We see it every summer: a new housing development is being constructed, sod is being laid, ponds are being dug, and geese are hanging around. Geese are the last thing new residents will want in their otherwise beautiful home and yard. Goose droppings on your paths, aggressive nesting geese, and annoying honking noises will all make your development less appealing to potential and current residents. To avoid the fallout of nuisance geese, you should aggressively work to remove the geese from your housing development before they become an issue.
At Driven Wild Goose Control, we’d like to think we’ve seen it all when it comes to Canada goose removal in Minnesota. If you have Canada goose problems at your housing development, here are some tricks that may help you get them under control.
Make the Surroundings Less Attractive to Geese
Believe it or not, geese spend much of the summer walking from land to the water. They aren’t able to fly when they’re raising goslings, and then they spend about a month in molt when they lose their flight feathers. This means that geese rely on clear paths to and from water to feel safe. Early in the season, consider fencing off ponds or planting shrubbery that will make it difficult for the geese to get around on foot. This will act as a natural deterrent, and they’re less likely to show up for the summer. However, this method does not work if the geese have goslings because they can’t fly away. It can actually be inhumane to block the babies’ path to water.
Don’t Allow Geese to Nest
When geese nest on your property, there will inevitably be goslings. This is problematic because the goslings cannot fly for months, and there’s very little you can do to humanely harass them. In addition, the adult geese will be forced to stay close to the goslings through molt, usually late July.
You can prevent these issues by performing nest management to decrease the number of goslings that will be on your property in the spring. If you don’t want to manage the nests on your own, contact Driven Wild Goose Control. Our Minnesota professional goose removal company also offers nest management services in the spring to keep the goose population at bay.
Stop Feeding the Geese
Geese who eat human food like bread and other popcorn are likely to develop health issues long term. High carbohydrate foods aren’t a natural part of a Canada goose’s diet. They provide very little nutrition while filling the birds’ stomachs and discouraging them from eating more nutritious food. This leads to nutritional deficiencies which in turn cause deformities. Geese with wing deformities can’t fly, and their flight feathers don’t grow in correctly. The condition can be fatal; geese who cannot fly are likely to be left behind by other geese and will become even more nutritionally deficient.
Bread is like junk food to geese. They enjoy eating it and will quickly learn which humans are doling it out. Unfortunately, feeding geese bread almost becomes a vicious cycle: you feed the goose bread until it’s unable to fly, and it becomes more dependent on the bread to feel full. If you’re trying to get rid of geese in Minneapolis, you don’t want this scenario to occur. Consider posting signage that explains this issue, or notify neighbors that the geese will be easier to get rid of if they aren’t fed anymore.
Haze the Geese with Goose Control Dogs
If you’ve tried other methods of controlling the geese in your development and haven’t seen an improvement, it’s time to get serious. Contact Driven Wild Goose Control to set up a consultation. We’ll visit the property and create a custom quote for our all-inclusive goose hazing services.
Our Minnesota Canada goose control method has proven successful for other housing complexes, and it will work for yours. We’ll help you get rid of the Canada geese for good! Give us a call at 612-405-0568 to get started.