Geese be gone, how to get rid of goosey goosey gander when they wander on to your property on a Maine lake.

At first, when a mom, dad, a couple kids in a Canadian geese family float by, folks are excited. In a good way. On shore the floating family of geese seem to be a neat sight to behold. Until they come ashore. When you are not at your lake property in Maine. And leave a calling car of not so bio-degradable cigar shaped calling cards. The waste is not fun. And the geese return to where the grass is green and rich to dine on. Like you and I at a favor restaurant in Maine haunt, the return visits are a hard habit to break.

Ducks on a Maine lake, everyone knows what happens if you feed those visitor that paddle by like free loading trick or treaters.

Looking for a hand out, some bread that the novice can figure why not. Those web foot paddlers do their business in the water. Swimmers itch is not part of a fun time summer at the lake past time. But the mother duck and the cute trail of drafting eight or more babies does pull at your heart strings. To think what could one little piece of bread hurt? Or some duck chow picked up at the local feed store to help them out like a goodwill food pantry.

You feel obligated to get along with the wildlife, to protect them. To share the waterfront.

Especially when we are talking the babies. When you are lucky enough to be parked on a Maine lake. Don’t use weed and feed for the green lawn competition. Let vegetation grow long and tall along the shoreline for a riparian buffer. To keep rushing water on the steep lake side terrain inclines from racing to the lake water with debris picked up along the way.

We all know about non-source point pollution and how man has to protect a natural lake resource or suffer the consequences. But geese. What is the right way, the lasting method to get rid of them without a bullet? Maine lake loons don’t get the negative press. You look out for them when boating and keep the speed down to avoid the waves that disrupt their nests on Maine lake islands. The uninhabited areas of the Maine waterfront.

Google the topic “how to get rid of geese at your lake property“. And whoa. Talk about do this, don’t do that and what claims to work. You learn that many love the sight of Canadian geese until they see what they leave behind up close and personal. Here’s a video on what is claimed to be one method to get rid of geese at your lake property in Maine.

Pie plates that are shiny, noisy, flapping in the wind to catch the sunlight work in gardens that are unattended.

For awhile. Because like the plastic owl with the sinister glass eyes and the swivel bopping head, the initial shock wears off. Or what if no one had the talk with geese about owls are our natural enemy? Or they never encountered one? And how do you summons a bald eagle on a Maine lake to just run a couple passes to deter the Canadian geese from landing on your Maine lake property? Like many things, NIMBY happens. Folks love geese or ducks or anything wild as long as they don’t see the consequences of a visit to their property. Someone down the lake can deal with the free loaders but frustration can set in when geese won’t go away.

The drake hisses, will charge you the tax payer of the waterfront property.

And anyone with a small dog or kids could be afraid of attack. Blowing your horn when they visit when you are gone helps chase them away. But they will be back. The thought of taking out the Dad goose and the widow, those young kids left behind does make one feel guilty. What does the inland fisheries and wildlife, Maine warden service say about goose be gone using lead, bow and arrow or a trap?

You have to think like a goose to get rid of geese.

Up on the lawn, hanging out on a wharf and the honk honk honk when you have company of the long neck floating, flying lake water front visitors. Large mowed lawns are attractive resort settings for a family of Canadian geese. The view that is unobstructed for predators helps the grazing time spend fertilizing the bigger mowed open areas around a Maine lake. Here is what the warden’s service suggests to deter the geese visits and return stops. No more welfare handouts. Food dumped in the tall grass to munch on is part of it.

• Stop feeding geese: When the diets of geese are no longer supplemented with handouts and they have to depend on the natural food supply, some or all the geese will move elsewhere.
• Install interpretive signs in public areas explaining the problems that result when humans feed geese. Signs might include the following information:
• Please don’t feed the geese! Human food is not good for the geese because it lacks proper nutritional value. Feeding attracts more geese than the area can support naturally.
• Geese in high concentrations are more likely to get diseases and parasites.
• Goose droppings are unsanitary and unsightly. They harbor parasites that can cause human health problems, and they increase algae growth that, in turn, causes fish kills.
• Geese eat plants needed for ground cover and erosion control.
• Too many geese in one area may force the municipality to have them killed.
• Goose-management costs residents money.

In your garden in Maine, fences, scare crows, loud music helps deter varmits from stopping by to snack. But when you are not around the lake property in Maine, the wildlife take over. Help themselves. They also say wait a minute. That’s a plastic owl, always in the same place. It’s not real. Let’s go ashore.

Colorful strips of reflectorized tape on string can help make geese keep moving along the lakeshore.

But how many entrances does your property have and what is to keep them from approaching from another angle on your lot or from someone else’s property? If the grass at your place is tasty for the come and get it.

Getting a dog could help but now you have his waste to deal with too. Why don’t Canadian geese stay on the islands, off shore to nest and visit like Maine loons? I think the geese get more aggressive as the campers on a Maine lake who want them gone get more riled up and frustrated.

On the lake where I am, Baxter is a big old black lab who visits socially.

I wished he would trot over more often. But never does when the geese happen to make a sudden landing. Do you know of anyone with geese issues on a Maine lake and can you offer your spin on what works best to make them never return? I don’t want to use chemicals that make the grass bitter to eat because it could hurt the environment in other ways and leech into the lake water. The the fish will speak up and gurgle “hey. what the heck”. No more lawn and tall let it go grass is one option. Relocating the geese to another lake would not make friends with other waterfront campers. Geese on a Maine lake are a problem that makes you scratch your head.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730 USA