Pond Boss
Posted By: bamaboy Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 03:25 AM
I have a 10 acre lake in central Alabama that I have owned about a year. Good bass fishing lake. I am concerned about the number of ducks that were already presiding here when I purchased the land. There are about 30 of them and they are all Muscovy ducks. Can you guys tell me what kind of damage these things will cause to the lake and the fish population?
Posted By: teehjaeh57 Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 05:41 AM
Welcome to the forum, Bama.

Populations of waterfowl add significant amounts of phosphorous to the water and accelerate the eutrophication process leading to water quality issues. Too many nutrients for the water to process - something will utilize those nutrients often dense phytoplankton blooms or filamentous algae. Dense plankton blooms are subject to major die off events, which in turn can set the stage for fish kill events. All this is stuff we want to avoid.

While you have a a much higher quantity of water than most of us [10 acres - awesome!] therefore greater tolerances for nutrient loads, if it were my pond I'd start culling the flock or consider eliminating them altogether. It's a variable you can control, and so many variables that create management pond and fishery management issues are beyond our control - so I suggest knocking out anything you possibly can to tip the scales in your favor whenever possible. This includes encouraging the flock to move on.
Posted By: Snipe Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 05:56 AM
Waterfowl also tend to feed and dig into the shoreline at the waters edge that can create undesirable effects including erosion.
I agree fully with TJ on this. Best to keep them moving on if possible as the fishery is hard enough to manage properly without them.
Posted By: gehajake Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 11:27 AM
Muscovy ducks are pretty much domesticated, no? will hardly fly very far if at all, getting them to move on might be hard to do with out a little assistance, you might wind up with some duck burgers, I don't think one has to have a migratory waterfowl stamp to hunt them,, you might convince some city slickers from Birmingham out for a guided waterfowl hunt and make a little money off of them.
Posted By: bamaboy Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 01:13 PM
Good info gentlemen. Thanks for the input. Looks like some target practice coming soon.
Posted By: RStringer Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 02:53 PM
We had a few of those ducks for a week or 2. We feed them dog food and loved it. Al little back ground here my wife dies daycare. So when a parent showed up they would be at there feet everytime they got outta there ride. They are very friendly. If we even opened our back door it was like a race between them to see who got 2 us 1st. I had to get rid of them because of that. They scared some of the kids and pooped all over our driveway.besides that they were funny little creatures.
Posted By: RStringer Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/18/19 03:06 PM
I tired to get them to go away the 1st time. I took a bucket of feed across the road from me is a big cemetery that has a nice pond. Which they followed of course. They would follow me on the mower, side by side, half way to my work. So not sure why I thought it would work because they always came bk. Well the darn things ate the food and beat me bk home. Ended up having a relative wanting some. So got a few real ex cause they would let you pick them up.after they seen a couple of there friends get put into the truck they wasnt so friendly they took off. Had to end up chasing them with a big fish net. I'm sure it was quite a funny site. I eventually won the war with them. I gotta say they won a few battles anyway. I loved those things but it just didnt work for us. Only had a few of them maybe 5 or 6.
Posted By: RAH Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/19/19 03:11 PM
Could trap and sell them?
Posted By: Dave Davidson1 Re: Ducks on the pond - 10/20/19 12:00 PM
Ducks are like cows. They crap everywhere they walk.
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