Many regions are flocked with the notorious Canada geese in late April and early May. And if one isn’t careful, these birds can take over one’s residential and commercial property.
The thing about geese is that they have a good side and a bad side. When it comes to the good side, people love feeding geese – they will often go out of the way to bring a bag of crackers or bread with them to feed them.
Sometimes, it becomes a family event where parents will encourage their kids to feed the geese. Now, coming to the bad side of the arrival of the geese – excessive poop, excessive shed of feathers, and not to mention the wild tempers. Geese won’t shy from attacking you and your kids.
If the geese decide to settle in your garden (uninvited), you can anticipate the worst – talk about excessive damage to flower beds and other ornamentals.
It doesn’t matter whether the geese settled on your residential property or the yard adjacent to your business building; soon, you will regret allowing them to settle.
The Potential Damage that Geese can do to Your Property
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If this is the first time you are encountering geese, you ought to know the following facts about these birds:
Geese Poop a Lot
And when we say a lot – we mean it! The feces are so much that you will rarely find a clean spot in your yard or property – you can expect the feces of geese everywhere. And if it is concrete, you might find it hard to remove the poop, so you should know how to get rid of geese poop.
Rest assured, your property will require a thorough cleanup to get rid of the geese’s feces, which will lead to an increase in water bills and property maintenance. If you don’t have the geese removed from your property, you can expect the potential cost to add up over time.
Another thing linked with the geese’ feces is that these can contain harmful bacteria, so you should prevent your dog from eating geese poop – which, by the way, dogs love to do.
The thing about this bird species is that geese are more likely to feed on anything, so their feces contain dangerous pathogens. Their feces can contain transmittable diseases that can affect other animals.
For this very reason, geese are linked with several diseases, such as chlamydiosis and e-coli.
Geese Can Get Feisty
Geese have a well-earned reputation for being aggressive and feisty. Usually, birds behave this way when they feel threatened or want to protect their offspring. These aggressive birds can make it difficult to walk on your property.
While these birds aren’t capable of killing humans, they are truly capable of injuring you or making you run for safety. The geese can be aggressive and violent, so you should get them off your property as soon as you can.
Geese Can Carry Parasites
Besides viruses, geese can also carry parasites, including bugs, ticks, and berry bugs. Now, you know that these birds are very pretty to look at, but they can make your life a living hell with their feces and resultant mess and with the parasites that can infest your pets and property.
How to Deal with Unwanted Geese on Your Property
Understand the Timings
If you don’t want to deal with unwanted geese, you have to eliminate the problem before it comes into existence. You ought to understand the mate timing of the geese, which usually occurs in late winter and early spring – somewhere between February and April.
You have to understand that once the geese settle and lay eggs, they won’t leave your property. To prevent geese from nesting in your yard, you should install geese deterrent lights, especially if you have a pond in your yard.
Trust us when we tell you that you do not want to have geese in your pond – not only will they contaminate the water, but they also cause the fish to die – resulting from the excessive algae. You will want to avoid property damage at all costs by preventing the geese from laying eggs.
Once the geese succeed at laying eggs, no strategy of yours will work.
Don’t Feed the Geese
It doesn’t matter how cute the geese might appear on the surface, don’t fall into the trap of feeding them. If you make this mistake, you will never get rid of them. Once you start feeding them, the geese will swiftly adapt to being fed – especially when they are fed regularly.
If the Canada geese have arrived at your residential property, and your neighbor gets smitten away by these cuties and starts feeding them, you have a serious problem.
Regularly fed geese stop fearing humans and start to nest their offspring close to potential homes – ultimately establishing their property and seeing approaching humans as a potential threat who might harm their offspring.
So, if you see your neighbor feeding the geese, you might want to ask them to stop the feeding process so that the birds don’t get habitual and settle down on your property.
Keep a Dog
If you fear that geese can settle on your garden or farm, you might want to keep a dog that will chase them away. Geese will feel uncomfortable in the presence of a dog due to their predatory instinct. The thing about geese is that they aren’t sheep that would prefer to be herded – and in the presence of a dog, there will be continuous movement, which will eventually push the geese to leave your property.
All you need to do is grant your dog continuous access to the flock of geese – if you are lucky, it won’t take more than a week to get rid of the geese.
Use Alternate Noise
Another effective technique to drive geese away from your property is to play alternate noise at random timings. The geese will get startled and vacate your property soon enough. The trick, however, is to play different noises as the geese might get used to a monotonous noise.
There are different ways to create noise – for instance; you can use air horns, whistles, trumpets, tractor noise, and other equipment. Besides, if you have a domestic waterfowl on your property, you might want to have it removed from the property because its presence will signal the geese that the property is safe to inhabit – something that you will want to avoid at all costs.
