I am very concerned about the geese droppings all over our area. I live 25 miles outside of Philadelphia and in an area where the resident geese have been culled numerous times. Despite this, they always return and soon there is crap everywhere-in playgrounds, on football fields etc. Today, I drove by the high school and observed at least a hundred geese on the field and this afternoon they were replaced by high school students playing rugby. Last fall I found it impossible to clean the stains from the geese off my son’s football uniform and as we know that is a game where they get “Down and dirty”. I hate to consider what got on his hands, face and possibly in his mouth. In normal circumstances, I consider this unhygienic but lately I see it as deadly. Is anyone aware of local or state plans to address this issue? This is not an isolated problem but one that occurs throughout SE PA and NJ and possibly elsewhere here on the East Coast.
There’s a park near here that my family calls “Goosepoop Park.” It’s so bad that I have never seen any human walking there.
When I take my son out to run around, I no longer take him to big grassy areas because of the poop. He’s 2 and constantly putting his hands or other things in his mouth. Instead we go to the woods, where the geese don’t go.
You are right, it’s a huge problem here in the Mid Atlantic.
We are thick with the geese here too. Swimming gets banned at lakes due to the goosepoop count. The ballfields, playgrounds, are covered with droppings. It’s already a bacterial health hazard. If anybody had thought it would be charming to have a pond on their yard landscape, they are sorry now, because they get overun by the geese. They fly overhead to new feeding locations all the time, and are walking on lawns, fields, roadesides, like herds of locusts.
I used to love the geese, until several parks were over run with them and their poop. Now the poop may very well be deadly in a few months. I read this morning that a goose generates 1 lb of poop a day. I believe it.
We have an open lot right by our fire and ambulance house,it has a resident goose population.Given the fact that the virus can be still by active in feces I wonder what or if anything will be done.So far my township is doing nothing about this.My husband and are planning to go to the next town meeting and raise the whole bird flu subject.
Let’s kill them all…..they have NO right to be on this planet…any form of life that does not conform to human standards should be eradicated…who cares if their species has been around for millions of years longer…humans reign supreme…just look at the progress we have accomplished on this planet….just look at all of the species that have became extinct because of our grand purpose…I personally can’t wait until we are the only sentient life-form left in a sterile world void of love
Philadelphia Mama - That field should be a safe place for those students to practice and play thier games. It is not. If it were my child attending that school I would take information about the H5N1 Avian flu in hand to the principal and tell them that you feel this is a major health threat to the students and something needs to be done YESTERDAY. Then if they seem unwilling to take action tell them you will go to their higher ups and even to your local area’s health department if necessary.
Poppy, Very good suggestion.. I will do just that.
Anonymous, I believe you are overreaching. I have nothing against any lifeform and in fact, share my life with three cats, one a pregnant stray, and a dog. In the past I’ve raised finches and cared for numerous wild, injured animals. I have a medical background which has been helpful when encountered with injured animals. That said, our communities have designed areas that in hindsight may not be good for human beings. I live on The Brandywine Creek alongside a nature reserve which, before the population growth around here, was able to sustain naturally all sort of species including geese. We created “natural areas” in somewhat unnatural places, housing developments, parks etc. It looks lovely but in it actually upsets the balance that was maintained in the past. We need to consider this issue and find a solution that would be acceptable to the health and welfare of all animals, human and otherwise.
Anonymous- It’s all a matter of balance. My area in particular is suffering from a lack of natural predators- geese, deer and squirrels ARE taking over to the detriment of some other species.And then people are trying to ‘solve’ the problem with poisons and making it worse. I’m afraid by overpopulating they are going to kill themselves- and us too, through disease.
Philadelphia Mama,Given your background working with animals, is there any way the geese could be rounded up and released with no detriment to them? Would they return? What sort of options do we have?I love our varied bird life here,I don’t want to harm them. I think there is a very real threat to humans at the present.
I guess the more products/ways there are on the market, the less likely it is that any of them really work, right?
I see a lot of ways online to discourage geese from your grassy knolls. Things to spray in the grass, “dead geese” decoys, life-size plastic coyotes (archery targets!), try and borrow some border collies, round them up when they can’t fly… http://tinyurl.com/mqr3m (But don’t try anything until you research what the wildlife laws are in your state.)
I’m sure the schools would have to listen listen if groups of concerned parents said the kids’ sport fields and bird droppings are not a good combo.
Here’s an interesting Audubon article on Canadian geese, including some info on rounding them up. General consensus seems to be that they come back. Ooops. The article is from 2000.
Jersey Girl, They rounded them up here and moved them to another, more remote and suitable location. It was very obvious that it had been done and there was an absence of geese for at least six months, possibly longer. They are gradually returning (or being replaced by others?)but it is gradual and the numbers are much lower than when the round-up was done. It seems as though yearly round-ups would be a good idea, that way the population of geese would not be excessive and they prefer the creek and streams, where they are welcome to the overflow basins anyway. They seem to go on the fields and in the basins only when the population gets excessive.
Thanks for all the information.My husband and I will most definately supply the information to our township meeting, and hope they take the suggestions seriously.
Good luck to those of you who have these large populations of geese. I love their beauty but they are better off in natural places and we are better off with them in those places. My son used to play football when in high school and I have to confess just the thought of goose poop on their uniform and the field… Yuck! I’m still grossed out after reading Philadelphia Mama’s post this morning.
I also live in NJ and raised this very question on a discussion forum that residents use. We have a county park about a mile from us that just underwent a very expensive renovation. There is a mile long path around the lake used by everyone, their dog AND a flock of white geese and ducks. We have lived in this town for 17 years and so have they. We have a 9 mo old puppy (last child just graduated from college!)who LOVES to walk. I asked the vet last week how long it would be safe to walk there and was told when the first bird falls out of the sky in Alaska, stay home. When I mentioned this on the website everyone thought it was the funniest thing they had ever heard and made comments about how they always watch where they walk anyway. I don’t find it at all amusing. This is a town that doesn’t have an operating ambulance service and I’m sure the clowns that run it aren’t considering planning for a possible pandemic.
My sister lives in Mystic Con and right on the river. She says her dog Winston eats the goose poop all the time. She realizes that he will have to either stay inside or go to another place since he has this nasty habit and wounders if she will have enough warning to keep the dog from infecting them. I’ve encouraged her to keep an eye on the wiki as the warning from our Gov will likely be too late. At least here we have a fighting chance thanks to all of you .
Has she asked a vet how to stop Winston from this habit. I know I would try sprinkling cayenne pepper or something distastful on one or two of them, and see if it gives him something to think about. Or call the Pet doctor on WOR. Check your radio listings..
You might want to have the geese around, so that you know when bird flu has reached your area. Sort of the “canary in the coalmine” mentality. See a dead goose, and you know to hunker down. Ducks are another story, the scary story. They can carry H5N1 without exhibiting symptoms, and they shed the virus in their poop.
This kind of story drives me crazy!! http://tinyurl.com/fyllo I guess I should be glad that soemone is asking the question but what a contradictory response. These type of officials remind me of the mayor of Amity in “JAWS”
And since when are politicians experts on disease transmission?
That’s just it, 99.99% of politicians are NOT experts on disease transmission, or on many other subjects, except perhaps spending other people’s money and forming committees. That’s why they need to rely on experts in any given field, and we have to hope that they’ve chosen the correct experts to listen to. I don’t think any of us can fault a politician for not knowing much about a given subject, it’s when they’ve been informed of the facts and then choose to ignore or obfuscate those facts that I get riled.
Older thread, closing for speed purposes.
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