Why You Need To Keep Ducks Out
- A presence of wildlife, including birds, increase the risk of germs and disease such as Crypto, E.coli, Salmonella. Fortunately, most types of bacteria die quickly once they come into contact with the chlorinethis is why it’s so important to maintain your pool and its chlorine levels.
- While nitrates and phosphates are naturally occurring contaminants to pools, ducks and other birds can contaminate them even more.
- Once these animals take up residence, it will be hard to get them to leave.
Invest In An Ultrasonic Pest Repellant
If youre dealing with animals other than ducks, it may be worthwhile to get a pest repellant. These low-cost devices generate a high-frequency sound that humans cannot detect but is hugely annoying to birds.
The sound effect is entirely safe for animals and serves just to startle the animal into the flight, preventing it from becoming too comfortable in your backyard oasis.
Let Your Dog Out The Back But Not In The Pool Area
While ducks are fast movers, the last thing you want to do is let your dog loose in the pool area, and then it kills an unsuspecting duck. Instead, let the dog out the back. If it sees the ducks, itll likely bark and spook them away. Some dogs are better at this than others, and if your dog is one of those that isnt phased by anything or anyone, theres a good chance the ducks arent going to leave just at the sight of a cruisy dog in the backyard.
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Why Do Ducks Land In My Pool
Before we take a look at how to keep ducks out of your pool, lets take a look at why ducks choose to land in your pool. There is, of course, an obvious answer to this, and that is that ducks love water.
They are waterfowl, and so they primarily reside in water, this makes your pool a massive attraction to ducks because it is essentially a man made pond.
So, if a flock of ducks is flying past your home, and they spot your swimming pool, they might make a beeline for it.
Ducks find comfort in water, and so it is logical that they might choose your pool as a stop gap on their journey. Another major reason why ducks might be likely to land in your pool is because it is clear water.
From up above, the ducks will be able to recognize that there are no threats in your pool, and so they will know that it is a safe place to stop.
So, a duck might choose to stop in your pool because it is a safe and comfortable place for them to eat and rest, before setting off on their journey once more.
How To Keep Ducks Out Of Your Pool
While your kids may find it pretty amusing to walk out and find a small flock of ducks hanging out in the pool, you know better. You know its a problem youre going to have to solve before the kids start naming them, feeding them, and asking if they can keep them forever and ever.
If youve never encountered this before, you may be stumped about how to keep ducks out of your pool. Luckily, its not really that difficult, and it wont cost you a lot of money. And you wont end up with a bunch of ducks as pets.
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Put Your Dog On The Job
Speaking of predators, you do not have to fabricate the threat of a predator when you have a dog in the backyard. While dogs do not eat ducks they certainly may enjoy hunting or chasing them.
If nothing else, your pet dog is likely to bark their head off at the sight of this invader in your pool which should be enough to scare the ducks away.
If you leave your dog to hang around in the yard and around the pool, this should do the trick. Even if they are not outside at all times, the local duck population will be able to recognize your home as the one with the dog in it and will automatically avoid your pool.
How Do I Keep Ducks Out Of The Pool
The first thing is dont feed them. They will feel safe and secure in your backyard and be more difficult to get them to move on.
One or more of the above methods to frighten off the ducks will keep them away. However, when not being used by your family, a pool cover is the only truly useful deterrent to ducks using the pool.
If the ducks cannot land in the water and float around in safety they will go somewhere else.
Read our article on Swimming Pool & Hot Tub Safety
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Pick And Choose Plants
Ducks dont like to stay in areas where the shrubs are tall and block their view of any potential predators. If you have a garden as well as your pond, you could consider planting some taller shrubs around to discourage them from landing.
You should also resist planting anything that will grow fruits and berries. They make a wonderful food source for ducks and will make the habitat even more appealing for them. The more food they have around, the better off they are.
Strong smelling herbs and plants with spikes or thorns are unattractive to ducks as a food source. Incorporating some of these plants into your garden can help keep ducks away and limit how much food there is to be found.
Plants Ducks Wont Eat:
- Rose Mallow
- Sage
It can be beneficial for you to keep your garden and yard as neat and tidy as possible. If you dont have any dark, overgrown areas good for laying and hiding their eggs, ducks are less likely to mate in or around your pond. You dont need a whole family around!
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May Become Permanent Guests
Ducks that take up residency in your yard are terribly hard to get rid of. And thats even before they start to lay eggs! According to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 1918, migrating birds cannot be shot, harmed or disturbed. It is also illegal to relocate them or destroy nests and eggs.
If you are thinking that you can use it as an opportunity to get out your gun and do some duck hunting on your pool then, frankly, you are a typical hunting asshole!
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Keep Ducks Out Of Your Pool
How to keep ducks out of your pool.
We take time out explain the options, but unfortunately we have only found two viable solutions!
Over more than a decade, our customers have tested various duck prevention methods including:-
- Solar Blankets & Thermal Covers.
- Chemical repellents such as Duck Off& No More Ducks.
- Flags, plastic Snakes & other deterrents.
- Pool Safety Net
- Premium Leaf & Debris Cover.
Solar BlanketsSolar blankets float on the surface of the water and will submerge sufficiently with the weight of a duck to provide enough water to for them to paddle, play and enjoy. This means that ducks will continue to enjoy the use of your pool, pooping on the pool blanket, coping and surrounding areas.
The top surface of the solar blanket will quickly become soiled with feathers and faeces which will smudge across both surfaces of the cover when the blanket is rolled. In short, a Solar Blanket exacerbates the duck problem and does not offer any form of relief.
I just wanted to deter the ducks, I did not want to KILL them! Christina Rees. Grasmere, NSW.
Chemical RepellentsChemical repellents such as Duck Off and No More Ducks work by reducing the surface tension of the water. This causes the ducks to sink further into the water, which they do not like. Our customers have collectively used this product widely and report the following issues:-
Our Leaf & Debris Cover is the best available, featuring:-
Put A Plastic Owl In Your Pool Area
Owls are one of the known duck predators. Good thing that owls are often stationary. It might not be easy for ducks to figure out that the owl they see lurking around the pool area is fake.
Having plastic owls lurking around your pool area can be enough to scare them away. For this methods success, you should consider putting up decoys that move their heads and make a hooting sound. Having several of these around your pool area wouldnt be a bad choice either.
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Tip : Use A Duck Repellent
There are a variety of duck and goose repellents available on the market and each one does the same job. Apparently, the chemicals are completely harmless to humans or ducks which is good to know. Most of us dont want to hurt these creatures, but we do want them to keep away from our pools!
Duck repellents can be sprayed on lawns, plants and other vegetation. The jury seems out on how well these work some say they work perfectly while others say that it doesnt work at all. If you want to try this for yourself you can buy Liquid Fence Goose Repellent on Amazon.
Why Do You Need To Keep Ducks Out Of The Pool
Maybe you find it funny that ducks like to relax in your pool.
But how would you feel if one day you were swimming and all of a sudden a duck came to take a swim in your pool?
It can be dangerous depending on how big the animal is. Well, its not only dangerous but also annoying.
Hygiene of the pool is an issue too.
You will need to spend more time cleaning it, and it wont seem like you swimming in your own private pool anymore.
So how can you make sure that this situation will never happen again?
Lets see how we can keep ducks out of the swimming pool.
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How To Keep Ducks From Invading Your Swimming Pool
It gets worse:
Along with a few feathers, ducks will contaminate your clean swimming pool water with duck poop, urine and bacteria. And left alone, they will build nests and have babies if you allow them.
Create A Water Barriers
Ducks are waterfowl, so youll see them come to your property if you have a pond, a pool, a lake, or any other water source available.
If you could remove access to any of these places, you would be able to successfully remove ducks from property spaces.
Naturally, to keep ducks out of the pool, you might not be able to rely on the same methods as that would restrict your access to it, too.
But in a pond, you can install fences or a variety of other physical barriers, including hedgerows.
Ducks are known for loving to land on water, so if you make things difficult for them, they arent going to feel comfortable and they will want to leave.
You can cover your pond or pool with chicken wire so that the birds have no means of landing on the water source. Typically, ducks prefer to go rest on land once theyve spent a little time on the water.
So if you use both tricks, meaning the chicken wire and some sort of high fencing, you will force the birds to leave the place by flying.
This combination is very effective when it comes to controlling the duck movement. Plus, fencing can be used around the pool, too.
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Is Pool Water Safe For Ducks
- They’ll naturally want to drink large amounts of the chlorinated water, which can, in turn, cause irreparable damage to their kidneys.
- Pools are especially dangerous for ducklings since they have no oils in their “down” when they hatch. This can cause them to become waterlogged and drown in the water if they have no way to escape. If you are unable to scare away the ducks, you might want to give them a ramp to avoid the above situation. Once the little ones are old enough to leave, guide them to a local pond or lake.
Warning
Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, when birds are migrating, you are not allowed to shoot or harm them or disturb, relocate, or destroy nests or eggs.
Repel Ducks With A Scarecrow Kite
Ducks are easily scared by their predators, and one of them is the hawk. If you get a kite that resembles a hawk, whether realistic or stylized, theyll start to avoid your property and look for other places to spend their time in.
If you have been wondering how to keep ducks off my porch, installing one or two of such kites can solve your problem.
Most of the models in this category are outfitted with a sharp stake that enables them to do their job without you putting any effort into the process.
The pole of a scarecrow kite is also made to be adjustable length-wise so that you can scare off different types of birds.
Since ducks do tend to fly pretty high, using the maximum length might be the best idea, especially since birds of prey fly even higher than them.
Depending on the location where you will choose to set up the scarecrow kite, it can also make a rather effective duck repellent for docks.
That would, in fact, be better since winds are likely to be a bit stronger close to water sources, so the kite would move by itself naturally and scare off the birds.
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Making The Pool Unattractive To Ducks
Keep Up With Pool Maintenance
It may sound repetitive, but pool maintenance and cleaning is the best practice I can preach. Not only does it keep up the appearance and safety of your swimming pool, but it will also likely lessen the chance of ducks swimming in the water. Ducks prefer natural-looking bodies of water. So when pool water has balanced chemicals and no debris floating around, it is not as attractive for them.
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Use An Automatic Pool Cleaner In Your Swimming Pool
Ducks are pretty easy to scare. Though the automatic pool cleaners appearance will not scare them away, the loud and noisy vacuum sound would do the trick.
A robotic pool cleaner can be pretty expensive, but the double benefit of keeping the pool clean and keeping the ducks away is a great investment that you can pursue.
Be sure to check our guide here regarding the best robotic pool cleaners available today.
Set Up Some Motion Detection Sprinklers
Ducks are easily startled, and a sudden jet of water will scare them off quickly. This is exactly what motion detection sprinklers do, as soon as they detect motion, they automatically turn on and propel water. This is entirely harmless to the ducks, and it may take a few tries, but quick enough, theyll realise as soon as they land in the pool area, they are going to get sprayed, and they will find somewhere else to swim.
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