Does anyone know the rules on canon bird scarers used by farmers?

Let me start by saying I am a country person born and bred and know that it is necessary to protect crops from pests. We have had the gun type of canons here before and although a bit of a nuisance, not something we found an issue before. However, yesterday the local farmer set up a gun/canon bird scarer in the field next to us. It is so close that we can hear the timer beeping before it goes off every 10 minutes through the day and night and is excessively loud. Each bang echoes around the valley, so we hear it twice!


My question is does anyone know the rules on their use? I am not wanting to stop it and cause an issue with the farmer but would appreciate it being turned off at night, as I do not feel it necessary to scare birds in the dark! Are there noise abatement rules and if so who do I raise the issue with? I know the farmer in question is not going to be happy and I am sure he will not take kindly to me (a bloody foreigner!) complaining about the use of his scarer protecting his crops, after all we are in his domain but need to do something before I go mad and our guests in the gite leave!


Please can someone help!


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Hi Allison

There are indeed rules to be respected. In my department farmers can't use them between 8 in the evening and 7 in the morning. Sundays and holidays aren't allowed too unless it's the (limited) seeding time for the crops (which could be your case, depending on the crop the farmer has seeded).

These canons should be placed outside a 200-500 meter perimeter of habitats. The actual distance varies per department you're living in so check for "canons agricoles à gaz" and your department name i.e. number