3 Simple Tricks to Keep Geese Away From Your Pond for Good

pond deck

In my honest opinion, there really isn’t much worse than going outside to your pond and seeing an entire flock of geese walking around it.

The main problem here is that when geese are present, they usually make the land around your pond their own personal bathroom – which is more or less the reason you ended up here – yuck!

One of the best tricks to prevent geese from landing on or around your pond is to use reflective tape!

Geese do not like the shiny coating of reflective bird tape, as the tape makes it difficult for them to land – which keeps the geese away from your pond.

While using reflective tape is a great and cheap method to keep geese away from your pond.

It’s best used in conjunction with some other simple tricks that I’ve found to work well at getting rid of geese – keep on reading to find out more!

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Reflective Bird Tape is Great at Keeping Geese Away

goslings standing with their parent on the banks of the mississippi

So, what exactly is reflective bird tape, and why do geese hate the stuff so much? Well, reflective tape really isn’t tape at all.

Reflective bird tape is essentially an extremely thick and shiny version of ribbon satin, which is the material people use to tie bows on presents.

Reflective bird tape isn’t actually sticky, the only reason that reflective tape is called a tape is that it’s sold in a large roll similar to the size of a roll of duct tape.

The key purpose of reflective tape is to deter birds from landing on objects or property, which makes it a fantastic tool to use around ponds.

Reflective Tape Makes It Hard For Geese To See Their Landing Spot

The tape itself is extremely shiny and causes the geese to have trouble seeing where their landing spot is.

Think about it, have you ever been driving a car during sunrise and had the sun blasting in your face? That’s a comparable viewpoint to what the geese see from above when you use reflective tape.

Geese get blinded (only temporarily) by the light that is mirrored off of the reflective bird tape, making them unable to land and causing confusion.

Which ultimately leads to the avoidance of landing at your pond!

How to Set up Reflective Bird Tape

Depending on the size of your pond, you can create a fence out of the reflective bird tape to keep the geese away.

Don’t worry, building a reflective tape geese fence is far less complicated than it sounds.

Here’s what you’ll need in order to build an anti-geese reflective bird tape fence:

  • 20 – 30 Wooden, Metal, or Plastic Stakes (3-4 ft. Tall)
  • 1 – 2 Rolls of Reflective Bird Tape.
  • 1 Hammer

If you’re looking for quality reflective bird tape, check out this Premium Quality Bird Tape! For more quality natural pest repellents that include reflective bird tape, I wrote a guide talking about some quality natural pest repellents.

Once You Have The Supplies…

Once you’ve got your supplies, you’ll then want to go ahead and figure out just where around your pond you’ll be setting up the fence.

First, you’ll want to identify the most frequent spot where the geese are landing around your pond.

Personally, I noticed that on my pond, geese generally land in the middle of the pond and walk onto the land on the opposite side of where we usually are.

Wherever you decide that the geese land the most frequently, the fence should be set up along the edge of the pond about 2 – 3 feet away from the shore.

For extra reflection – wrap each stake with the reflective tape from top to bottom!

Then place each stake about 3-4 feet apart, that way the tape will move in the wind from stake to stake, which will make for more movement and flashing.

And to tap into the benefits of movement for a quick second, using movement like with a Pinwheel around your pond will also help keep geese away too! Head on over to our article to learn just how to use pinwheels to keep geese away!

Train Your Dog to Chase Geese

If you have a dog, then this is one of the best options for getting rid of geese – IF you’re able to train your dog to chase them.

Zack Walking Vito to deter geese, a Cane Corso Breed Dog

This is our goose chaser, Vito. He’s a cane corso, a breed known for being protective of their property and for being an overall excellent ranch dog.

Vito used to be awful at chasing geese, but fortunately for us, we were able to set an example and help him learn to chase them.

The reason Vito used to be awful at chasing geese away from our acre and a half bass pond was that we never really taught him to go and chase the geese.

In reality, I guess we just expected him to hate the geese as much as we did and chase them on his own.

Boy, were we wrong.

A surefire way to get rid of geese is to chase after them yourself until they start to run and fly away.

One day, I went running after some geese by the pond, and I had Vito running right beside me. Once I started running, Vito ran with me as well and eventually, he took off ahead of me and started chasing after the geese.

I slowed down, watched, and was amazed that he had FINALLY begun to go and chase after the geese.

So if you have a dog who doesn’t naturally chase geese on its own, try chasing after the geese yourself and have your dog running next to you.

At some point, your dog should take off and chase the geese away all on their own.

Positive Reinforcement Will Help Train Your Dog To Chase Geese

Dog Chasing Goose in Field

If you really want to increase the effectiveness of this tactic, put a dog treat in your pocket before you head out to chase the geese and give it to your dog immediately after he chases the geese away for you or with you.

This will reaffirm in his head that chasing the geese will lead to a reward (the dog treat) and he’ll be much more likely to chase them away on his own.

You’re going to need to continue to run with your dog to chase away the geese until he or she finally chases the geese away on their own.

Giving the dog positive reinforcement by using a treat will train them to learn that chasing the geese is a rewarding task, which will make him or her want to chase the geese solely for the reward.

Unlike using reflective bird tape, training your dog to chase geese is not dependent on the overcast.

Use a Four-Wheeler or ATV

If you don’t have a dog to keep geese out of your pond, then reflective bird tape is still your best option.

However, a really great method of keeping geese out of your pond is to get on a four-wheeler and chase them out.

This isn’t really a permanent solution to keeping geese away from your pond, but it sure is an effective one. Basically, every time you see geese outside by your pond, hop onto your four-wheeler or ATV and chase the geese away.

When chasing the geese, keep this in mind.

It is illegal to harm geese anywhere in the United States outside of hunting season. Geese are protected by Federal Law, which protects their eggs and nests as well.

To reiterate, make sure you only chase the geese and don’t actually harm any of them in the process or else you can get in a whole lot of unnecessary and complicated trouble.

That’s A Wrap!

All said, you really can’t go wrong with any of these tricks. You’ll have to work with what you’ve got, but my best suggestion would be to invest in a $10 – $15 roll of reflective bird tape and go from there. It’s cheap and easy to set up.

If you don’t want to invest in reflective bird tape and you do not have a dog, but do have a four-wheeler, chasing geese away with a four-wheeler is a really great option that works very well in the short term.

If none of these tips seem to work for you – we also have an entire article dedicated to things that geese hate, that you can also incorporate into your outdoor surroundings to keep them away!

Remember, you’ll need to be super active in trying to keep the geese off of your property.

Every time they land near your pond, you need to put the key into your four-wheeler and take off toward them.

If you’re able to combine all three of these tricks, you should be well on your way to keeping geese away from your pond for good.

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