Thread: Keeping ducks off a boat!

We have recently purchased a boat and currently have it in a berth at the Te Anau marina. Bloody ducks drive me up the wall everytime go down there spend the first half hour cleaning all the shit off the swim platform. Any bright ideas to dissuade them? I was thinking of just leaving loaves of bread on all the neighbouring boats

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

We have recently purchased a boat and currently have it in a berth at the Te Anau marina. Bloody ducks drive me up the wall everytime go down there spend the first half hour cleaning all the shit off the swim platform. Any bright ideas to dissuade them? I was thinking of just leaving loaves of bread on all the neighbouring boats

You wont like my method

Seriously though what about some removeable spike strips like the sort they use to stop seagulls and pidgeons roosting and shitting in public places buildings and some street lights

Lots and lots of bits of string going all over the show to tangle them up? Seems to work to keep gulls off boats over here

Use piano wire on little 4-6" stands to keep pigeons off wall etc.


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Effigy of a hawk on the cabin roof

There were yachts moored at Taupo (eastern side on edge of town) that used to be piled high in poo from ducks, shags, geese etc. I see they now sport little spinners like tiny radar units (think a metre dia). About 3-4 per boat. Wind powered. Clean looking boats now.
Others use comercial bird netting from orchards. But would be a bugger deploying and retracting. Depends how often the boat gets used?

Run a couple of lines around the boat Ryan about a foot to a foot and a half off the deck. Then attach some small coloured streamers to this.
Like the ones you get in party poppers.
Works on seagulls so should work with ducks.

have you tried a simple hawk decoy?

one that flailed in the wind might help

mite be too late if they are already too comfortable

I use a magpie decoy on a piece of string and it has almost completely kept the sparrows out of my shed
the string just gives it a bit of movement

In adddition to a hawk effigy or large painting of one on the roof, string up a few shiny cd disks that can move in the breeze. Birds a scared by these and I see them in vinyards and orchards about the place.

Elec fence unit and run a few 'pairs' of fuse wire where they roost.
So long as it is insulated from the boat it shouldnt do the old electrolosis thing to your boat.

An old Island trick. Hang a wing on a piece of string in the area of where they sit. So it blows around etc. Works with sea gulls.

Cracks me up, you call it a swim platform but the common name is the duck board

https://birdspikes.co.nz/product/ant...m_prod_id=6651

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

We have recently purchased a boat and currently have it in a berth at the Te Anau marina. Bloody ducks drive me up the wall everytime go down there spend the first half hour cleaning all the shit off the swim platform. Any bright ideas to dissuade them? I was thinking of just leaving loaves of bread on all the neighbouring boats

If the swimming platform is something that they frequently land on, maybe a layer of dishwashing liquid would mean that they couldn't stand on it properly?