Canada Geese - How to Keep Them Off Your Property

Each year thousands of Golf Courses, Parks, Green Belts, Back Yards, Baseball Fields and even cemeteries are inundated with messy, slippery Canada Goose droppings. How distressing to have a beautiful drive off the tee, only to find that your ball has come to rest in a gooey pile of goose poop! How about watching your kid play in the outfield at that all important Little League game...only to watch him go for that deep fly to center and ...SLIP right through that sticky, slippery goose poop. Sound familiar?

canada goose can be found on any type of grassy area that surrounds water, from backyard ponds, to large lakes and rivers. They breed throughout North America, spring migration usually starts in late winter and will take several weeks to complete. The fall migration will begin with the water and soil begin to freeze. Geese feed mainly on land grazing on grassy plants and our lawns. In the spring and summer they can feed for up to 12 hours a day. This extended feeding leads to a lot of waste; a goose produces up to a pound of droppings a day. Multiply that by hundreds of geese and you have a big problem with goose droppings. This can lead to public health concerns in parks, golf courses, and other public areas.

So how do we keep these pest geese off of our property? The most effective method of canada goose control is to eliminate their food source. Since we cannot tear the lawn what do we do? You make the lawn unpalatable to the geese. There are products on the market that use a grape derivative methylanthranilate to flavor the lawn. It is easily sprayed on the lawn and will grow into the blades of grass making it unpalatable to the geese. Once the food source is gone the geese move on to an area that will provide a more palatable food. The canada goose repellent is safe to use on private and public areas. It is food grade so it will not pollute bodies of water or harm other animals or people.

Other methods of goose control are sound deterrents and visual deterrents. These are most effective when used in conjunction with the liquid goose deterrent mentioned above. Sound deterrents will play the sound of distressed geese and predator calls to scare the geese away. Visual deterrents include Coyote Decoys that scare the birds away; swan decoys also seem to keep the geese away. There are also services available that use border collies to scare the geese. This method can get costly however, as the dogs will need to come out several times before the geese leave completely. It is best to use some sort of integrated approach to goose control. Using a visual deterrent and the liquid deterrent seems to work the best.

Best Ceramic Flat Irons

Straightening your hair to get a smooth silky finish is all the rave these days. To determine which ceramic flat irons are best I decided to do some research and ask some friends about their experiences. Firstly your selection of a ceramic hair straightener versus the old metal types is a great idea. Ceramic plates tend to heat up canada gooseand more evenly and are less damaging to your hair. The ceramic emits negative ions which helps preserve moisture and the natural oils plus it seals the hair cuticle and reduces static. I looked at some of the top selling ceramic straightening irons and here is a summary of their features plus the pros and cons to help you decide for yourself.

The Farouk Chi Ceramic Flat Iron is the probably the top selling ceramic flat iron these days. It heats up in seconds and stays hot - temperature reaches up to 410 Degrees. It has a long 10 foot swivel cord which makes it comfortable to style entire head. Also it is great for not just straightening but also flipping and curling your hair. Hair comes out shiny and smooth after one pass. The draw backs are first it has no canada goose control and second many people have had problems with it breaking down within months. Even so I have friends who swear by it and say it it worth every penny and the shortcomings.

The Ceramic Tools Flat Iron and is very economical and provides very good results. It heats up fast and stays hot evenly. Unlike the CHI this one comes with 25 different heat settings which go up to 446 degrees and it has on on/off switch with an indicator light.I also like the soft grip handle. It has rounded edges which help hair glide easily and allow for curls or flips also.

The Andis Flat Irons is probably the cheapest ceramic on the market. Although this one does heat up fast and has 20 different heat settings, it only goes up to 375 degrees which may not be enough for really thick hair. The temperature dial on this flat iron is not in degrees but on a scale of 0-20 which different than most. You will need to test to figure out what works for you. The clamp style holds hair tight and gives you more control when canada goose . Also I like the auto off feature.

Canadian Geese

Few spectacles symbolize autumn better than a gang of Canada Geese crossing a cloudy sky in V-formation. Common throughout most of North America, Canada Geese live around ponds, rivers, and lake shores where they feed on aquatic grass, roots, and young sprouts, as well as corn and grain. A strong inward pull called instinct urges these waterfowl into the skies to make this great annual southward migration. But instinct does not determine the route the birds take. canada goosemigrate in family groups, and they will travel the same route year after year. The young geese learn the route from their parents, and use the same route in subsequent years with their own young.

Canada Geese are more family-oriented than many other species of waterfowl. Adults mate for life, although a widow will often choose another mate. Pairs look for appropriate nesting sites in early spring, just as soon as there is open water for mating, and snow-free sites for nesting. Together, they use grass and plant material to build their nests, lining it with feather down. When the nest is ready, the male, called a gander, will guard the area as his mate lays her eggs. An average clutch is five to seven eggs, but it can be as low as two or as high as twelve. Each egg will take a day of more to lay, and incubation lasts about a month.

Both goose and gander are present when the eggs begin to hatch. Goslings use their sharp egg teeth to peck their way out of their shells, an arduous task that can take a full day or two. These newly hatched babies resemble ducklings, with yellow and gray feathers and dark bills; but within a week they will have changed into canada goose, fuzzy gray birds. Once out of their eggs, goslings are able to swim immediately, and will enter the water accompanied by both parents. There they will begin their first task of diving and eating. They must eat continually in order to grow sufficiently for their first flight. Newly-hatched goslings can dive 30-40 feet underwater for nutritious, aquatic plants.

At nine or ten weeks of age, goslings have grown their flight feathers and look like smaller versions of their parents. Canada Geese are easily identifiable with their long black necks and heads and contrasting white cheek and throats. Their back, upper wings, and flank areas are brown capes draped over nearly white breasts and bellies. Short black tails, black legs and black webbed feet are visible when they waddle across an open field. While Canada Geese range in size, they are typically 20-50 inches long, with a 50-68 inch wingspan. The largest varieties are called honkers, while smaller geese, one fourth the size, are called cacklers.

The first two months of a gosling's life its canada goosefamily is earth-bound. Ganders molt directly after mating, and geese molt shortly after her eggs hatch. Unable to fly, the family abandons the nest on foot to find better feeding areas. Adults will have re-grown their new feathers just in time to give their young their first flying lesson.

Canada Goose Egg Addling

Migrant geese upped sticks and left right on schedule around the Spring Solstice on March 20. So now we're in the next stage of the resident canada gooseyear - the nesting season.

Many frustrated property owners call for a stringent reduction in the number of resident geese. Hence the new-found demand for addling programs. GeesePeace calls this "population stabilization." Others call it population control. Some even call it pre-term abortion, or euthanasia. Whatever your thoughts on the issue, the addling of Canada goose eggs has become a major weapon in the business of Canada goose control.

Just what is egg addling? In simple terms, it's the practice of treating Canada geese eggs to prevent their further development. Old-fashioned, fleet-of-foot Nuisance Wildlife Control Operatives (maybe we could just call them practitioners of lethal means of pest control?) prefer the sleight of hand involved in pricking the eggs with a giant darning needle to destroy the sacks inside. Many do this whenever the eggs were laid.

GeesePeace and the US Humane Society deem this inhumane. They prefer the gentler method of dipping the canada goose
eggs they find in buckets of water like those medieval trials of witches. If they sink, the eggs are coated in corn oil which prevents oxygen getting in and gases escaping. The embryos do not form. The female sits out the remainder of the term. She understands her clutch is not going to produce; she leaves the nest.

On the other hand, if the eggs float, there is air in the sacks (meaning they have been incubated for 14 days or more - long enough for the embryos to be classified as viable); the eggs must be returned to the nest to allow them to hatch.

canada goose
has no dog in this hunt, but if you were to strap us down and pull out our finger-nails to give an opinion, we would tell you to follow the GeesePeace protocol. We might think some of their ideas are haphazard and counter-productive, but we think they are completely right on this issue. Many of our customers have seen a marked decrease in the number of geese on their properties where we have been following this protocol for a number of years. Some even have no geese at all.

For insight into how egg addling is done, we suggest you watch the new episode of "In Dogged Pursuit of Geese - Egg Addling" on our website.