The state Department of Natural Resources recommends the following to keep geese away:
• Harassment: Some do-it-yourself techniques include chemical repellents, mylar balloons, wire/string barriers and noise-makers. Remember: for this to work, you have to be consistent until the geese decide to vamoose.
• Reduce the population: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has regulations that include hunting. It also issues permits allowing nest and egg destruction, as well as other methods preventing eggs from hatching.
As if presidential contenders and the Zika virus weren’t reason enough to make Georgians pull the covers over their heads, we now face another peril: goose attacks.
State wildlife officials are urging folks to act now to avoid assault from that winged menace, Branta Canadensis. You may know this marauder by its common name, Canada goose.
Canada geese are now selecting places to nest. They prefer green nooks in office parks, big yards, golf courses — the same places, says the state Department of Natural Resources, where humans gather. DNR is urging people to chase them off while they have the chance.
Once Mr. and Mrs. Canadensis are settled in, well —
Greg Balkcom, take it from here.
“He’ll come at you with wings a-flapping,” said Balkcom, who heads DNR’s waterfowl program. This puts him in harm’s way. “Every year, I get bitten and scratched.”
And not just a little nip, either. A riled goose comes straight at you, grabs some flesh, then twists. “It’s that twist that hurts,” Balkcom said. “It adds insult to injury.” Or, perhaps, injury to insult.
While the goose is chewing on you, remember: That bird is protected under state and federal law. It’s illegal to hunt, kill, sell, purchase or possess Canada geese without proper permits.
Another goose fact: it’s all about location. Nesting geese, he said, prefer a spot that’s hard to see — under some shrubs, perhaps, or in a furrow. If the site is close to water, that’s even better. “They like a nice mowed lawn, too,” Balkcom said. The slopes at office complexes, apartments, golf courses: What better place for a love nest?
What worse place for an unsuspecting passerby? While mama goose is on the nest, the old man is on patrol. When the goslings are hatched, usually in April, look out. Dogs, cats, the UPS guy: nothing is safe.
If you don't believe it, check YouTube.com. Just enter "Canada goose attack" in the search area.
Or ask Dennis Grogan Jr. Last spring, a couple of geese set up housekeeping just outside ASAP Technologies, a Buford company that sells adhesives to the aerospace industry. Grogan, ASAP’s vice president, watched the mama bird select a nice spot outside the main entrance.
The male goose? He took exception to anyone passing by. “No one could come in the front door,” he recalled. “We had to send everyone in through a side door.”
That might have been OK, but the male didn’t stop there. Before long, he was waddling around in the parking lot, feathers pretty much permanently ruffled. He glared at pedestrians. He hissed at cars. He challenged tractor-trailers. Once, he saw the company vice president staring at him through an office window.
“That thing jumped up and wanted to come after me,” Grogan said. “I mean, he wouldn’t stop.”
Enter Lexi, who has a thing about geese. She's one of two border collies working for Geese Police, a metro company whose name is self-explanatory (The motto: Call Us To Get The Flock Out). Lexi's owner, Glen Rittgers, is one of nearly 20 franchise-holders nationwide putting honkers on the lam. Grogan called him and asked for help.
Rittgers visited ASAP and told Lexi to do her stuff. She did not hurt the birds. Instead, Lexi ran at the geese until the duo decided to nest elsewhere. There’s something about a border collie’s eyes, said Rittgers, that gives geese the creeps. “It has a predatory stare,” Rittgers said.
With spring approaching, Rittgers anticipates getting calls from folks who suddenly find themselves under attack. So does DNR, which routinely gets inquiries from people who report run-ins with deer, bears, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, squirrels, alligators, turtles, creatures that didn’t bother to introduce themselves, you name it.
And geese. Last week Grogan looked out his office window and saw two nosing about, their necks arced like question marks: Was this a good place to raise a family?
Lexi, stay close to the phone.
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