For fruit crops, yes. UC IPM tells grape and berry growers to run the netting to ground level and to tie the ends shut, because birds walk in underneath a net that stops short. Most bird netting gaps sit in that last foot above the soil. It is the part that is hardest to reach, and it is the part people skip when the light is going and the job is nearly done. A bird does not need a hole. It needs a hem that lifts.
I pulled the PVC hoop frame back off the blueberry row one July morning and three birds shot out of the far end. The net was on. It was clipped across the top of the hoops and it hung to about shin height down both sides, and the whole bottom edge was loose. Half the ripe fruit on the two end bushes was gone, most of it pecked once and dropped in the mulch.
Netting laid straight onto the plant fails for a related reason. Birds perch on the outside of the canopy and take the fruit that presses against the mesh, so the net has to sit on a frame that holds it off the leaves. The frame does two jobs at once. It keeps fruit out of reach, and it lets you carry the netting to ground in a straight drop on all four sides. Hoops, T-posts with a cross wire, or a wood box over a short row all work, as long as the sides hang free and the hem meets dirt.
Vineyard rows close a different way, and that is where people get the wrong idea. One method drapes the net over the canopy and clips it shut underneath the vines. The other runs two half-nets, one down each side of the row, joined along the fruit zone. Neither leaves an opening at the bottom. They close the net against itself instead of against the ground, which is the same result by another route. Clip as you install, or right after, because wind lifts an unclipped net off the row. Tie off netting ends at the last post in each row too, or you have built a tunnel with two open doors.
Buildings are the exception. On a house or a barn the net fastens to the wall and never touches the ground, since you are sealing an opening rather than fencing off a row. Size is the thing that counts there. Close every gap wider than 0.5 inch (13 mm) in lofts, vents and eaves. Wood, sheet metal, glass, brick, rustproof 1/4 inch (6 mm) wire mesh and plastic netting all do the job. Fix each one tight to the edge of the hole so nothing slips in behind it.
A net can be perfect across the top and still hand over the crop if the last few feet at each end post hang loose. Tie those off before you fuss over mesh size.
Walk the full edge of the net once it is up and look along the base for daylight. Any thin line of light is a door. Pin the hem with landscape staples every couple of feet, or set the edge in a shallow trench and backfill it. A length of scrap pipe laid along the base holds it down too. Check it again after the first windy day. If you keep finding birds under netting you were sure was closed, start at the corners and the end posts, because that is where the hem lifts first.
Read the full article: Bird Netting That Works Without Trapping
