AU7214400A - Protector for fruit to prevent degradation by animal pests - Google Patents

Description

U

Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Applicant: MARTIN WEBER and TED POWER Address for Service: WALSH ASSOCIATES PATENT AND TRADE MRK ATTORNEYS P.O. Box 4306 PENRrTH PLAZA 2750 NIEW SOUTH WALES

AUSTRALIA

Invention Title: PROTECI7OR FOR FRUIT TO PREVENT DEGRADATION BY ANIMAL PESTS The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to the applicant: PROTECTOR FOR FRUIT TO PREVENT DEGRADATION BY ANIMAL PESTS

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to protection assemblies for the protection of plant produce such as fruit and the like from predators such as bats, birds and rodents but more particularly relates to a protective shield releasable from a fruit tree or protection bag attached to the fruit tree and which does not degrade or inhibit growth of the produce.

PRIOR ART As fruit and produce growers are subject to the potential degradation of their produce by pests such as birds, bats, rodents and the like, measures must be taken to provide protection for the produce to minimise losses.

Predation is a problem for nurseries, citrus growers, banana growers and like producers leading to potentially serious losses enough to threaten the financial viability of a commercial enterprise.

There have been many attempts in the past to address the problem of unwanted predation.

S Predation may be by microscopic predators such as bacteria and fingi as well as animals. The S present invention is directed to prevention of predation by animals such as birds, rodents and S bats.

United States patent No. 5,406,746 discloses a Protection bag for growing fruit which is applied directly to fruit growing on a plant for protection of the fruit from disease, insects and bird strike.

That bag relies for its efficacy on a coloring agent which has a property to gradually lower its sunlight shielding characteristics in response to irradiation by sunlight. The coloring agent initially provides substantially complete sunlight shielding characteristics and the sun light shielding characteristic is lowered at a given rate to its minimum sunlight shielding characteristics. The problem with this apparatus is that some fruits such as bananas demand full sunlight whereas others may in fact become sun burnt if not protected or where the level of sunlight is not controlled. Furthermore this known bag is not designed to deter animal predators and the bag can be penetrated by determined predators.

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United States patent 5,359,810 discloses a protective shroud or cover for young nursery stock, trees or shrubberies, wherein the shroud envelopes the tree via a zipper fastener and firmly secures itself thereon by means of two drawstrings and a fastening strip. The shroud consists of an essentially oval shaped protective fabric portion, a zipper fastener disposed on opposing side edges of the fabric portion, two drawstrings and a lower fastening strip which can be constructed from velcro. The shroud is made from a strong fabric material The shroud described in that patent is primarily for use in protection of plants during transportation from minor impact damage, wind and cold. They are not however, intended for use as nor suitable for protection against predation by birds, rodents and the like.

United States patent 5,016,388 discloses a protective tree guard for securement about mature trees formed from flexible polymeric fibres to accommodate variously configured tree shapes.

That patent recognised shortcomings in the prior art referred to in the patent an example of which was disclosed in US patent 2,405.452 which describes a canopy tree protector utilising a plurality of skeleton ribs to provide a conical type canopy for positioning over a tree. This is a oo cumbersome arrangement and is complex to affix to the tree.

US patent 4,395,844 discloses a one piece webbing formed of stretch type material for securement and positioning about a plant but fails to provide an efficient and labor saving manner of positioning about mature trees. In recognition of the problems inherent in the forgoing patents, US patent discloses a protective tree guard formed of stretch type polymeric material to provide a netting formed with knotted or thermoformed intersections to maintain the integrity of the netting and further is provided with right and left perimeter webbing having secured therethrough coacting snap fasteners to secure the side perimeters of the netting about an associated tree. While this arrangement is useful as protection for some trees, there are cases where the fruit of a tree requires protection rather than the total tree requiring a purpose specific protection apparatus which is detachably fitted to a tree to co-'er fruit with a millinimum of difficulty and without compromise to the health of the fruit. Furthermore, it is time consuming and cumbersome to clip the end of the netting in order to form the envelope.

United States Patent 5,233,788 discloses a fruit tree protector having a plurality of stretchable netting pieces fastened together by hooks which may be C-shaped and made of plastic, copper wire and the like. This product was designed with the objective of protecting fruit from the depredations of birds which are prone to attacking the fruit just prior to harvesting. Large growers address this problem by picking the fruit before it is ripe enough to be attractive to predators. It is ideal however to pick fruit at its peak of ripeness so it is suitable for immediate consumption by consumers.

There have been many efforts to arrive at an ideal fruit protector as evidenced in US patents 2,197,929 to Hale, patent No. 1,780,950 to Stevason, patent No. 1,072,339 to Liljegran, patent No. 994,083 to Mc Adie for example. The invention in US patent 3,233,788 for example, sought to provide a fresh solution to the problem by providing swatches of light weight netting held together by hooks, preferably C shaped which may cover all or a significant part of a tree. The netting is preferably stretched at least to some extent when the hooks are fastened. The resulting tension firmly holds the hooks and netting together but does not hamper access between the hooks to a human hand to pick the fruit.

Whilst this arrangement is suitable for its predesignated purpose, it is not an arrangement which suits all circumstances in which fruit is to be protected from depredation by pests. For example in the banana growing industry, there is no need to protect the banana tree as a whole but there is S a serious need to protect the downwardly depending banana fruit bunches from predation necessitating a purpose specific apparatus which satisfies all field and industry requirements.

INVENTION

The present invention seeks to provide a protection apparatus for the protection of fruits such as banana bunches from predation. Although the invention is adaptable to a variety ofl fruits, the invention according to its various embodiments will primarily be described with reference to its application to pest protection in the banana growing industry. Bananas are unique in respect of the shape and configuration of the clumps in which they form and this uniqueness in shape demands a protection device which will be quick and easy to affix, will not compromise the growth or health of the bananas, will be cheap to manufacture and therefore attractive to consumers, will be convenient to store, will not require multiple components for assembly, will provide an effective barrier to predatorial pests, will be easily removable and will not bruise the fruit or inhibit sunlight. Furthermore, the present invention will overcome the short commings of the prior art devices none of which are suitable for use in the protection of banana bunches from predatorial pests.

In its broadest form the present invention comprises; a protective shield for protecting field produce such as fruit from predatorial attack by such animals as birds, bats, rodents and the like; said shield comprising a filament curtain forming netting having a first end including means to enable direct or indirect fixation of said shield to a fruit bunch, the curtain terminating in a free end which downwardly depends from said fixation means; wherein, the weave of said filament curtain is such that it allows passage of air and light therethrough but prevents passage of said predatorial pests.

S" In another broad form the present invention comprises: a protective shield for detachable fixation to a fruit bunch such as bananas to protect said fruit a bunch from predatorial attack and damage to the fruit produce, the shield including a curtain comprising filament netting including apertures which are large enough to allow air and light to circulate about the fruit produce but small enough to prevent passage of pests such as rodents birds and any other animal predator prone to attack fruit; the curtain having at least upper and lower edges wherein the lower edge is a free end which drapes about and below the fruit, the upper edge terminating at and retained by a connector which comprises a strip of material which has means to engage directly or indirectly a fruit bearing stem of a tree such that the curtain hangs so as to block access of predators to the fruit.

In another broad form, the present invention comprises; a protective shield for detachable fixation to a bag for protecting a fruit bunch such as bananas to protect said fruit bunch firom predatorial attack and damage, the shield including; a curtain comprising filament netting including apertures which are large enough to allow air and light to circulate around and about the fruit produce but small enough to prevent passage of pests such as rodents, bats, birds and any other animal predator prone to attack fruit; the curtain having at least upper and lower edges wherein the lower edge is a free end which downwardly depends from fixation means attached to an opposite end; wherein said shield is detachably fixed to said protective bag via said fixation means, wherein said shield acts as a deterrent to said predatorial pests thereby preserving said produce.

In another broad form the present invention comprises: a protective shield for protecting field produce such as fruit from predatorial attack by such animals as birds, bats, rodents and the like; said shield comprising a filament curtain forming netting having a first end including means to enable direct or indirect fixation of said shield to a fruit bunch, the curtain terminating in a free end which downwardly depends from said fixation means; wherein, the weave of said filament curtain is such that it allows passage of air and light therethrough but also prevents passage of said predatorial pests.

In another broad form the present invention comprises: a protective shield for protecting field produce such as fruit from predatorial attack by animals such as birds, bats, rodents and the like; said shield comprising a filament curtain forming netting and including attachment means to enable fixation of said shield to a produce protection bag, the curtain terminating in a free end which downwardly depends from said fixation means; wherein said fixation means comprises an adhesive band which engages a surface of said bag such that the filament curtain downwardly depends from said bag and wherein the weave of said filament curtain is such that it allows passage of air and light therethrough but also prevents passage of and acts as a deterrent to said predatorial pests.

Preferably, the shield comprises a length of filament defining a predetermined area and having a free edge or end and another edge or end to which is attached a strip of adhesive material which enables the shield to be fitted to another object such as a protective bag, such that the shield will hang from or near fruit produce which is to be shielded from unwanted pests. The shield may be reusable or disposable depending upon user and /or field requiremetLts.

The present invention will now be described in more detail according to a preferred but non limiting embodiment and with reference to the accompanying illustrations, wherein: Figure 1: shows a shield according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; and Figure 2: shows the shield of Figure 1 attached to a protective bag for bananas.

Referring to figure 1 there is shown an isometric view of a shield 1 according to one embodiment of the invention. Shield 1 preferably comprises a curtain 2 formed of a weave of filament oo material such as but not limited to nylon. The curtain is of indefinite area and dimension but whose size is selected according to site requirements. The weave of filament may be knotted or thermoformed for strength. Edge 3 of curtain 2 receives a length of support material 4 having at least one adhesive surface 5 which enables attachment thereto of edge 3 of curtain 2. Support 4 includes adhesive surface 5 to which is attached cover strip 6 which may be peeled back to expose adhesive surface 5. In addition or alternatively, support 4 comprises a second adhesive surface 7 to which is attached cover strip 8 which may be peeled back to expose adhesive surface o*oo9 7. This arrangement allows the user choice as to use of adhesive surface but it will be recognised that one of the adhesive layers will support edge 3 of curtain 3 in which case the attached cover strip should be retained. Thus, shield support 4 will be double sided adhesive, one of which sides will receive and retain edge 3 of curtain 2. Curtain material 2 should be resilient enough to resist strike form animal pests and also to resist weathering and Ultra Violet degradation.

In use, shield 1 may be attached directly about a stem of a tree bearing fruit or alternatively to a protective bag. Where attached directly to a fruit bunch, the curtain will be of sufficient area to enable complete envelopment of the fruit bunch. According to this embodiment, the shield is preferably affixed directly to a stem of a branch of the tree. Referring to Figure 2 there is shown a protective bag 10 enveloping a bunch of bananas 11. At opening 12 of bag 10 there is placed a shield 13 similar to that depicted in figure 1. The shield must be proportioned such that opening 12 is sufficiently obstructed to ensure a deterrent effect on unwanted animal pests thereby protecting the bananas. Thus, to achieve this objective, the shield may partially or totally envelop opening 12. The shield may be placed at any location about opening 12 therefore allowing flexibility of positioning according to field requirements.

Although the shield has been described with reference to its application to protection of bananas it will be appreciated that the shield will have alternative applications as a deterrent to pests.

It will be recognised by persons skilled in the art that numero; variations and modifications may be made to the invention as broadly described herein without departing from the overall spirit and scope of the invention.

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