How to Keep Geese off Your Lawn

No matter how much you love animals, if they’re destroying your lawn and leaving a mess of droppings everywhere, it’s time to take action. Geese, one of the most common offenders, can be difficult to deter because they typically stay in a given area for long periods.

They leave their droppings everywhere, waddle around with their beaks protruding and honking incessantly, looking for food.

This article will provide you with some quick and easy tips to help keep geese off your lawn. We’ll start with a few ways on how to keep goose of your lawn.

Then we’ll move on to how to stop the geese from pooping in your yard. For the ultimate answer, check out our homemade goose repellant tips in this post.

How to Keep Geese off Your Lawn ?

1. Install a Fence around the Lawn

Fencing is one of the most effective ways of keeping geese off your lawn. You’ll need to install a fence that is at least four feet high, so the geese can’t just walk over it.

The fence will also serve to keep in other pets and small children, who may be curious about these large birds and venture a bit too close to them.

A fence is also an attractive option because you can choose any fencing that appeals to your style.

2. Let the Grass Grow Taller

Geese love open green spaces, so it’s essential to make your lawn undesirable. Try planting grasses and herbs that are known to be distasteful or toxic to the birds, such as daffodils, kale, calendula, lavender, onions, and garlic.

You can also allow the grass on your lawn to grow taller, but this will take a while to affect.

3. Don’t Feed the Geese

Like other wild animals, geese keep looking for food wherever they can find. Suppose you have a bird feeder in your yard; the geese will start hanging out on your lawn to get a free meal.

Remove any bird feeders from your yard and avoid feeding them directly yourself. They will soon move on to another area where they can get a free meal.

4. Spray the Geese with Water

Geese frequently look for ponds or small bodies of water, and if you have one in your yard, you’re likely to see a flock of them hanging out there all day.

You can keep them off your lawn by spraying them with a hose whenever they enter your yard. This will discourage them from staying, as they will quickly realize that your yard is not the best place to hang out.

5. Loud Noise

If you want to scare away geese in a more humane way, try firing up an air horn. The frightening sound should be enough to send these large birds running.

You can also try a simple snake call, which sounds like the noises that predator birds make. This can be very effective for geese as well.

6. Keep a Dog 

The sight of a vicious dog will likely be enough to send the geese flying in the opposite direction. A dog does not have to be fierce, but it should be large enough to look threatening.

If you don’t have a dog of your own, consider hiring one for a few days or purchase an inflatable scarecrow that looks like an extremely menacing dog.

7. Make Use of Lights

Geese are naturally skittish animals and may be frightened by sudden bright lights. If you turn on the outdoor floodlights in your yard at night, they will run away.

They’ll see these bright lights as a possible predator and immediately take flight.

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4 Easy Homemade Goose Repellants

  • Using Balloons: Blow up many balloons, tie them to the top of your fence, or string them across your yard. Geese tend to avoid bright colors, so try using balloons in bright red, orange, or yellow. They’ll be scared away by the simple sight of them.
  • Sprinkle Cayenne Pepper: Birds don’t like the taste of cayenne pepper and will avoid it at all costs, so sprinkle some on the grass in your yard to keep them from staying.
  • Using Plastic Shopping bags: If you live near a store, go shopping. Buy lots of plastic bags. Then, tie the bags to your trees and fence with string or fishing line. This will spook the birds off your yard.
  • Using CDs: Pick up some old CDs at a garage sale and use their shiny side to deter geese. Attach them to your yard with a fishing line or string to keep the birds away.

How to Deter Geese from Your Property

Geese tend to be highly territorial, and their nests are often located in the same place year after year. If you have a pair of geese nesting on your property, they’ll likely be coming back year after year. How can you keep them from your property?

1. Liquid Geese Repellant

There are several liquid goose repellants that you can apply directly on the lawn. The repellant works by creating an unpleasant smell or taste that the geese will not stand.

The product is usually safe to use around your pets and family, but you should always check the label for safety instructions before using it.

2. Netting

Geese don’t like the feel of stepping on nets, so you can spread a net on the ground to keep them off your property. You can also have it around your yard or lawn.

Just drape the net along a fence line, over shrubs, and around trees where you’ve noticed geese hanging out. The netting will make it uncomfortable for them to walk around, so they’ll look elsewhere for a spot to nest.

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3. Use a Dog Scarecrow

Dogs are notorious for chasing geese around. You can use this to your advantage by installing a dog scarecrow in your yard.

The birds will see the scarecrow and think that it’s a real dog and will not attempt to step into your yard.

4. Use Offending Plants

Geese have a very keen sense of smell, so they should not stand the offensive smell of garlic. You can use this by planting some in your yard or adding it to your pond water.

If you plant some garlic near their nest, they’ll be forced to move away.

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How to Stop Geese from Pooping in Yard

Geese won’t poop in your yard unless they are in your yard, so if you want to stop pooping in your yard, don’t let them in.

Therefore you need to put up some restrictive measures to keep the Geese away.

1. Use Methyl Anthranilate (MA)

Spray your grass with Methyl Anthranilate if you want to stop geese from pooping in your yard. This chemical works by irritating the pain receptors in geese.

Once you spray your lawn with this chemical, the geese won’t be able to stand the smell, so they’ll look elsewhere for a place to nest and forage.

2. Create a Barrier

A barrier is an effective way to keep the geese from your property. You can use a simple fence, like chicken wire or a thick piece of wood. Just make sure that nothing will tear through the material of your barrier easily.

3. Chase Them Away

You can chase them away yourself, but the most effective way to remove geese is to have a professional come in.

They will be able to remove all of the geese from your property manually and will ensure that they don’t return for years to come.

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4 Innovative Geese Deterrent Devices

If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, there are several different types of deterrent devices that you can purchase to keep the geese away.

1. Coyote Deterrents

These devices are perfect for anyone that is looking to get rid of geese without harming them. They work by mimicking a predator’s call and tricking the birds into thinking a predator is nearby.

The coyote deterrents are radio-controlled and use a motion sensor to detect the geese approaching.

2. Motion-activated Water Sprinklers

A more aggressive method is to use a motion-activated sprinkler. When the geese come into your yard, the sprinklers will automatically go off and scare them away before they can do any damage to your lawn.

Also, you can adjust the pressure of sprinklers to get more or less water, so you don’t need to worry about wasting a ton of water by accident.

3. Dog Decoys

If you don’t have a dog, you can purchase an automated decoy to keep the geese away.

The decoys will scare away the geese by making barking noises and moving around just like a real dog would do if it was in your yard.  These are great because they don’t require any effort on your part.

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4. Swan Decoys

These decoys look just like a swan, and they will scare away the geese if you put them in your pond. In addition, they’ll also keep other animals, like ducks, from coming into your pond.

What are the Flying Bugs on My Lawn?

How to scare geese off your lawn (FAQs)

What smell deters geese?

Geese have a very keen sense of smell, so they should not stand the offensive smell of garlic. They also don’t like the smell of methyl anthranilate on grass.

Does Kool-Aid keep geese away?

Yes, Kool-Aid keeps geese away. How it works is that the birds do not like the smell of citric acid and ascorbic acid in the Kool-Aid mix. The scent will keep geese away.

What is poisonous to geese?

Thiosulphate, chocolate, and onions are toxic to geese. Also, caffeine found in coffee and tea inhibits the production of calcium in growing bones and can lead to deformities.

Keeping geese off your lawn can be a challenge, but there are plenty of ways that you can do it without harming them.

Here we’ve given some tips on how to keep geese away from your lawn and even detailed different devices that will help deter these birds from coming back in future.

Of course, if all else fails, you may need to contact an expert with knowledge of animal removal for advice on what steps to take next.

A good service provider should not only have experience removing animals like geese, but they should also know which methods work best for getting rid of other creatures.

Author

  • Ricky

    Hi, I’m Ricky. I’ve been involved in lawn care and landscaping from when I was 15. To be honest, I didn’t like the idea of pushing mowers, collecting grass clippings, and maintaining flowerbeds at the time. But having seem the passion my parents had for gardening and outdoors and the effort they put in maintaining the health and beauty of our landscape, I couldn’t help but not only admire their hard work but also I became a part of it. As someone who loves to spend time with nature’s best, I find myself learning a lot more about gardening and outdoors on a daily basis. Not to mention I love to share the knowledge I’ve gathered over the years with my readers at We Mow Dallas. To be clear, I don’t have a Master’s degree in gardening or anything like that. Everything I’ve learned about gardening, landscaping, and lawn care spring from passion and engagement with my parents. And with a ton of free information out there, plus the ability to run tests and determine what works best for lawn care and landscaping, every day is an opportunity to learn and implement something new. My goal with We Mow Dallas is to teach you exactly how to maintain your lawn and landscape. And since I walk the talk in reality, you shouldn’t hesitate to join me in this wonderful world of landscaping and lawn care.

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