so something has been picking at my herbs quite badly, and now they are all in pretty rough shape. Whatever creature is doing it, has hit almost all of my herbs. Is covering everything with netting the only way to ensure they aren't eaten?

jupiter
this should work to keep rodent type,bird type creatures from eating the herbs,but if it's a bug of some sort i don't think netting will work. do you know for sure it was an animal? do you have the herbs in the ground or in containers? i have mine in containers, and the squirrels dig in the containers but don't eat the herbs.

they are in planters on my balcony. I'm pretty sure it's birds (it's either them or squirrels, but I have more birds frequenting my balcony than squirrels). It's definitly not bugs, because of the type and amount of damage (basically, one day they were full and healthy, the next day I went outside and they were picked to stubs ). The only herbs they seem to leave alone is my chives and my thyme.

I hope my herbs recover from the damage

Is there anything else that might keep the birds from eating them?

do yoou have any pets? if you can scrounge up some animal fur, or even human hair, and put that on top of the dirt aroung=d the herbs that may detere them. IF the netting idea doesn't work im not sure what else you can do other than maybe cover the herbs with something the birds can't penetrate? i wish i had some more ideas for you,i'm sorry

haha, maybe I'll finally find a use for the balls of cat fur my kitty leaves around the house for me

I'm going to put some netting up this weekend, I really hope it works. I was so excited about my herbs!

ha ha ha ha ha
oh my that was funny. well dahling good luck with the netting. i hope your herbs will be o.k.
i just added catnip (for my kitty) to a planter that i have mints,rosemary,tarragon,cilantro,parsley,thyme,and lemmon balm in. i just have to keep the squirrels from digging in it
which ones do you have?

ooh I saw catnip for sale the other day but I didn't buy it because I figured the birds would get it

I picked out sort of a mix-mash of herbs, so I have oregano (both greek and golden), mint, chives, thyme, sage, parsley, lavender, and chamomile (my favorite kind of herbal tea, yum!). I still would like to add catnip, and I saw a place that was selling chocolate mint too, but I don't want to put any more herbs out there until I can stop them from being eaten!