Rats with wings are back on the corn...

OliverGuy · May 28, 2013

The geese are back on my new corn, more than the last two years it looks. A place I rent near town has a strong population. Looks like they will be healthy with a good diet of my corn plants. What do you do? What can you do? I know what I'd like to do them for sure. I'd like to set up on the rise overlooking the place with my varminter bushmaster and make it look like I was shooting pillows. Oh, did I type that???

bill mart · May 28, 2013

any chance of getting a nuisance permit? bill

notjustair · May 28, 2013

If you get a permit the townies will be out there protesting your slaughter of defenseless animals. There's got to be something out there that you could spray on to make it taste nasty for a bit. Break the habit and you should be set. How big of a field are we talking?

notjustair · May 28, 2013

I did some googling. There is a product called Migrate Goose Repellant. It makes everything taste bad to them. It is expensive and not sure what it would do to corn. Call the Coop - they would have a handle on crop size applications.

Sure am glad I am not in a flight path of those things.

retired farmer · May 28, 2013

I was in a natural food store here a couple of years ago and walked by the meat counter. Noticed goose was sixty eight dollars each, bagged up. Might have a small fortune in your field.

bo1 · May 28, 2013

Doesn"t work. Grape skin extract...pricey, have to re apply if it rains. It"s like a flavoring for the geese. They seemed to like it. Called Grainger and got my money back.

rrlund · May 28, 2013

That's the one species of bird I haven't found a way to control. Avipel takes care of the seed eating birds,but all I can do is live with the goose damage. It get's pretty expensive. If anybody wants to hunt them in season,I don't turn anybody away.

OliverGuy · May 28, 2013

They spend some time in a grassy area near the 60 acre field, occasionally going out in the corn field for a snack it appears.

OliverGuy · May 28, 2013

Guess I should look into it more. After last two years I thought they had moved on or something. They are worse than ever now. Problem I see is that it is right outside the city limits with a hospital and some companies close by. I doubt if they'll give me a permit with so many people nearby I figured.

Josh in Pa · May 28, 2013

Canada geese are federally protected. No crop damage permits. Hammer them in hunting season. I chase them off and after a while they seem to go somewhere where they won't be bothered.
Josh

todd hamilton · May 28, 2013

Harass them with something noisy like a motorcycle and keep doing it, they will avoid the area. You will have to chase them hard the first few times. If tree highers yell at you inform them that this is the way airports control bird population

Rick in Iowa · May 28, 2013

around here the idiot city people think their cute and always feeding them so they have no reason to fly away.hummmm good old fashioned baked goose would taste good.

Johnski · May 28, 2013

The landfill next to where I work uses one of these to keep the dump ducks (sea gulls)away.

http://www.suttonag.com/ZonGun.html
HTH Jf

ben there · May 28, 2013

propane cannon in field set to go off every 5 minutes first day,10 minutes second day...third day every half hour should do...you're gonna hear some griping but should be legal between daylight and dark.

Nancy Howell · May 28, 2013

Natural bug repellent may work on geese.

10 of the hottest peppers you can find, hablanos, jalepenos, etc., cut into chunks in a large pot. Wear rubber gloves when handling the peppers. Add 1/4 cup garlic and 1 gal water. Simmer for at least 45 min. Let cool, strain and pour into a sprayer. Spray the corn seedlings. Geese won"t like it much.

If you can"t find hot peppers, substitute at least 1 cup of cayenne pepper.

samn40 · May 28, 2013

Nancy, you forgot to 'ADD' the goose to your recipe! At what point do you put it in the pot?
LOL....Sam

Hay_Man · May 28, 2013

OliverGuy, when I was having that scourge on rye grass fields, I complained to the local game warden. He was able to procure from the Feds lots of 12 ga. cracker shells. I would lob them mortar style out and over the top of the flock. The cracker would go BOOM and the birds would leave post haste. Regular harassment with the cracker shells made them find quieter diggs and was fun, plus had the blessings of the game dept.

Anonymous-0 · May 28, 2013

to protect the guilty.
I use 12 gauge to scare them, some of them get scared to death!!

Nancy Howell · May 28, 2013

You would have to have a cast iron mouth, throat and stomach to eat goose cooked in that stuff.

mazemeister · May 28, 2013

Nancy, most years we have a big problem with blackbirds, starlings, grackles, etc in the sweet corn. few years back i looked into a product called Miller's Hot Sauce for a repellant. basically it's concentrated capsaicin. like 8 oz per 100 gal water is nasty stuff concentrated. well it didn't work. turns out birds don't have receptors for capsaicin, doesn't affect them.

but it should work for sure on any mammal pests.

Anonymous-0 · May 28, 2013

Good thing you don't live around here. We have a flock of 535 or more rats, that have made it illegal, to shoot them, as they enact the laws!

Gene Dotson · May 28, 2013

My Australian Shepherd dog will not let any geese land on our farm. He hears them coming and watches to see if they land and chases them away. Have not seen them land for last couple of years.

Gene

RN · May 28, 2013

Discharge of firearm in city or close is agin" the law--but crossbows, spearguns, regular bows are quiet, not as noticable. If you"re on land that was in boundaries of old indian treaty lands assigned to state with a reserved hunting for food clause as is a lot of the local Wisconsin land- some tribal members will be happy to come out and collect dinners, fedral judge has ruled they can--or stae can give back the land and pay of "white" land title no longer valid holders, still a hassle. Noisy dogs, big cats may help- old market gardeners used to get lion and tiger scat from zoo and put it around fenclines to deter deer- it worked on deer and most other critters including birds. Border collie pups like to herd geese- set up a little training pen next to corn field and the geese are just volunteer puppy toys- and maybe sunday dinner later. Mild Teasing/Humor Alert! RN

Ron in NS · May 28, 2013

Make sure those Canada geese have passports, otherwise you'd be shooting tourists. If not, consider them Canadian agro-terrorists, and shoot on sight. Homeland Security would thank you for your patriotism, as well as for the pate de fois gras.

ss55 · May 28, 2013

Pepper works better for keeping squirrels out of bird feeders. Squirrels and mammals can taste hot peppers but peppers don't bother most birds much.

Bret4207 · May 29, 2013

(quoted from post at 17:07:49 05/28/13) My Australian Shepherd dog will not let any geese land on our farm. He hears them coming and watches to see if they land and chases them away. Have not seen them land for last couple of years.

Gene

Pretty much my suggestion. Border Collies work too. Only takes a day or two.

Billy NY · May 29, 2013

In NY, you can get a 25 bird depredation permit from the department of environmental conservation, easily for a situation like that. The next step is a federal permit, beyond the 25 birds, you have to keep a record of any kills, and submit a report to DEC annually. They love oat grass, I have 25-45 in a flock that returns to a 20 acre pond here, they can and will do some serious crop damage. There is 30 acres of corn planted adjacent to the pond, large operator, I guess he just takes the loss of the bottom rows, which then just turn to weeds, which looks like another weed that attracts the attention of police aviation, like it did last year.

Being in close proximity to occupied buildings, you may have to get creative if using firearms. I get the permit to be covered, I've not killed a lot of them but harassed the heck out of them with some success, oats recover if I stay on them, but corn does not if the nip it low enough. Thing is we never had deer of any numbers, rare to see one or any canada geese here. Deer made a big come back, and it makes things real hard on some agriculture, but the geese are just as bad. I think DEC is fine with eliminating non native migratory birds, not sure what the feds say, never got that permit as of yet.

Rats with wings are back on the corn...

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads