Goose Control Solutions for Golf Courses

Ask any Golf Course Superintendent what they absolutely hate most especially in states like New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut and that is Canada Geese! You see whether it is a private country club, a USGA event or some cheap municipal golf course ground crews and club staff spend years trying to get a course to look a certain way. Golf courses are known for their meticulously manicured grounds that often include water hazards and wild grass scenery. Which unfortunately is a beacon and ideal setting for Canada Geese to take residency. It can be quite a job to keep geese off a golf course, or out of the grassy areas near the water at a park. Golf course maintenance crews are kept busy with all they must do to keep the course green and mowed, clean and free from geese and their nasty droppings. Geese are known to forage on the course’s opulent green vegetation and the average goose is responsible for 4 lbs. of droppings a day.

Once geese start nesting on your golf course, they will continue to come back year after year, that of course if they migrate at all and do not take up year-round residency. Once they lay their eggs geese will become extremely aggressive protecting their nest and attacking anyone or anything going near it. Do not get it twisted this is not our nursery rhyme mother goose, although not known for their violence, a mother goose will hiss, stomp, and attack golfers that go near their nest.

If you happen to be one of many golf courses that have become overrun with geese or simple just have a family of geese eating their way around the buffet known as the 18th fairway Loomacres Wildlife Management has the solutions for you!

There are several options for ridding your property of Canadian geese including chemical sprays and landscape redesign, but the most effective method is to use highly trained Border Collies known as goose dogs. These intelligent and energetic animals are taught not to harm the birds, but rather to use their natural intense stare to convince the geese that a predator is lurking nearby. Geese are concerned with survival and will not congregate where a Border Collie is patrolling. Even better, when geese seek refuge in the water, the dogs are very adept at swimming and will not rest until the last goose has fled.

To make sure we not only get the job done efficiently but abide by all United States Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines and laws regarding Canada Geese, all our well-trained goose dogs are healthy and strong and have completed a structured program to prepare them for success in the field. A well-trained Goose Control Dog can be very persuading to a flock of Canada Geese, convincing them that a certain location is not really where they want to reside. Our Border Collies are exceptional swimmers and intense herders and that makes them ideal candidates for controlling geese.

Additionally, we offer other solutions that when applied with using a boarder collie can prove even more effective:

• Habitat Modification: The goals are to reduce food, reduce preferred nesting and brood-rearing areas, and increase the sense of wariness or insecurity from danger.
• Stop Feeding Them: Geese will congregate where food is easy to find. So, more geese will stay more persistently where people offer handouts.
• Radio-controlled boats harass geese on water. Geese must be effectively harassed on land as well, or they will simply get off the water. Boats are less effective than dogs who swim after the geese or are taken to the geese in a boat.
• Recordings of Canada goose distress calls may help convince geese that a site is unsafe when used to reinforce other harassment. Otherwise, geese may move only short distances.
• Canine effigies (coyote, wolf, or dog cutouts or 3D models) may reinforce wariness where geese have reason to fear working goose-dogs or wild canines. Frequently relocating effigies helps.
• Lasers used under low light conditions or at night, lasers specifically designed to harass geese cause the birds enough alarm that they usually leave the site. Flashing or rotating strobe lights may achieve the same goal of denying geese their night roost. You need to be persistent, so geese do not simply wait you out.
• Methyl anthranilate repellent dispersed as a fog irritates geese, so they leave the area immediately. Since this physically irritates geese, rather than frightening them, they are less likely to habituate. A small mister is available that may convince geese to avoid a high-traffic location when selecting a nest site.

For more information or to even book a free site visit and demonstration on your golf course please fill out the fields below and someone from Loomacres Wildlife Management will contact you.

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Photo: KDVR

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