Although a wild goose looks majestic in flight and can be a great addition to areas with water, Canada geese can be pesky birds that make tons of mess and cause other issues.
Two common issues are loud noises; even though they make excellent guard dogs, they can be annoying. However, the worst is when your deck is a mess and slippery. In our guide, you can learn the many ways of how to keep birds off your dock.
By the end, you’ll have many ways for keeping geese off docks without harming them, so you can still enjoy their majestic appearance on the water. (Read Do Cherry Blossom Trees Grow Cherries)
What Attracts Pesky Birds to My Dock
There are many species of goose and other waterfowl, including ducks and swans. Few sights can match the majesty of a flock of geese flying in a wide V formation overhead. Every year, Canadian Geese will go to and from the same area. This bird prefers to mate and have children in the spring close to where they were born.
This shows that your goose problem won’t disappear from your dock or pond even when the season changes. There are several reasons for many geese species to congregate around a boat dock. They are looking for necessities like food and shelter, as well as extras like waterfront property and wide open areas.
Typically, geese are looking for:
- Water: Geese-like properties on the water that are convenient for bathing and playing.
- Food: Any animal is drawn to areas that offer a reliable food source. Be sure to remove any food sources or loose scraps that could tempt birds and other pests to your property.
- Shelter: Birds often search for a waterfront property to build a shelter or nest to lay eggs during the mating season. Birds may try to make a nest on your dock if it has an awning or other characteristics that provide them with a protected space.
- Open space: Geese can see everything going on and like to watch for potential threats thanks to a clear view. A simple way of adding tall grass near your dock can obstruct their view. Understanding what attracts birds to your dock can open up more ways of keeping geese away.
First, block off their required resources and block their open environment.
Overview of Keeping Canadian Geese Off Your Dock
Using a variety of products is the best approach to keep geese away from your pond, lawn, yard, and property. Place a liquid deterrent on the edges of your dock, ponds or around buildings and populated areas.
To accompany this, start installing decoys in some key locations to effectively prevent geese from returning. In addition, you can add netting in select locations, so you’ll keep wild geese flying majestically overhead to another safer place. (Learn How To Stop Geese From Pooping In Yard)
Keeping Geese Off Dock with Physical Deterrents
You need access to your dock, whether you use it to leap off of, lounge on, or you use it mainly access your boat. So, you can use any physical deterrents to keep geese off your dock.
Flags: Flagpoles make noises when flags flutter in the wind, thus confusing the birds.
Decoys: Decoys can be seen to brighten up your dock, besides keeping geese away from your dock. Swan statues are a convincing imitation of the primary predator of geese. These can deter ducks and geese away from your property by placing them on your dock or in the water.
Swans have aggressive behavior, much like geese and ducks; thus, they will try to stay away from them. The migration season is when you will find these swan decoys or owl decoys to be most useful, so you don’t even need to keep them all year.
Decoys may need to be moved by humans as geese will see they are not moving. Also, you can combine a decoy with other methods to stop geese from venturing on your dock.
Lights: Geese hate bright lights, especially in areas where they sleep. Bright lights can cause disruption if you use strobe lights.
Bird spikes: Discomforting birds is a surefire technique to deter them. Bird spikes, wires, or nets will set up traps or frighten off the geese, making them less uncomfortable to want to stay.
Use Reflective Items To Keep Geese Off Your Dock
For birds, reflective surfaces are frightening and perplexing. Utilize this apprehension by putting reflective materials on your dock to deter geese.
Reflective tape: Such tape can deter birds by covering the dock’s edges in the material. The reflective tape can have a fine texture that is practical. It won’t obstruct your path, and you can use it to highlight the edges of your dock in low light.
Old DVDs and CDs: If you don’t use CDs, you can hang them or stick them shiny side up to keep geese off docks. To prevent geese from congregating at the dock area, hang a lot of reflective objects there or close by. This is one of the most practical and affordable options you have, and it’s also relatively simple to execute. (Read Can Ducks See Color)
How To Keep Geese Off Your Dock With Noise
If you want to keep geese away from your dock, make loud noises because they are pretty effective at doing so. Geese can be scared by a variety of loud noises, and if loud noises come from close to your dock, they will feel threatened.
Although it would not always be possible, use a noise generator, or play music to frighten geese. Although the noise needs to be sufficiently loud, the type of noise isn’t essential.
Remember that you don’t want it to disturb your neighbors or be a nuisance in populated areas. Whatever the case, this is a tactic that can deter geese from approaching your dock.
Use Nets or Bird Wiring To Stop A Wild Goose
By adding bird wiring or netting to their docks, some people have made it more difficult for geese to use them. The fundamental idea behind this is that wiring and netting will make it much more difficult for geese to land and move about.
Geese are intelligent enough to realize when they won’t have a clear path to land, they will tell if they try to land on your dock, they will get caught in a net. This might be more than enough to dissuade geese from trying to stop there.
Although many people have had success with it, there are some drawbacks. It could be challenging to use your dock if you need to remove any bird wiring or netting.
Stop Canada Geese With Liquid Goose Repellent
You may purchase liquid goose repellant from a variety of vendors to keep geese from landing on your dock. The geese will keep away from your dock because these simple liquid deterrents contain components they hate yet won’t bother humans or your pets.
Overall, if you want to solve your geese problem quickly, this will be one of the greatest deterrents to use. Applying this liquid goose repellent to your dock is relatively simple, and you should see excellent results on your goose problem and keep any other pesky bird away.
The repellent won’t last forever, as you might think, and if waves frequently splash your dock, you might have trouble getting it to stay there.
Grow Tall Grass To Keep Geese Away
It’s also important to keep in mind that geese will be highly cautious when landing close to areas with bushes and long grass. It might help deter geese from approaching if you allow the grass to grow a little thicker than usual.
Bushes can also serve as a strong deterrent since geese see them as potential hiding places for danger. This is mostly because geese have many natural predators and are aware that these predators would hide in tall grass or shrubs.
You might try to try planting some plants on the property close to the dock to see if that would assist in making it less inviting for geese. Overall, it’s simple to do and might even improve the area’s attractive appeal.
This idea should be combined with another effective deterrent, as bushes and slightly taller grass might not leave you with your problem solved on their own. (Read Can Ducks Change Gender)
Use Dock Dori Poles
These poles can keep ducks and geese off your dock as a pennant’s shadow drives them nuts. Dori poles with flowing pennants are the perfect scare method since the pennants make a gigantic shadow on the dock, and the ducks and geese want to avoid them.
The only time these are ineffective is when there is a danger of no wind, and they don’t scare birds or animals.
What Problems Do Geese Cause?
If you’re exploring goose solutions, you already know their problems. A flock of geese may be unwanted on a property for several reasons. Geese can overgraze grass areas, leaving them lifeless. Re-seeding and fixing damage might cost thousands and isn’t permanent, as a flock of geese will return annually and do the same thing.
When mating and protecting their young, geese are aggressive. Adult geese will hunt anyone or pets that enter their territory. Geese are wasteful as their sloppy droppings smell and can travel hundreds of feet, making living, standing, and eating uncomfortable near ponds.
A flock of geese can be loud and distracting no matter where you live.
Don’t Feed Any Bird Or Animals
Ducks and Geese love it when they are fed. Because of this, they may be attracted to your property when dock visitors give them maize, sorghum, or wheat.
People are drawn to feed birds because it’s soothing. You, as the dock owner, need to deal with ducks and nuisance geese and all the health risks they bring. Put a sign around your dock to discourage feeding the geese and ducks.
What smells do ducks and geese hate?
Certain essential oils, such as rosemary, mint, and a few others that include all-natural components, do not appeal to ducks and geese. These all-natural deterrents for geese and ducks can be sprayed on grass or bushes after being diluted with water. To keep these birds away, you can even add them directly to your lake and pool.
