How To Keep Geese Out Of Your Yard
Whether you manage a residential, corporate or hospital property, Canada geese are likely no stranger to your yard. These birds can be a big nuisance, showing aggressive behavior, damaging your property and posing a variety of health risks to your tenants. Luckily, you have some options when it comes to keeping geese away.
What Attracts Geese?
Why are geese showing up to your lawn in the first place? Geese are fond of areas that provide food, water and a nice place to nest. Zoning laws for new construction require a water runoff area, and many contractors decide that a man-made pond is an effective and aesthetically pleasing way to accomplish this. What this does is create “goose heavens” – areas with luscious and manicured green grass, water, food, and no predators. Sounds nice, right?
In addition to having waterfront property, it can be especially difficult to keep geese away if your residents have bird feeders or are in the habit of feeding geese by hand. When provided food and water year-round, geese may even be more likely to skip migration and just stay put.
Nesting will also cause these birds to keep coming back to your property. When a goose finds a mate, they usually stay together for life. When they find a nesting site they like, they’ll return to that same spot for up to 12 years. Canada geese like urban areas and prefer to nest against buildings, parking islands, and rooftops. Since they’re protective creatures, they’ll also try to find a nesting spot with a clear view of any potential threat from predators.
Why are Geese a Problem?
In addition to potentially annoying residents with loud honking noises, geese can cause problems by damaging property, carrying diseases and acting aggressively.
Damage
Messy droppings can cover sidewalks, pathways and grassy areas, making them disgusting and difficult to navigate. Think about this: a single goose poops up to 2 lbs. per day. Multiply that by the number of geese on your property, and it can get pretty gross pretty quick. Geese also eat and kill the grass that you work so hard to maintain, making lawn care difficult.
Diseases
Geese cause a variety of sanitary concerns, as they can carry bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Potential bacteria includes chlamydiosis, e-coli, listeria, pasteurella multocida and salmonella, which can be shed through feces, nasal discharge and biting. Cryptosporidium, giardia, and toxoplasmosis are the main types of parasites; they can cause infection through contaminated water or if you eat an under-cooked goose. When it comes to viruses, Canada geese can contract the avian flu, which causes severe respiratory disease in birds.
Aggression
During the spring and summer months, geese can be aggressive and harass people on your property. Their behavior can become a major liability issue and potentially hold the property owner liable for any injuries incurred.
How to Keep Geese Away
Keeping geese away from lawns can be a time-consuming process. Still, there are devices and tactics you can use to better control the geese population on your property.
Remove their food source
Ask residents to stop feeding the geese and remove all bird feeders and wildlife feeders from the property. As the geese return to the area, they’ll realize there’s no food and will eventually stop coming back.
Cover the pond
Run wire across the pond to form a grid with 12-inch squares located 8 inches above the water. This grid will be too small and too low for geese to land or walk in, but shouldn’t cause problems for mallard ducks.
Use goose repellent products
Try using a goose repellent or grass treatment such as Flight Control, which is applied to the grass after every cutting. Keep in mind that most grape-based products won’t be effective.
Make your own goose repellent
To scare away geese, try taking an empty laundry detergent bottle, filling it with rocks, tying a rope around it and walking towards the geese while shaking the bottle. The geese will come to associate fear with the laundry detergent bottle. Remember to not hit the geese with your shaker.
Prevent the geese from nesting
If you know of spots where geese have previously nested, place a large, heavy object there to deter geese from nesting there again. Be sure to use an object that the geese won’t be able to move.
Hire a professional
Goose prevention and control is a time-consuming effort, and you have more important things to do than run around your yard shaking a laundry detergent bottle. Hiring experts (like us!) is a great way to have the goose problem taken care of while you focus on other important business tasks.
Humane Goose Control
Go Geese Go will evict your “resident” geese and run off any “transient” birds that stop by without touching or harming them. We’ll visit your property twice per day with our highly trained herding dogs – border collies that instinctively use their eyes to stalk their prey. Believing the dogs to be predators, the geese will learn to stay away and find a
new home. It’s a humane way to make your property as goose free as possible! To keep geese out of ponds, we use a combination of swimming the dogs and remote-controlled boats, along with lasers and noisy shakers. Everything we do is designed to scare away the geese without hurting them.
Our services work more effectively than using a decoy, sprays or other ways to keep geese out and convince them to stay gone. While it’s not guaranteed that you’ll never see another goose, we will do our best to make it that way!
Don’t let geese destroy your yard and aggravate your tenants. By making your property a less-than-ideal habitat for Canada geese, you’ll help to keep away these pesky birds. Contact us to learn more about Go Geese Go and how we can help you keep geese out of your yard.