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Goose Control for Parks, Playgrounds
and Homes
From an article by Dr. Leonard Askham
Wildlife Damage Management Scientist (Emeritus)
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
Washington State University
Goose control can either be difficult or easy. Difficult if you
know little about the birds. Easy if you know more.
Fifteen years ago the nation's goose population
was declining so much that the US Fish and Wildlife Service was
considering listing the goose as a threatened bird under the Endangered
Species Act. Now they have become a problem in many areas. Why?
Because they have adapted to live with humans.
People, like you and me, have done a lot to
make them feel welcome, particularly in cities and urban areas. We
protect them from predators like dogs and cats, wolves, mountain lions,
coyotes, bob cats, skunks, raccoons, and a number of other animals.
We provide them with habitat: water where they can be safe at night
or escape to safety when they feel threatened, shelter where they
can hide and raise their young, and lush, green, nourishing grass
like your lawn. We can only blame ourselves, not the geese, for liking
to live with us. But what can we do about
it? Just like you and me, geese need three things to survive: food,
water and shelter. Change or eliminate one or more and they will
either leave or die. A radical plan would be to drain all the water,
pull all the shrubs, cover the laws with concrete and paint it green.
That would work, but it would not help our quality of life. Instead,
we would prefer to make some minor changes to eliminate our goose
problem. How can we do that? Very simple. Reduce or eliminate their
access to water, change their shelter and/or eliminate their food.
Long term solutions generally require all three. By the time geese
have become a nuisance they are accustomed to a particular territory.
It is their home and they don't want to leave it.
People have tried a number of techniques and combinations
of techniques to get rid of birds, generally to no avail. The oldest
methods employed scare devices that created loud noises such as
firecrackers, exploding shells and propane fired cannons. Unfortunately
the birds become accustomed to them in a short period of time and
return as soon as they are stopped. Your neighbors won't go away
though, and they might not like explosions either.
Dogs have also become popular during the last
few years, particularly at some parks and golf courses. While it
is true that dogs can be trained to chase geese, this method of
control can run afoul of regulations that prevent harassment of
wild animals. Dogs, particularly trained ones, are expensive to
own and maintain, and there is always the possibility that they
will bite someone. Of course, dogs can leave a few messes of their
own behind.
Of all the methods for making geese leave, probably
the quickest and best is simply to make their food taste bad. The
only products currently available for this are made with an artificial
extract from Concord grapes called methyl anthranilate. It is the
same chemical that is used as an artificial flavor and fragrance
enhancer in grape sodas, bubble gum, candy, drugs, soaps and perfumes.
It has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for
over forty years. Birds, including geese, do not like it's taste.
After trying to eat grass that has been sprayed with one of these
products, geese will generally stop feeding in the area. If they
have previously become habituated to the area, they may stay and
sporadically continue to try to feed for up to three weeks, but
eventually, (if you are more stubborn than the geese), they will
leave.
If you can put it on your lawn and not mow it
for three weeks, one application might be enough to move the geese
some place else, like your neighbor's lawn. Unfortunately, each
time you mow you cut off the repellent, so the repellent must be
applied again until the birds finally give up. Usually this can
be accomplished in two to four weeks depending on how stubborn the
geese are. Increasing the intervals between mowings lengthens the
amount of time the chemical will be repellent to the geese.
How easy is the repellent to use? Quite easy.
The concentrate is mixed with water and sprayed on the lawn. One
gallon of the repellent concentrate mixed in thirty gallons of water
will cover approximately half an acre. This is an area about 150
feet by 150 feet; about half the size of a football or soccer field.
As easy
as this sounds, two mistakes are generally made. Either not enough
is put on, or wrong equipment is used (or both). To be effective the
chemical must completely cover the grass. It must penetrate down to
the crowns of the plants where they grow out of the soil and the birds
feed.
Homeowners can use a hose-end applicator that may be purchased
with the repellent, if they do not already have one. It should be
calibrated to apply the correct amount to their lawn. Applications
on golf courses, parks and playgrounds should, however, use calibrated
boom sprayers. These boom sprayers are much more efficient and cover
more area in a shorter period of time. They also tend to apply an
even distribution of the chemical throughout the turf. The single
most common problem with boom sprayers is that they are generally
not calibrated correctly when the repellent is applied. Most sprayers
are used to apply liquid fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and
herbicides at 20 gallons of tank mix per acre. Many sprayer operators
don't know how to change their equipment's spray rates, or are hesitant
to do so. If these sprayers are not properly calibrated, then only
the top of the grass will be coated with repellent. This is not enough
to do any good because the mix will not penetrate to the crowns of
the plants. To be most effective the nozzles on the boom should be
changed, and the pump pressure increased, so that approximately sixty
gallons of tank mix is applied by the sprayer to each acre of turf.
Doing anything else is a waste of time and money.
A
very practical question is: What happens when it rains or when I
irrigate? With most of these products, the answer is "nothing."
Once the repellent is applied to the plant, and it dries, it can
not be washed off. That is why it is so important to apply it when
it is as dry as possible.
The only things that will remove the repellent,
besides mowing, are sunlight and high temperatures. The less sun and
the lower the temperature, the longer it will last. That is why it
can be effective longer in the fall, winter and spring when it is
cooler. Since it will not wash off the plants it will not leach through
the soil to contaminate nearby ponds and affect fish. Any repellent
that is sprayed on bare soil, or reaches the soil during the application
process, is immediately bound to the soil and is broken down by the
soil's microbes. These products are basically
harmless to pets and humans. Since they dry almost immediately,
people and animals can walk across the grass, lie on it and play
on it without fear of having the repellent rub off on them. Even
if it did there is little likelihood that the chemicals will affect
them. Remember, it is made of food grade chemicals.
Habitat modification works well in conjunction
with the repellent. Most goose problems are around lakes and along
rivers for one simple reason. The birds need water and they use
it for protection when they feel threatened. They initially begin
feeding along the water's edge. Then they make their way across
the grass, as they become more comfortable. Usually they leave the
water where it is not steep and there are no shrubs or tall plants
to get in their way. Geese don't climb well nor do they want anything
getting in their way if they have to fly back to the water in a
hurry. In other words they want a clear access to the water in case
they are threatened. This is why the repellent is most effective
when it is applied for the first 50 to 100 feet from the water's
edge. Large rocks, making it difficult for the birds to leave the
water, can be placed along the bank. Temporary fencing, that can
be removed when the birds are gone, can be erected. Long term solutions
might be to grow shrubs along the water's edge or to let the grass
grow because geese do not like grass over six to eight inches in
height. Put it all together, and your geese. And their calling cards,
will be history.
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