Posted by notarydi/CA on 5/26/11 11:08am
Msg #384375

ducks in the pool

i realize this forum is for business related questions, however, I am at my wits end with these
%*^&$ ducks in my pool every day. They crap constantly. I have tried a huge inflatable 'Willie the Whale' float, squirting them with a hose, shooting at them with a squirt gun, throwing a tennis ball at them.....and, my latest this morning.....I walked right up to them and blasted them with an air horn. They just quacked at me and swam on. They got aggressive with two neighborhood cats....and, the cats took off. I have a friend with a 12 guage that said he would help me out, but I keep getting visions of exploding pool plaster.....

HELP!

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 5/26/11 11:15am
Msg #384381

Leisure Forum...and check out "pest" websites.. n/m

Reply by C. Rivera Chicago Notary Services on 5/26/11 11:50am
Msg #384404

have you tried calling your local animal control? n/m

Reply by notarydi/CA on 5/26/11 12:24pm
Msg #384420

Re: have you tried calling your local animal control?

yes....after they got done chuckling they just said well, it's a common problem. they offered some solutions which I tried and didn't work. I even think they mentioned something about them being a 'protected species'. thanks for listening to me vent folks.....sorry I forgot about the 'leisure' section as that is where I should have posted this.

Reply by TacomaBoy on 5/26/11 4:27pm
Msg #384460

Re: have you tried calling your local animal control?

How about purchasing a fox or some other similar predator decoy to plant in your yard. I bet if you kept moving it around it would scare the crap out of the ducks and force them to stay away in fear.

Reply by jba/fl on 5/26/11 4:58pm
Msg #384469

How about a dog? forget the fox.

My other thought if you don't have a dog, would to be to get a pool cover. Those ones that look like bubble wrap - just float, keeps out ducks, leaves, dirt, etc.

Reply by Susan Fischer on 5/26/11 8:20pm
Msg #384487

Have you tried staring them down? Check this out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancewebel/312786050/

Also, I remember a study somewhere about species-memory. Over gaggles on the ground/in water, just not flying - a shadow of an airplane was ignored by the ducks/geese, but when the shadow was rotated 180, the shadow caused the fowl to scatter for safety - as it now appeared as a bird of prey. Made good sense to me.

Anyway, it may be worth a try to find even shadows of an eagle or hawk - not as a permanent fixture, but maybe just after they arrive (in the am?).

On the other hand, we were told starlings hated snakes, so my ol'man brought home some evil-looking rubber snakes, and we waited until Saturday morning to Implement The Plan. Up goes the ladder, and with snakes wriggling menacingly in his back pockets, up goes Tim, as the herd of starlings all flit over across the road to watch him from the power line.

He had his c'boy boots on because all he ever wore were plain black c'boy boots, but he by God got those terrifying snakes nailed all over, as the starlings sat evenly-spaced in silence.

Ladder down, we stepped back to admire the Fearful Rooftop. One starling, we'll call him Proby, zipped across the road and landed about a foot from a fanged menace. He looked at the snake. He looked back across the road. They had filled in his space on the wire. He looked back at the fearfulness, walked over to it, gave it a peck, looked across, pecked again.

Nothing.

I swear, starlings laugh. They all cackled flitting back and had fun pecking and laughing, and I'm not sure I ever saw JTR that p'oed...

Anyway, good duck, I mean luck!

Reply by jba/fl on 5/26/11 8:56pm
Msg #384492

Re: Have you tried staring them down? Check this out:

I like the shadow also - find someone who will make this for you as functional piece of artwork so you can live with it year round. Craft festivals abound this time of year - find someone who will be famous one day, and there you will be with an "early original" 10 years down the road. lol.

"a shadow of an airplane was ignored by the ducks/geese, but when the shadow was rotated 180, the shadow caused the fowl to scatter for safety - as it now appeared as a bird of prey. Made good sense to me."

Kayaks and canoes are shipped in bubble wrap that is 5000X's better that what we see as packaging. You get huge sheets of wrap about 20x10 - tape a few together to cover for the season. Cost: $0 materials, $X for gas to pu. cheap, effective.

I have just spent 2 years getting rid of vultures, great big turkey vultures, 55 perching in tree outside my bedroom window every morning. Digesting their breakfast, resting before the next active spurt. This year ended all that, and I didn't have to go out and wash my yard down daily, to get rid of the stench. I understand your frustration.

Reply by Susan Fischer on 5/26/11 9:37pm
Msg #384496

Didn't mean to omit your excellent, and, truly, easier

solution, jba. Honest.

It was Google, I tell ya. Here was this kid staring down an intruder and herding ducks. What could I do? So, I went meandering down a duck path, and forgot to mention your sensibility.

I Googled, Gaggled, and Goofed. <waakkwaaak>

Reply by jba/fl on 5/26/11 10:46pm
Msg #384500

Didn't take it that way, and this jogged my memory

of an Amazing Race task: duck herding! You're so right - stare them down! Have both arms going, one with a whip or stick....

Reply by jba/fl on 5/26/11 10:53pm
Msg #384502

Re: Didn't take it that way, and this jogged my memory

Then again, the next time they land in the pool, freeze it quickly, ducks in place. Then when they want to fly away, they take the pool with them.

They never return after that trip.