Protect Your Lawn and Garden—the Geese are Coming!

By Alex A. Kecskes

Spring is coming…and so are the Geese. They'll be honking, and nesting and trampling all over your lawn and garden.  They'll also be pooping on your lawn, around your pool or spa, and creating quite an unsanitary mess. To successfully deter geese, its important to start early. You'll have to stop them before they settle in for spring. The time for bird deterrents is now.

Remember how they came back last year? Well, they'll do the same this year, maybe even bring a few friends, which means you'll have an even bigger problem this year. If you destroyed their nests, they'll just build new ones. They're strong willed and determined, especially if your yard offers what they like—shelter, food, close proximity to water and protection from predators.

As you may recall, geese are big and heavy, and they can fly approaching speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.  They'll ram into your dog, cat or child and knock them down, especially to protect their nests and eggs. Unless you act now by installing an effective goose deterrent, you'll be cleaning a mess on a weekly or even daily basis. Is this how you want to spend or your spring and summer months?

If you don't keep your pool, spa or pond clean, the goose droppings could infect you with any number of diseases, including swimmer’s itch, histoplasmosis, toxoplasmosis and giardia.  Heard enough?  Then get ready to implement some effective goose deterrents:

Migrate Goose Repellent. Migrate is a liquid repellent used to keep geese from eating grass or shrubbery and is made from a grape extract. You simply mix migrate with water and apply to affected areas. Geese cannot stand the taste and smell of the repellent and will move on to find a new food source. Migrate lasts about 3 months outdoors and is safe to use around people and pets.

Bird Scare Devices. These are relatively inexpensive and easy to install all around your property. They consist of iridescent reflective foil or shiny tape banners that wave in the breeze, crackling and reflecting sunlight to create an “Optical Distraction Zone.” Another effective goose deterrent that falls into this category is the inflatable balloon. These have large "spooky" reflective predator eyes no goose wants to be around. There's also the Scare-Eye Diverter, which, like the balloon, looks very intimidating to geese and makes them feel like they're being sized up for a meal. These goose control deterrents work best when they're moved and switched every so often. Hey, birds aren't stupid, so respect them and beat them by outsmarting them.

Goose-B-Gone Super Sonic. This is an outdoor sound device that plays real goose distress calls mixed with bird predator calls. They work their psychological magic and convince geese that danger is near and that other geese are in trouble. This will convince them to move on to a more secure spot. Best of all this Goose Sonic device is weatherproof and can cover between 1- acres! The unit can be programmed to turn off at night and back on in the morning. 


The most important thing to remember is to install your goose deterrents now, before geese arrive, the sooner you address the problem, the more successful you will be.

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Goose Deterrents for Today’s Homeowners

by Alex A. Kecskes

If you’re a homeowner living anywhere in North America, you may have had a run in with geese on your property. There are over10 different species of Geese. They can weigh upwards of 24 lbs and be up to four feet long. That’s a lot of goose, and a lot of droppings and damage to your garden. Without effective goose repellents or goose deterrents, your garden will be pretty much at their mercy.

The two types of geese are your migrating geese and your resident Canada geese. The former spend their winters in the deep Southern US and Mexico, then head to Canada to breed in the Spring; the latter will nest, lay eggs and deposit as much as a pound of droppings (per goose) on your beautiful garden. It’s not pretty. Resident geese will occupy your garden between April and August; migratory geese will use your garden for a day or so--enough to do some damage and leave their droppings for you to clean up.

Without proper goose control, flocks of geese will run roughshod over your garden and lawn. The droppings left by these large birds are no different than those of other winged pests. They contain diseases that can create serious health risks. If you have a decorative pond, spa or pool, you’ll have to clean out the droppings before you can enjoy these amenities. Public beaches have been shut down when goose droppings raised fecal coliform levels.

While there are all sorts of ways to chase geese off your property--including bang cannons, BB guns, avicides and firecrackers--these can be both ineffective in the long run and dangerous or annoying to family, neighbors and pets.

Fortunately, there are a number of humane, common sense goose deterrents that have proven to be highly effective.

One solution for deterring geese is a smart device called the Scarecrow. The second any bird enters its radius of protection, the Scarecrow springs to life, blasting the intruding bird with water. For any bird, this can be an unnerving and memorable experience, for the sudden blast of water, startling sprinkler sound, and realistic looking bird-like moving head add up to a very powerful deterrent.

Scarecrows are perfect for use in your garden and lawn, as well as around pools, spas and any water feature you may have in your backyard. They connect easily to most garden hoses and they cover about 1,200 square feet with a blast that extends out to 35 feet covering a 45-foot wide swath. Scarecrows are quiet, unobtrusive sentinels that guard your garden day and night from geese intruders. They are economical too, providing over 1,000 "firings" on one 9-volt battery. You can easily adjust them to the needs of your particular garden.  Both the sensitivity and the coverage area can be fine tuned.

For smaller gardens, short walkways and decorative water features and ponds, consider the Mini Scarecrow. It works the same as its big cousin, but rather than using a water blast, it relies on compressed air to generate an annoying squeal intended to discourage geese from occupying your garden, pond or walkway. The Mini is activated the second a goose enters its radius of detection (typically, about 3 to 4 feet). Like the Scarecrow, the Mini can be easily fine tuned to the needs of your garden. The Mini will stand guard with over 200 sprays. It’s versatile too, for you can switch to a sound-only mode to save the compressed air for longer active performance.

There’s no doubt that geese in your yard or garden can be a problem. But if you use the right goose deterrent, you can save your property from extensive damage and contamination. The key is to be proactive and install these bird deterrents before the offending birds decide to invade your property and call it their home. Once they’ve settled in, it can be a challenge to get rid of them, for geese can be quite stubborn and aggressive pests.

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Three Ways to Give Geese the Boot!

by Terra Anders

Residential lakeside homes are sought after for their wonderful views, and temperate climates.  They also often have to deal with pest birds, like geese.  Homes that have large lawns with a clear line of vision from the grass to the shoreline may find geese settling there in increasing numbers.  Geese are grazers, so they like to waddle around snacking on grass and seeds in the lawn. Large groups of geese can be seen settled on lawns, sunning and preening themselves while keeping an eye out for predators. These habits make a large grassy area with a fast, visible escape route to the water, a sought after commodity for geese. As beautiful as they are to look at, these large birds soon wear out their welcome. They can quickly increase in numbers, fouling the grass, sand or boat docks with their droppings. 

The lovely Canada Goose is quite prolific, starting their reproductive life at about 2 years of age.  An average goose couple can produce about four offspring each year.  Since the geese live to be about ten or eleven years, that means that just one pair of geese and their offspring alone can increase the gaggle to several hundred in just a few years!  If homeowners have not built in well-planned goose deterrents, the mess left by the geese families can depreciate the value of the property considerably.
Hunting geese as a means of controlling the population is frowned upon by many, it is actually an realistic means of controlling goose populations in some areas.  It is allowed in some states, but only under very controlled conditions.  Never shoot Canada Geese on a property before first checking with the local Department of Fish and Wildlife authorities.  They can provide hunting limitations, removal guidelines and rules that should be followed without compromise.

Actually, some basic landscaping tips and a couple of easy goose control methods can be employed to keep the geese population in check and property cleaner, safer and more pleasant. Geese look for three main things when selecting their long-term residence: safety, food and adequate tall water grasses for nesting. Any kind of effective goose deterrent plan must address all three of these.

Goose-Resistant Landscaping: Making your shoreline less attractive to geese, but still a lovely view for humans aren’t as tough as it wounds. Eliminating the clear view line from grass to water is probably the most effective landscaping technique.  This can be done by setting up a physical barrier of some kind between water and grass. Wire mesh or polyurethane bird netting, even a white picket fence will work as long as the mesh or slat distance is no larger than 3 inches, and fences are at least 30 inches high.  Walking geese will not be happy with this.  If a more natural barrier is preferred, consider a very dense decorative hedge or long patch of wildflowers of no less than thirty inches high.  The barrier should be 20-30 feet wide and placed along the shoreline, then reaching back along each side of the lawn.  Any cattails or tall water grasses can remain on the opposite side of the barrier to help keep birds away from the lawn.

Motion Activated Sprinklers: What about those geese that fly in and land on the lawn?  Not to worry, the key is to make them as uncomfortable as possible so they won’t stay.  Sudden, unexpected water bursts into the large open lawn area can be a surprisingly useful goose deterrent.  Motion sensors detect when a bird is within 35 feet of the sensor, activating a water burst sprinkler system that shoots H20 up to 35 feet out and 45 feet across. Geese are unable to settle down and will take their friends and move along quickly.

Lawns that fail the goose taste test:  Geese that have already settled in will need more coaxing to leave.  Spreading non-toxic goose repellent over the lawn (or even along the shoreline) is another useful deterrent. As the geese snack, they eat the grape extract which irritates the nerves in the bird’s nasal passages and other mucous membranes. It is vexing to the geese and they will soon realize there are no more good eats there. The concentrated spray is mixed with water and dispersed using a standard hand-held sprayer.  Mow the law before treating it and re-treat about every four weeks to maintain.

Once their sense of safety has been removed by the landscaping; the nesting areas have been eliminated; and their feeding area is contaminated, the pest geese will leave in search of a more inviting home. Goose control can be environmentally friendly and still work to keep birds away from private property.