Goose Control

You take great pride in your lawn. You feed it, weed it, mow it and admire it. But most importantly, you want to protect it.

One threat to your lawn is the activity of pest birds. In particular, large birds like geese and ducks who often graze on green lawns, leaving ugly bare patches. Or annoying, busy-body birds like crows who can quickly ruin a beautiful lawn by digging for grubs. The divots they leave can leave a lawn looking shoddy and damaged. There’s also the accumulation of bird droppings, which is not only unsightly but infested with diseases like E. coli and Salmonella. You don’t want that on your lawn, especially if you have children playing on it.

Compounding the problem is the fact that nesting geese and ducks can also be quite territorial. If they feel threatened while grazing on your lawn they will go after small children and pets.

As a homeowner, you know better than to go after these protected birds with poisons or pellet guns—especially if you have children, pets and sensitive neighbors. You also know from past experience that simply blasting pest birds with a garden hose is fairly ineffective—unless you stand guard with a hose 24/7. You’ve come to realize that the only way to keep pest birds away from your lawn is to implement the effective and humane deterrents used by professional bird control experts. Here are three bird deterrents that will do the trick:

Scarecrow

Easily attached to any garden hose, Scarecrow's hit invading birds with a harmless blast of water. Perfect for lawns, the Scarecrow uses just 2 to 3 cups of water per spray, yet covers a full 1,200 square feet with a stream that reaches out 35 feet and 45 feet wide. The scarecrow stands guard, day and night for up to 6 months (over 1,000 "firings") on a single 9-volt battery.

Hawk Decoy

Most birds avoid any areas where hawks are present. Place one or two of these hawk decoys in a highly visible position and say good-bye to pest birds converging on your lawn.  It’s important to get quality made realistic looking decoys, and to move them around often to convince birds the decoys are a “live” threat.  Some decoys are hollow at the base so you can fill them with sand for added stability. 

Sonic Goose Deterrents

Ideal for large lawns,  Sonic Goose Deterrents broadcast goose distress and predator calls that resemble normal bird sounds to humans (so they won’t irritate pets or your friends and neighbors).  If you’ve got all manner of birds attacking your lawn,  get the Goose-B-Gone Supersonic system. It can emit distress and predator calls of geese. This unit covers up to an acre and can be programmed to turn on or off at night.

by Alex A. Kecskes

If you’re a homeowner who takes pride in her garden, pool or spa area, you’ll want to read this. It’s about what Canada Geese can do to your property. These geese will be migrating in the spring and fall over North America. They have long black necks, a white “chin strap,” and brownish grey feathers. If you see them landing on your property, you’ll want to invest in some goose deterrents.

If your home is near a lake, reservoir, or even a large pond, you’ll more than likely be invaded by geese. Homes near a river or seashore are just as vulnerable. Geese like to munch on grasses and aquatic plants. So you can say goodbye to those expensive, decorative plants if geese decide to pay you a visit. Geese have excellent homing capabilities, which means if you didn’t effectively deter them last year, they’ll be back this year. To prevent this, you’ll need to deter the geese with a humane and effective bird control strategy.

Canada geese are big enough to trample and destroy most gardens (they can weigh up to 24 lbs). They can also be quite aggressive, chasing small pets and toddlers with an annoying “honking” noise. In flight, geese can reach speeds up to 50 mph, so they can and will knock down a small child.  Since they are territorial birds, they will protect their nest and eggs from a human or house pet. To protect your home from geese, bird control experts have developed goose deterrents.

Geese are also not very hospitable when it comes to pools, uncovered spas, fountains or ponds. They’ll take a dump in or around them, contaminating these areas and leaving you with a time-consuming cleanup job.  Goose droppings can cause bacterial and algae problems. They carry diseases, including swimmer’s itch, histoplasmosis, toxoplasmosis and giardia. The parasite larvae crawl onto the skin and burrow under it, creating a red itchy rash.

As previously mentioned, to keep geese away from your home and property, you’ll need some serious goose deterrents. Banging pots, shooting BB guns and leaving poisons are ineffective and dangerous to pets and children. Fortunately, there are a number of deterrents currently available to homeowners that are both humane and effective.

One such deterrent is the Super Sonic Goose Deterrent. This advanced sound deterrent system plays recorded goose distress calls to deter geese from outdoor areas. The distress and alarm calls are recorded in their natural habitat and are played every ten minutes. Each system is sun- and weather-resistant (so you can use it outdoors) and features a built-in speaker that covers up to an acre of land. You can add more speakers to cover larger areas. An LCD panel on the front displays system status and shows your specific settings. For example, you can program the system to shut off automatically at night. And unlike other goose sound deterrents that play high-pitched ultrasonic noises, the Super Sonic is safe to use around animals and pets.
 

by Terra Anders

Pack up a picnic basket, gather up the kids, apply the bug spray, and don’t forget the bread to feed the geese.  Sound familiar?  Children all over the world love feeding the geese.  What picnic at the park would be complete without this childhood tradition?  But what happens when the geese population increases so dramatically that they become a health hazard?  City officials all over the United States are often burdened with goose control issues like this.

In Wisconsin, Mayor Paul Soglin has been under scrutiny for allowing city officials to kill about 350 Canadian geese at four city parks.  The approval was given by Madison Parks Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on June 25, 2011 after evidence of hazardous algae and bacteria had been found in some of the park lakes.  The problem had become so bad that a couple of the parks had to be shut down during the busy season.  Water supplies were compromised, and something had to be done to get a handle on the multiplying geese population. While several goose deterrent options for getting rid of the birds were presented, the choice to capture and kill a large quantity of the geese has certainly brought about a lot of controversy.

In a statement on June 28, 2011, Mayor Soglin confirmed that the about 200 Canada geese were indeed harvested and killed shortly after after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a permit to kill the birds at four city parks. Citizen groups had been trying to prevent the killing in lieu of a more humane goose control method.

According to a recent WISC-TV report, although the killings did take place and the parks’ populations of geese were temporarily thinned, the geese have already begun to repopulate. Not only is killing a controversial goose control method, it is rarely successful in the long-run.  Much more humane, non-lethal methods are available, and when put in place with forethought and intention, these kinder methods can be much more effective.

Canadian geese like wide-open spaces. To help control bird populations, adding rocks, bushes, trees, hedges, or other types of barriers can modify the large open spaces of the park lawns. Plant these between the lawn and the water to discourage the geese.  They won’t like having to take the long way around to the water.

It may be futile to stop people from feeding geese in the park.  However, posting signs around the park, explaining the overpopulation problem and  how people can help by discouraging feeding the birds this practice would certainly be an inexpensive educational tool worth investing in.  Park staff might consider giving weekly informational classes to interested park-goers explaining the habits of the Canada geese and why they need to be controlled,

Spread non-toxic goose repellent on the area that is over-populated. This repellent is most often made with grape extract and methyl anthranilate, a combination that geese can not tolerate.  Geese hang around the park because there is always a sufficient food supply.  When this goose repellent is used, the geese will soon move on to other pastures looking for a more suitable food supply. 

Removing abandoned nests in the winter season can sometimes stop geese from coming back in the spring.

Geese prefer low, trimmed grass, so maintaining an area of tall grass or flowers around a lake area can create both a visual and physical barrier to the geese.

Geese populations respond quite well to sound goose deterrent systems that broadcast a recorded distress call in an area for up to 6 acres. The system is completely programmable and can send out one to two minute distress calls at determined intervals.   When geese hear this troubled cry, they become nervous and will leave the area in search of safer ground.  This type of goose deterrent is weather-resistant and very effective in large open outdoor spaces like parks.

Goose control is not a passive event.  It takes maintenance and persistence to convince birds to move out; and stay out.  Geese that have become comfortable in a particular area will return year after year.  Keeping an arsenal of bird control measures at the ready will be a park crew’s best plan.