Goose Control - Need help

Hello, this is Anil & I am a current HOA board president for a community in Michigan. This is my first time holding a board position and I have been looking into the geese control methods, policies etc for a while now and I need help.

Our community is new with 2 large retention ponds and 1 smaller one. We have 103 homes and there have been scattered complaints on geese bothering them, pooping in their lawns and landing on rooftops. Don't have anything specific on the nesting areas and related issues yet.

I've read up on a few threads here regarding geese control and haven't seen anything concrete on how to get rid of them for the short and long term. Here is my understanding from what I gathered:

Scare tactics - some of my community residents have tried a few and they are ineffective or cost a lot. I am inclined to have residents take care of their property and take appropriate methods to scare them away or deter them in any legal method that works and suits them. But for the common areas, I as a board member need help on what works better than others - both for residents and for the board to implement in the common areas. From what I read, they sounded ineffective and/or expensive.

Addle/destroy nests/eggs - I have an ethical issue with addling or destroying nests/eggs. But if that is most efficient solution and works for sure, our board will proceed with the permit and follow legal procedures to do so. I've also heard that when the nests are destroyed, the geese will come back and nest again and that if it is done enough times, they will then stop returning to the same spot. Not sure if this is the case and what others have experienced, please let me know. Also, if one spot is treated this way, like I said, we have 3 retention ponds so will they just change the spot and return to another one close by until they feel all possible areas around the retention pond are unwelcome for them?

Deterrents - I've researched granules, spray products, grape products, habitat modification, visual & audio deterrents and again, when I read up on the effectiveness of them, I have not seen one that works better than others or them being efficient in the long term. I also see that geese are intelligent creatures and figure out a way around them. So, nothing concrete there.

Please let me know what you have experienced, what works better and what your HOA has decided on (from both efficiency and financial standpoint).

Thank you!

Not to send this thread down the toilet right off the bat, but I'd say just wait - avian influenza will get rid of them. It will also get rid of other animals and probably people too sooner or later. Meantime tell the residents to keep their darned cats indoors.

In my state, animal control has to be done by a licensed professional, and that includes addling eggs. So check your state laws.

An apartment complex where I used to live rented some swans from the local farmer who raised birds. The swans set up housekeeping on the ponds in the community, and they're territorial - they drove the geese out.

A condo community nearby installed some netting in their ponds. The netting was invisible, but ducks and geese couldn't swim with it there - so they didn't hang around because the ponds no longer provide a safe spot to land.

A few years ago, some apartments in my area employed a guy with a dog that would stop by and chase the geese. Apparently this was the guy's job.

There is a lot this Michigan condo association can lawfully do. See this September 2024 report:

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/politics/michigan-politics/michigans-canada-goose-management-program-expands-include-euthanasia/

I've been "battling" geese for over a decade and I can promise you that the presence of Canada Geese is a property management issue and not a "disease" that can be fully or permanently cured.

"Scare Tactics" must be permanent and uniformly applied. The geese will adapt and humans won't perpetually chase the geese away.

Egg addling is supported under federal permitting and is deemed much better than goose roundups by wildlife managers. Geese born on your property will return, as adults, to build their own nests. If you care about controlling geese, that cycle must be broken. Of course, goslings and goose families should never be harrassed once they're born. They can't fly and are defenseless. That's where law and ethics meet.

Deterrents can work but only where treatments are applied. Since you're blending HOA w/ some private owners, this likely won't do the job as you'll have a patchwork of applications.

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I've done all of the above but installing a small and easy, single-wire fence along the water's edge - where you see the geese hanging out at night - has been the most effective.
You need some help and maybe your landscaper would do it.

I use electric fence wire (but no electricity) and green U-posts from a big box hardware and create a run of wire about 12-18 inches above the ground along the water's edge (but in the water edge if you have boots). Place it and run it around your retention pond, especially where you see geese roosting on the water edge at night. The small green posts are installed about every 10-15 feet, but you can go further as the wire is wrapped to the posts and will droop. It isn't a perfect aesthetic but can have a clean look and is worth the tradeoff in my community

Geese will over-populate community ponds because they are clear cut, have un-naturally perfect sight lines and no predators. They innately want to see on a water bank and be able to "slide" into the water to safety. However, a basic run of wire - off the ground - that requires them to "hop," makes the roosting spot much more undesirable. I've had great success in reducing the population by running wire, by myself, around about 1/4 of our HOA pond. If I see where they've found another spot, I'll extend. I've noticed that our ducks will walk under the wire (which is very low tension....dragon flies and small birds can perch on it). Oddly, the geese will not.

We did engage in federally permitted egg addling for a couple of seasons and it broke the cycle of increasing nests. We no longer do that. Geese will "day visit" from their nests off the property and then go home at night. That will require a different approach but my problem was manure buildup on a pond-side path, caused by roosting overnight by the water. In my case, I've called a "truce" with day loafers.

Your goal is to allow birds but at a level where hostile goose encounters are 90 percent lower, grass damage is minimized and manure build-up isn't noteworthy (at least where people may like to enjoy your water). That said, you will manage geese and not eliminate them unless you physically round them up, which will result in euthanasia by the authorities as Canada Geese that don't migrate north in the Spring are a defined "nuisance" that cannot be relocated (like muskrats and beavers).

Good luck!

And I thought our iguana problem was tough! Thank goodness we don’t have Canada geese and the wildlife commission will send trappers for the large alligators.

Thank you all for your feedback! I understand that Canadian Geese cannot be harmed in any way so that is out of the picture. Egg/nest destruction is more of a population control and a reactive solution so that again will be my last resort and as per the laws as well.

Now regarding the deterrents, I've looked up dog chasing and it is expensive. Very efficient though. I like the idea of wire mesh, I may look into that depending on how it works for us. Swans are also territorial and our community has dogs so not sure if that would work for us.

This boils things down to audio & video deterrents, chemical deterrents and a few habitat modification methods as preventive methods.

We have tall grass around the pond but it is not uniform. We can work on that to prevent nesting close to the pond. I will look into chemical deterrents but I read here that they are not that effective due to continued applications because of wash-off. I'll keep that on the list and check to see if there are any products that do not wash off. Lastly, I have not seen anything on audio and video deterrents here but I looked up Bird Gard audio deterrent and requested them for a quote. I will put the info in here once I have more on it.

Thank you so much for the feedback guys. I will provide my experiences with the above here for you guys as well.

Oh great, dead grease laying in the ponds from flu.
In your state, Ohio, animal control does not have to be done by a licensed animal control person. The Ohio DNR will issue nuisance permits for geese to the HOA that permits the destruction of eggs and nests. Green light lasers work well to run them off.