Our Story...
Three years of research has gone into this device. We had a goose problem at our marina and none of the current market solutions worked, including a company who is currently under contract. They've tried bird bangers and distress calls and dogs and flashing lights and none of it has any lasting effect. And the labour costs are prohibitive.
Here's what we found:
1) Goose droppings are not only ugly and slippery to walk on, they also contain parasites and bacteria that are harmful to humans and their pets. Allowing geese to mess up our public spaces is not only disgusting, it's a health risk. On average a goose creates 3 lbs of droppings a day and lives for 30 years. That's a lot of poison.
2) They create all that waste because they have very inefficient digestive systems. Because of that they need to be eating constantly when awake. Because of that they sleep very close to where they eat. They can't afford travel time. They need to wake up and get eating. Our conclusion was that if we can change where they sleep, it will change where they eat. Most goose control devices try to do it the other way around and fail.
3) Geese are vulnerable. They have no teeth or claws or venom. Their only defense mechanism is flight. That's why they sleep in open areas, often near water, so they can see an approaching predator. They sleep as a flock but they assign several of them to be sentinels. These sentinels remain standing and sleep with one eye open. (Geese can do that) When a sentinel senses danger he starts honking and the entire flock takes off and travels a long way. One last fact, geese are very sensitive to light.
4) Geese are skeptical. You can put out plastic coyotes or flashing lights and the geese will leave for a couple of days. But they come back. Anything constant or stationary eventually fails.
5) We put all of this together and came up with the GC1 which is an automated, intermittent low powered laser beam. The beam is 5mw which is within the U.S. and Canadian Regulations and it is set to a height of 16" which is the average height of a standing goose's eye.. The beam points straight down into a mirror set at a 45 degree angle. The mirror is mounted on an electric motor that rotates at 2 rpm. The beam and the motor are controlled by an electronic timer that turns the unit on for 1 minute (2 revs) every hour. It's programmable but we have found 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. is very effective..
It can also run on solar power.
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6) The GC1 has a couple of safety features.- the beam can be targeted by putting tape over the slot and/or by changing the angle of the mirror. If the unit somehow accidentally gets tipped over, a safety switch turns off the laser automatically.
7) To make it vandal and theft proof, the shape of the GC1 allows it to be mounted inside a steel fence post or soccer goal post. Easily removable for the winter.
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8) There are 3 main reasons the GC1 works - it's intense, it's intermittent and it's kinetic. It's not cheap but there are a lot of electronics involved and it was designed by a professional engineer. And the labour costs are minimal.
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Click here to watch our 5 minute Instructional Video: https://youtu.be/2TiywI2EPfQ
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We're confident about taking the GC1 to beaches, parks, marinas, yacht clubs, golf courses and sports' fields. Please contact us at dave@gc1goosecontrol.com
