Here the juveniles, who have been mostly reared alone, make contact with other juveniles and with adult flying foxes from the adjacent colony. Over a period of several months, the great majority of the juveniles leave the release cage and join the colony. Another important rehabilitator in the Atherton area is Jenny Maclean . This would seem to be one of the obvious ways to go - but netting is expensive and labour intensive. However many orchardists seem to manage to protect their crops against not only the incursions of flying foxes, but also rainbow lorikeets.
Most farmers object to the price of nets, and refuse to net their trees.
There are balso other problems with netting, because the trees cannot be allowed to grow too high. A Julatten lychee farm fully netted with throw-over nets. These nets are only used once a season and are removed from the tree when picking, and stored for next season. Other types of nets are fixed on wires running above the orchard - these are more expensive but less labour intensive to install each season. In effect, it is the electronic equivalent of a farmer patrolling his orchard at night with a shotgun loaded with birdscarer cartridges.