Question:
My daughter lives in North Carolina and just had very expensive landscape work done. She is experiencing a problem with geese. They walk and relieve themselves all over the lawn, which creates quite a walking problem. Can you suggest a deterrent that will not harm the geese but will keep them off the landscape?.
L.M.B., Forestville, Md Jan 28, 2007
Answer:
Like deer, Canada geese have become a problem in many areas, in part because we have altered their natural habitat, and this has changed their normal migratory behavior and increased their numbers. They can be a year-round problem in places where they used to come only during the breeding season.Landscaping with extensive lawns is attractive to them. Lawns should be a thing of the past, especially when lawn chemicals, which should be outlawed for environmental and health reasons, are applied routinely.Either string fishnet above the grassy areas or, better still, replant with indigenous plants to attract other wildlife and turn the expensively landscaped property into a more natural sanctuary. Think "wild," and let the geese become part of your landscape, with some gravel areas where you can walk and they will not graze and poop, and import some decorative rocks, hardy shrubs and decorative grasses. The less you have to mow, the better.
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