Effective Ways to Keep Ducks Out of Your Pool

Watching an episode of friends and wondering if you can also get a duck just like Joey and Chandler did? Well then, here is the good news – Yes you can. Only if your local municipality allow to grow up with such poultry.

How Good are Ducks as Pets?

Each duck brings in a different personality and are a beautiful, cute little walking feathers. They have a usual life span of 10-15 years which gives you enough time to connect with them on an individual level.

And if you are someone who love to do gardening on weekends, ducks will provide with lot of free manure. Also, landscaping is not a problem with ducks.

Things to Keep in Mind Before Getting A Duck

Apart from abiding by the laws, ducks are high maintenance. From toiling too much to protecting them from local predators, it takes a lot of effort to keep a duck safe and happy.

Investing in duck food is a real thing and also ducks are too noisy for people Around you to handle and sustain with it.

Why Is It Important to Keep Ducks Away from Pool?

Now that you have got the duck, it is your responsibility to make sure that the ducks do not enter in your pool as it is very unhealthy for them and for you.

Animals tend to drink a lot of water and if your duck ends up having too much pool water, it can cause irreparable damage to their kidneys, just like drinking too much alcohol does to your kidneys.

It also unhealthy for you because too many ducks on a same place for a long time inhibits germs like E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter and cryptosporidium that infect humans with several diseases.

Pet Ducks vs Wild Ducks

A pet is always loved and still we try to keep it away from the pool. Think about wild ducks and such other birds intruding in your day to day life.

Wild ducks are not only dangerous but can also turn around the picture of a beautiful pool or backyard. Whether a pet duck or a wild duck, both come with bird dropping problems.

It gets very difficult to keep ducks away from the pool, here are some effective ways that will make your job easy.

Effective Ways to Keep Ducks Out of Your Pool

Let us Fool Them.

Ducks do not like troublesome water especially the one with predator threats. You, can use this to your favor. You can use some inflatable toys like whales, snakes, octopus or crocodiles. This will keep them away from the water.

However, you cannot fool them for very long. Once they observe that these toys are no threats they will dive in to the pool. But it will give you enough time to think about another solution to keep your ducks away from the pool.

Avoid using colorful inflatable beach balls or rings as they will not be that effective in solving your problem.

Let us Fool them For Real Now

Now that the fake one is not paying off, lets bring a live predator in the picture or one that is a lookalike of a predator. You can get a dog. It gets a little tricky from here on, not all dogs can scare ducks, you need to provide proper training to your dog to chase away the ducks by their scary barks.

If you are thinking of replacing the dog with a cat, please stop right there. Cats will not chase away your ducks. They would rather kill them.

This method is subjective and reactive in nature, but it can still be effective in keeping your ducks away from the pool. Also, make sure that you get a dog breed that is water friendly or else the whole trick can backfire real soon.

Get Solar Covers or Overspreads

You might have seen that lots of houses use solar overspreads to keep their pool temperature warm and also to avoid falling of leaves in to it. Well, now you have one more reason to invest in it.

It will help you in keeping your ducks away from the pool. While shopping for your solar cover, look for a perfect fit so that your ducks cannot play peek-a-boo in your pool.

Steps to follow:

1. Before stepping out to buy a cover make sure you have taken all the measurements properly. It is easy to measure pool that are in square, rectangle, or circle. But if you have pool of oval shape, it is advisable to take professional help.
2. Opt for a basic protection. It gets easy to maintain them. Go for a heavy-duty safety cover if you seek durability.
3. Go to the local pool store with your measurements and pick up a cover according to your choice.
4. Install the selected pool cover and stay with zero intervention from ducks and such other birds.

Put your Children at Work.

Do not take it in literal sense. But while your kids are free during there summer holidays, you can use this fun trick to keep the ducks away.

Children are fantasized about remote control toys. You can buy remote control botas and airplanes and ask your children to play in backyard with them when its time for the ducks to arrive.

They can use these toys to scare the ducks and such other birds by having fun at the same time.

Fencing Around Pool Area

Build a nice tall fence around your pool area. This will stop ducks from entering, exploring and pooping in your pool. You can also paint your fence with big eye birds like owl to stop ducks from entering in your backyard as well.

However, if you want to enjoy the luxury of an open pool, we have many more solutions listed below in the article.

You can also consider an option to build a full proof fencing around your back yard and house, leaving no way for ducks to enter in your private property and disturb your luxury. This will also add an additional security around your home from thieves and other aimals.

Time to Rely on a Machine

In case, your dog is not ready to be trained or is kind enough to not scare off the ducks, its time to turn towards a machine to do the job.

You can install an automatic pool cleaner. This will not only maintain the hygiene of your pool but will also help you in scaring off the ducks. Just the sound of vacuum is enough to keep ducks away from the pool.

Plant your Plants Smartly.

Do not you love it when your pool is surrounded with plants, making it authentic and warm. If you get a little tricky while picking the plants, it can help you in keeping the ducks away from the pool.

Long plants that are not fruit bearing is on e of the best options to go with. Long bushes make ducks uncomfortable as they are not able to spot their predators. If you get fruit-bearing plants, ducks will never leave that corner it will rather feast on it.

Keep up with Maintenance.

If you are not a gardener type, do not worry, we got a solution for you too. You just have to do what you are already doing in a more precise way. Add more chlorine to your water to avoid the smell of pond which is a major attraction for ducks.

Also, make sure that there are no floating leaves or debris in your pool. This will not only keep your ducks away from the pool but will also avoid the presence of uninvited guests.

Set up a Fishing Line.

This is one of the oldest and most affordable tricks to keep your ducks away from the pool. A crisscrossed fishing line acts like an invisible surface protector. Once the duck has touched the net, there is no way they are ever returning to that pool again.

Intimidate Them with Motion-Activated Sprinkler

Even if humans are splashed with water for no reason, they will be scared for once. Just imagine how effectively it can work for the wild ducks. Motion-activated sprinklers splashes water when there is a movement in that particular diameter.

This trick can scare birds so much that not only will they not look at your pool but will also advice their friends in doing the same. 

Bird Netting

Bird netting walks on the same principal of fishing line. However, it also covers the benefits of overspreads. These are very affordable in nature and is also easily accessible in the hardware stores nearby.

Along with the prevention of falling leaves and debris, the ducks will also prefer to stay from your pool and from pooping into it.

Do not Try to Attract Birds

Flowers and bird feeders make your backyard look beautiful, but have you thought how fast this picture can change? Well, really fast. Because this will attract ducks and other fowls.

So, anything that attracts birds can create a threat for your backyard and pool. Remove every such thing from your backyard.

Ultrasonic Pet Repellant

Pet repellant is an inexpensive machine to invest in especially when you are irritated by more animals than just ducks. The sound created by this machine will not bother you but is very irritating to birds and such other wildlife.

The sound effect is also harmless to wildlife, it just helps in scaring them off and making them uncomfortable in your backyard.

DIY Scary Eye Balloons

Scary eye balloons are the balloons that float on water with large and scary eyes drawn on it. Ducks hate these eyes as for them its predators on watch.

This will make your job easier and will also add a prospect to your pool. You can either buy them or make them at home with your kids.

Fake Owls

As we have discussed earlier that ducks are highly scared of big eyes and if scary balloons do not nail the job, get some fake plastic owls.

Place these owls around the pool and to make it highly effective buy a decoy that hoots and makes simple physical movements to give a real vibe. You can purchase these from garden centers or home improvement stores.

Tell the Duck to Duck off

Lo-Chlor is a company that makes a pool chemical called duck-off. These chemical breaks the water tension making it impossible for ducks to float.

There is a reason why we are mentioning it in the end. We do not advice using chemical but if nothing else works, this can be your last resort. Make sure you try other options before buying duck-off.

Killing is not an Option.

If you are thinking to kill the ducks and such other birds, do not even think about it. Unlike humans, birds don not know the difference between what is natural and artificial. They come to your pool considering it a part of nature.

If humanity does not stop you from killing innocent birds, Migratory Bird Treaty Act will.

Birds are the part of the ecosystem and with little patience you can get rid of them. We can understand that maintaining a pool itself invites a lot of efforts and holding up patience for ducks might be a little frustrating.

With a slight change in your perspective you can turn around this frustration. Rather then getting frustrated you can look at them smile and feel lucky to be surrounded by nature. This will calm your mind.

Now you can easily pick up any of the above options and execute it with a smile on your face.

Having a pool is a lifestyle dream and to keep it clean from leaves and away from ducks is a lifetime responsibility. We hope that we were of great help. Stay tuned for more such articles.