Get Off My Lawn!

April 3, 2009 11:40 AM

Does anyone have experience with repelling geese from public property?

I have one school that some resident Canadian geese have decided seems pretty homey. The result is one pile of goose poop in every three square feet of a field that is as large as three soccer fields put together. It seems clear that to have kids running around such a field would expose them to E. coli, among (probably) other pathogens.

I have looked into biological control, chemical control, and a variety of mechanical controls.

Each of these has a significant downside for use on a piece of open, accessible, public land. The downside of the chemical repellent is that this is a town where stuff is perceived to be toxic that is toxic nowhere else.

But doing nothing would turning this asset over to wildlife, which, on the face of it, is not all bad but we lose 2 soccer fields and two softball fields, which we can't really lose.

So, dear Metachans, is there a silver bullet out there that I am missing?

posted by Danf to pets & animals (21 comments total)

At an office where I worked, there was a guy who brought in trained Australian Shepherds to run the geese out. I used to go watch him do training runs with the whistle and hand signals. It was awesome.
posted by jquinby at 11:45 AM on April 3

...if only I had followed your first link. Sorry.
posted by jquinby at 11:45 AM on April 3

Same problem here in Seattle, on the playfield and lawns around Greenlake. There doesn't seem to be any way short of actually going out and shooting them constantly to deter their presence. If you figure it out, will you let our city know?
posted by Aquaman at 11:46 AM on April 3

I worked in lawn-care, briefly. We had an older gentleman who lived nearby who kept Boarder Collies - to exercise his dogs we'd loan him a golf-cart and he'd set the dogs on the offenders. Works impressively well.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:49 AM on April 3

I bet a dog would love to run around all day chasing geese. Motion sensing water sprayers would also probably do the trick, but it'll be difficult and expensive to cover that much turf. I wouldn't bother with the plastic foxes/wolves - I often see geese happily milling around them.

There are plenty of places online that claim to have products that repel geese with ultrasound (some even solar powered!), but I have no idea if they work.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 11:49 AM on April 3

Methyl anthranilate is often used to repel birds; the advantage of it over other chemicals is that it's essentially artificial grape flavour, and so might be more familiar and acceptable if your neighbours are the OMG TOXINS types.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:59 AM on April 3

Have you looked into the wooden dogs? They're a *very* big thing up here in NJ. I even asked about it a while ago.
posted by dancinglamb at 12:02 PM on April 3

Coyote cutouts and long white streamers on poles about 2 1/2 feet tall. I see them all over around here to keep the geese from the farmers' fields in winter.
posted by fiercekitten at 12:20 PM on April 3

Umm, you want to be careful with all of this. Canada geese are still protected under federal law, and touching them without a permit can get you in trouble. As Baby_Balrog suggests, Border Collies have proven effective, but that may be a bit beyond your means.

Whatever you do, this is going to take weeks to months. Drive the geese off in the morning and they'll be back by the afternoon, if not before. Be prepared to do whatever it is you're going to do at least two or three times a day for a month.
posted by valkyryn at 12:48 PM on April 3

Seconding dancinglamb... the wooden dogs are remarkably effective. The theory is that Canada geese are so terrified of dogs, that even these outlines are enough to keep them away. It seems to be true.

(Also: Hello again, dancinglamb! :))
posted by CrayDrygu at 1:07 PM on April 3

My town solved this problem at a small pond by regular patrols by dogs (don't recall the breed) and by coating their eggs in vegetable oil. The oil prevents the eggs from hatching and without a family to raise it's easier to get the geese to leave. Repellents were tried but proved ineffective, only the dogs would get them to leave.

Of course, the geese just moved to an a different area but at least the pond is clear.
posted by tommasz at 1:25 PM on April 3

"australian shepherds?" wtf? they, too, were border collies. grumble
posted by jquinby at 1:31 PM on April 3

I work for a big company on Long Island (NY), and we are on a lot of property. Geese have always been a problem. Several years ago, I noticed we had started too use a service called "Goose Control" or something. Like your first link. Basically it's a guy (or two) with some dogs. I very rarely see the dogs do the chasing, but it seems to work.

On a semi-related note... I would think this is an excellent business to get into, wherever there are geese. Once you chase them off, say, the golf course, then next year you have to chase them off, say, the college campus. Then next year, from the municipal airport. Then the campus. Then the golf course. Etc. Probably never go out of business.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 1:39 PM on April 3

Each of these has a significant downside for use on a piece of open, accessible, public land.

Could you explain why using dogs has a downside in your situation? If the cost is the issue, maybe you can contact a local community group to sponsor it, or ask the users of the fields to pony up a bit extra in their league fees. Or maybe there is a kennel club or agility club that might be willing to do it on the cheap. Otherwise, it seems like the perfect answer.

One reason I can see for not using wooden dogs is you don't want anything to be in the way of kids running around.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 4:02 PM on April 3

Some large playing fields at my university have problems with geese. The university puts up life-size dog statues. The geese stay away. It seems to work remarkably well. I think they use 2 dog statues per soccer field. The dogs have to be pretty realistic - every time I saw them at my university I was fooled for a minute or two.

There is this on Craigslist - but I think you might want to go for something with realistic coloring.
posted by Cygnet at 4:11 PM on April 3

Propane cannon is what the rice farmers in Southwest Louisiana use to deter geese and ducks.

I'm not sure where you could place it to keep the area "kid friendly".
posted by JujuB at 4:49 PM on April 3

My city solved this problem by allowing off-leash dog walking on the grass between 5am and 8am every day. About 30-75 dogs show up every morning and the geese haven't been back since.

Obviously you need the dog shit picked up but they pretty much solved that problem by making the off-leash park contingent on good behavior. Dog people will do absolutely anything to keep an off leash area of that size and the place is cleaner than most officially-non-dog parks in terms of poop.
posted by fshgrl at 6:46 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

btw, if you are worried about unfettered dog walking call your local search adn rescue or dog training club and offer them use of the place x nights a week. They will clean up after the dogs and the actvity might be enough to deter the geese. Canada geese have great memories.
posted by fshgrl at 6:46 PM on April 3

Coyote cutouts

In Sarnia Ontario Canada, ( under the bridges) they installed wooden coyote silhouettes like has been mentioned before. It started out okay, but after a while the authorities started getting a lot of calls from people stating they had wolves under the bridges. Also the geese got used to them and just started pecking at the wood. Not sure if they used the streamers though.
posted by Taurid at 7:23 PM on April 3

sorry, saying they had coyotes
posted by Taurid at 7:24 PM on April 3

I use foil streamers to keep the chickens out of the garden area. They work great. The streamers are silver on one side and metallic red on the other--simulate fire to a bird, I guess.
You might try these for the Canada Geese.
I would think the cut-outs would get stolen.
But, if I had my druthers, I'd use a Jack Russle. Grrrowf!
posted by Acacia at 9:18 PM on April 3