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Nothing puts a dent in your day like taking your car through a wash just in time for a bird flying overhead to relieve itself on your freshly-clean vehicle. One community in North Carolina, however, is dealing with that 10-fold as they "battle" being overrun by ducks and geese that one neighbor complains "poop everywhere."
According to homeowner Skip Canady, his Surrey Downs property in New Bern is being destroyed by an overpopulation of Muscovy ducks that were dropped off by a previous neighbor, per News Channel 12. While some neighbors enjoy the ducks, others, like Canady, complain that the waterfowl keep them from enjoying the retention ponds because "they ate all of the grass" and "it smells."
"One clutch can give you 23 eggs... that's a lot of ducks every year," he said, adding, "We not only have to battle with the ducks we have to battle with the geese. They walk up and down the street and they poop everywhere, mess your yard up. So, we have to get some help here."
Greg Batts, biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said that there's not much the department can do right now to help.
"We don't allow relocation for those issues, because if it's an issue for somebody there, it's going to be an issue wherever they are moved to," he said. "So, they have to be euthanized if they are captured."
While the fowls can't be moved elsewhere, Batts said the agency is working on "habitat manipulation" that could potentially help in the future.
"Birds like to go from short grass into the water and so you could grow grass around the water," he said. "If they see tall grass it's a deterrent keeping them from going out of the water. There are deterrents that you can spray on your grass most of them are a type of grape extract. It makes the grass taste nasty to the birds so they don't want to eat the grass."