Tips on Trapping a Canada Goose

Need goose removal in your hometown? We service over 500 USA locations! Click here to hire us in your town and check prices - updated for year 2020.

You will need a really big trap to try and capture a goose, and you’ll need to be brave too. These birds are vicious, and trapping them is really not an option that you should think of with any job. If your hands or fingers get anywhere near the cage that you have captured the beast in, it will attack. It will hurt if it manages to get hold of you too, and that's before we look into the idea of diseases and other problems associated with the large and usually aggressive bird.



You will need to look into the legalities of trying to trap one of these birds before you actually do anything. Not just protected at state level, the Canada goose is protected under state AND federal law, which means you’ll be in super trouble if you harm one of them and get caught.

Not just that, geese rarely come as just one. There are always a number of them, and in order to get rid of the problem, you will need to get rid of all of them. It is more advisable to seek a professional opinion before talking any action than it is to just jump in with a trap and hope for the best. We mentioned those legalities, right?

If you want to get specific about traps, you're talking about things such as drop net traps, which usually needs to be trigger by your hand. This means lying in wait for the birds and hoping they all congrats in exactly the same area at exactly the same time. You will need a second person to give you a hand with this job. A second brave person.

You can try using something like a net trap if you are trying to trap a goose on the water but, again, this really does come with its fair share of problems. In terms of where you are, the goose is going to have a much better handle on the whole water situation than you are. It can float, swim and fly. You can’t. Well, you might be able to swim and float a bit, but you certainly can’t fly. There's a pretty good chance that goose is going to have you figured out before you have the chance to get close to it with a net, and it'll attack you before you can make your move too. You could try laying netted traps that go off without your assistance, but these are generally considered to be a lot of hard work with very little reward.

Trapping wild geese is a tough challenge, and not one that should be taken on my someone who is not knowledgeable in such a feat. For your own safety, please seek advise before taking any action against the big, brave, and very powerful bird.

Read my How to get rid of Canada Geese guide.
For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How much does bird removal cost? - get the lowdown on prices.
How to get rid of birds - my main bird removal info guide.
Example bird removal photographs - get do-it-yourself ideas.
Bird job blog - learn from great examples of bird jobs I've done.