Non-lethal way to control geese! Stop the Claim Jumping Geese!

Lee’s Notes: Another shamelessly stolen article from George Rotramel. THANKS GEORGE!!! This one is a way to keep geese from nesting/abusing your property. NOW IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SCARE THEM OFF FOR THIS SEASON!!!

The non-migratory subspecies of the Canada goose is becoming an increasing problem in cities and suburbs in the Midwest and eastern , particularly around ornamental ponds and other impoundments. The worst goose problems occur when the birds are breeding. Both males and females will attack people who come too close to their nests or their young. Here’s how to manipulate the birds’ behavior to prevent nesting and its attendant problems in localized areas.

Unfortunately, this won’t solve the overall problem in your community. Your particular gaggle of geese will simply go somewhere else. Areawide goose populations won’t be reduced until the carrying capacity of the environment is decreased. This means fewer ponds, fewer highly attractive grassy areas, or increases in predators and other mortality factors. We know that predation works. Today’s non-migratory pest geese had been hunted almost to extinction by the 1960’s. It took an organized effort by wildlife managers to bring them back. 

Get rid of your geese by taking advantage of the 4 phases in their breeding cycle:

1) Selecting This Year’s Nest Site…November through March

2) Committing to this Year’s Nest Site… March through May

3) Defending the Nest, Eggs and Nestlings…May through July

4) Scouting for Next Year’s Nest Site…July through November

Notice that the commitment and defense phases coincide with the peak in goose/human conflicts. These are the times when the geese are most dedicated to ‘their’ real estate.

The other two phases, scouting and selection are when the geese are least willing to fight over real estate, and this is when they can be convinced that nesting on your particular property is not a good idea.

Geese will abandon a particular area as a nest site if they are chased or disturbed regularly before they have made their final selection for the coming breeding season. Walkers, joggers, even bicyclists can harass them. People can walk and exercise their dogs in the area and just let their dogs be dogs. The more haphazard these activities are, the better. Just so several disturbances are delivered at different times each day.

Winter is the time to start planning your goose chases. Begin your trial runs as soon as you can in January or early February at the latest. The idea is to have an operational system in place by March that you can keep up until June, by which time the geese will have decided to nest somewhere else. Then you can put your program on cruise control until the nest selection process begins next winter. NOTE: Do not attempt to chase geese in midsummer. Geese molt during this period and are ‘grounded’ until their new flight feathers come in.

As always, if you like what I write, and you or someone you know is looking to buy, sell, and or invest using a great realtor in central Indiana, or anyplace else for that matter. Please feel free to send me the persons name, email, address, and or phone number and I will be happy to help them, or refer them to someone else who can… In the process, I may earn a referral fee, if i cant help them myself!