Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management SHOO! Go away, you dirty Geese!

Those dirty Canada Geese are migrating North again. The young couples often stop to see if my pond is a good nesting site. What are your best methods to shoo away geese??
I have a pair of plastic swans which I move every day, and the geese simply hang out in another part of the pond.
I have a pellet gun, which only scares them about half the time. The stubborn ones end up bloodied, and I don't want to be disposing of bodies, so I gave up on using pellets.
From advice on FB, I got a powerful green laser! Surely that will scare them off. Well, for one thing, it is very difficult to repeatedly hit a moving goose in the eye with a laser from 100 yards, but I'm having more success aiming by using a tree for stability. When I do hit them in the eye, they just move their head. They DON'T become flightful. Next I'll try the decorative scatter lens for the laser, but I don't have much hope at this point. If you have success using a laser, what am I doing wrong?
They don't seem afraid of my dogs or me, because they can escape into the water. I have a small island accessible only by boat, so they have (unintended) refuge there, too.
Chase them in the boat! That works! They fly away, even from the island, if I row after them in my noisy jonboat. That seems like too much effort to scare off a pair of stupid geese, but it's the only thing that works every time.
Any other ideas?

We have a couple of old wooden tennis rackets that make a very loud and annoying noise when hit together. The geese start honking the minute they hear them clanging and generally take off the closer I get. If you have an island, that may be another story......They rarely show up once nesting season is over.

If legal in your state, you can addle the eggs. Won't cause the geese to leave right away, but at least shortens their stay and makes it less likely you'll have to deal with younguns next year.

That's what coyotes are for.

Bottle rockets shoved inside a PVC tube after being lit, have a cap on the back end so you don't get blasted by the exhaust..... You can aim it, sort of.

Your situation - particularly the small island - sounds exactly like my situation when we bought our place back in 2009. The first couple of years we welcomed the geese and their babies because, well, nature. Then after year 2, we realized what a freaking mess they create and got tired of cleaning goose poop off our shoes after fishsing. Stepping in the occasional pile of dog poop is bad enough. This put me over the top. We have an area on our farm we refer to as carcass gulch because that was always where we discarded deer carcasses after processing them. Suffice it to say, there have been other species join the deer skeletons down there. Two to three seasons of aggressively dissuading them from hanging out on our pond has done the trick and we have not had resident geese for a long time. A pair will try now and then but I find that a daily dose of birdshot fired from any manner of scatter gun is a great deterrent and, after only a few days, they give it up. I just shoot in front of or behind them these days and a few shots usually does the trick. From far enough away, there's little risk of injuring them with a properly placed shot, even out of a 12 gauge. Plus, who doesn't enjoy shooting? It's a win-win!

Few things work as well, and are as fun as this!

Remote Control Speed Boat

My neighbors don't enjoy shooting, and they remind the Sheriff of that every time I loose a round. Nothing illegal about shooting out here, but it's just not worth the hassle any more. It's a waste of both mine and the Deputy's time.

I'm ordering some today. The local Fireworks shops seem to be closed in April. We commonly used bottle rockets to attack the MP barracks across the street in Camp Zukeran on Okinawa when I was stationed there in USMC.

A bag of corn, a pound of tanerite, and a .223?

A couple coyote decoys have worked for us to keep them off our beach area for about a year now. We move them around every so often.

https://www.sportsmans.com/hunting-...redator-decoy/p/1520225?channel=shopping

I appreciate the hassle, but with a neighbor like that, I may just be tempted to have lots of friendly chats with the sheriff's office who is coming out to visit with me over something not unlawful and just let the neighbor stew in his own juices. But that's me!

I agree with you. Another thought is to call the Sheriff, give them the address and tell them that you will be shooting and if they get a complaint call, then they know why.

I'd shoot, talk to the deputy, and continue shooting after they left. While I am considerate of my neighbors, sorry, I'm shooting unless you are going to pay me to drive to a range to shoot.

This post is a little old, but I will add my recent experience.

I saw the same advice on FB. The green (not red) laser pointer is indeed effective. I got a reasonably powerful one from Amazon or some such. On a cloudy day, I can shoot a beam from my kitchen window to the pond 250 yards away. On sunny days, you have to be much closer, of course.

I found that it is better to point the beam on the ground (or water) in front of the geese. This seems to work better than aiming on their head or body. Be persistent. Once the geese start squawking frantically, they will soon take off.

Had the same experience. Have about an acre island in middle of about 18 acre pond. Kept it mowed nice and had a good problem. Let it grow up in weeds helped; but still a problem. Have used the coyote decoys and that helps. Need to move them around periodically. We've also used an air cannon which goes off periodically and runs off an LP tank. That has helped too. Allowing some goose hunters every year also helps.