seem like a good idea." And he doesn’t want to do anything in secret. "It's illegal, and by now many people know of my problem already. If they find out, I can shut everything down. That’s not what I want at all."
The law will be changed next year. Only then can the grower apply for exemption to have the birds caught. By then the greenhouse will probably already have been demolished - and it won’t help Van Marrewijk with his problems this year. "I know of a company that can arrange everything, and I've already gotten reactions from people in regions without sparrows. But it’s just not allowed."