What to do about Canada Geese

[Sicklid]

I have personally witnessed Canadian Geese force a swimming dog further and further into a pond and attempt to drown it, hitting it in the face with their wings... I don't know if a dog has the advantage on land, but I have also witnessed a duck chase a dog for quite a long stretch in a large parking lot... Much funnier than the first scenario, but it is still proof that a dog is not necessarily the number one solution...

 

[WhiteDevil]

If you want to get rid of the geese on your pond you need to net your entire pond. its what has to be done, you cannot kill them just deter them.

You can also put up predator decoys and the geese will stay away.


dont use goose decoys your problem will triple in minuts.

Or I can bring a couple of waterfowlers from work and take around 5 per day per person off the pond.

 

[FishEggs]

get a large R/C hover craft and have some fun! i say hover craft since it "hovers" on top of the water and there are no props in the water to do any harm to any fish. it will also work on land depending on the terrain.

 

[WhiteDevil]

actually I think owl decoys will work too. do you have an aerator on it?

 

[SparKy697]

Wow, you guys dug this up? Anybody look at the dates on this thread?

 

[Sicklid]

Wow, you guys dug this up? Anybody look at the dates on this thread?

There may be other people in the future who may have a similar problem and do a search, or maybe a solution to when the geese come again next season can be found in a new answer... I never knew there to be a time limit on open threads? Not one of us repeated a solution that was given prior, and all were useful IMO.

It isn't always about how current the thread is, and yes I looked at the dates... It wasn't too far down the list anyway, so pipe down there sparky... Perhaps if YOU read the dates on the thread, you would have made your remark back in March of 2009 when some one really dug it up from 2007, which was three posts before mine. Big deal, dude.

 

[SparKy697]

ROFL.
Fair enough... Have fun.

 

[Mystery]

Geese need to be understood based on the ecology and ethology, just like fish. The like easy access to water and grass. So you need less lawn or an impediment on the waterline. If the can't walk straight into the water they don't like it. If you kill them or drive them away you just get more the next day. You have to make the environment unsuitable for them--or learn to live with them.

 

[tomherndon]

And it may be good to note that prior to eradication of larger predators down to bobcats, geese couldn't have become year round as the nestlings wouldn't have made it to adulthood. Thus the successful model was to overwinter in southern marshes in which predators could not move effectively and then migrate to a barren northern tundra in which the lack of year-round prey prevented a significant population of predators establishing themselves. Flightless goslings were more likely to make it to maturity.

Many also forget that the English lawn is an import as well. Not only have we eliminated predators/competitors, we've put out a banquet. . .

Canine harrassment seems to work pretty well around here.

 

[bmg07]

get a pet tiger [make sure u put it on a leash]

 

[cwt]

An old cranky retiree (like my dad, who has a 1/2 acre pond) will thoroughly deter most Canada geese... not in a friendly way, but at least he doesn't shoot them. Mostly just lights off firecrackers and gets up in their grill. [edit: the geese don't bother the fish... but the blue herons that occasionally show up will go through a LOT of fish if not kept in check]

Whitedevil mentions netting the pond... at my place of work, they run cords across the pond in a criss-cross fashion; not really a 'net', just enough to keep birds from landing on the pond. The geese just mate and nest in the landscaping instead ;0