How to get rid of a
Blue Heron
10 Ways to Keep Herons Away From Your Pond
Sharing buttons:
in this video I'm going to be talking to
you guys about how to keep great blue
herons and just herons in general away
from your outdoor ponds and how to stop
them from eating your fish your koi your
goldfish whatever you guys keep inside
your pond so herons are definitely the
most notorious pond predator and chances
are if you're watching this video you
probably just recently suffered a heron
attack on your pond I'm not gonna give
you guys one method or two methods to
keep them away but ten different methods
in this video to keep herons away from
your pond now these ten methods are not
going to be in any particular order
besides method one because I think that
one's definitely the most important and
method one is gonna be pond design
before you even make your pond do you
need to take some things into account in
order to keep herons away from your pond
one thing that's very important to know
about herons is that they will typically
refuse to walk inside of a pond that's
any deeper than around 18 inches or 2
feet so if you make your pond deeper
than 2 feet in all areas you have now
eliminated the ability for the heron to
walk around inside your pond now he can
obviously still hunt from the sides but
you've dramatically reduced the area
that he's able to hunt so you want to
make your pond deeper than 2 feet and
you also want to make the sides very
steep that way he can't stand on any of
the sides to hunt the sides that are
shallower now this will eliminate your
ability to make plant ledges you can
still have the plant ledges if you want
but you will need to completely fill
them up with potted plants that he's not
really able to stand on so for pond
design you want to go deep in the pond
and you want to have very steep sides to
make it impossible for him to stand
inside of the pond now one other thing
you can do in your pond planning is you
can make the sides that you're not going
to view from either have some shrubs
some bushes or very high rock walls that
way he's not able to hunt from any of
those ledges on the sides of the pond
and you've now eliminated those as
options for him and he's only able to
hunt from the
one little area on the ledge that you
view your fish from so moving on to
method two this one's probably the one
you see most commonly and is also one of
the least expensive methods to stop
herons and this is the fishing line
method and this one just involves
setting up a bunch of small stakes
around the edges of your ponds and then
wrapping fishing line in between the
stakes in zigzag formations and what
this does is it limits pretty much the
ability for the Heron to navigate inside
the pond if he is able to walk inside
your pond he will get caught up in this
fishing line and eventually just leave
frustrated and also if you do it a lot
around the edges of the pond
it will also kind of get his feet caught
in it and it might startle him enough to
make him leave the pond because he
doesn't see it there and then he feels
it on his leg and he might just fly off
however this method has been outsmarted
by many herons and you will see lots of
videos of herons actually just stepping
over the line
so I usually only suggest the fishing
line method if you're gonna do it in
combination with some of the other
methods that I list here and if you are
gonna do the fishing line method I would
also suggest that you get either thirty
pound or fifty pound test that way it's
not easily broken by a large animal like
a heron moving on to method three this
one is also very cheap and easy and will
additionally improve the water quality
in your pond this one's gonna be
floating pond plants things like your
water lettuce water hyacinth frog bit
lily pads and duck weed all these types
of plants will sit on the surface of
your water and help improve the water
quality and they'll also provide the
additional protection of covering the
surface of your water from a predator
like a heron a heron can't hunt what it
can't see so if you have a bunch of
surface plant so you've made it that
much harder for a heron to locate your
fish in the pond and grab them however
you are also making it more difficult
for you yourself to see the fish so
there is that added drawback but the
plants will improve your water quality
and also make your palm look a lot
better too now pond plants aren't always
gonna be possible especially when you
get those larger koi that love to tear
up all the plants in the pond so you can
do something like what
have here I put all my floating pawn
plants besides the lily pads inside
little nuts little floating pond nets
and I'll put a link to those in the
video description if you're interested
in those and I try to strategically
place them around the edges of the pond
the edges that I see the heron visit
most and those floating pond nets will
allow me to have pond plants that will
thrive and not get their roots eaten so
moving on to method for this one will
cost you probably around fifty to sixty
dollars and is somewhat effective this
is gonna be the fake Heron method so
this one's pretty simple and
straightforward you're just buying one
of these fake herons and you are setting
it up somewhere around the edge of your
pond in order to try to fend off the
actual Heron because real herons are
territorial now you can see that mine
has this kind of pole coming out of his
backside that's an adjustable height
feature because herons are territorial
and they will dominate another Heron
that is smaller than them so if the
Heron that visits your pond is taller
than your decoy he's not gonna be afraid
of it so I can take off those fake legs
and I can actually mount him on that
pole and I can adjust his height to make
him taller in order to make the real
Heron think that this is a larger bird
now this one also has mixed results a
lot of times herons will catch on that
it's fake and they've even been known to
attack and peck at the fake one in a
territorial fight one way to defend
against this is to move your fake hair
in two different locations once every
couple of days or once a week or however
often you need to and this is gonna stop
the real Heron from thinking it's a fake
it will make him believe it a bit more
method five is gonna be air bubbles air
stones any type of surface ripple that
you can produce with air and this is
very helpful because this kind of
produces the same effect as the floating
plants it obscures the surface of the
water it makes it tougher for the Heron
to see in at the fish underneath so if
you strategically place some air stones
around the edges of your pond where the
Heron is hunting it'll make it a lot
harder for him to get a clear view of
your fish now if you are having extreme
Heron problems
an idea that you could do is you could
set up a ton of air stones around the
edges inside your pond and you can have
them switch activated so that whenever
you come over to the pond to observe
your fish you can turn off the switch
and the air stones will turn off and
you'll be able to see your fish and then
when you leave the pond you can flip it
back on and your air defense system will
keep your pond safe method six is gonna
be dogs if you have a dog that is either
on an invisible fence so our fenced off
in your yard or just knows not to leave
the yard this is a great defense system
against herons the dogs that will go
after birds like herons are an amazing
way of keeping herons out of your yard
and away from your pond if a heron gets
chased away by a dog at the pond even a
handful of times he's not gonna want to
go to that pond anymore he's gonna deem
that pond too dangerous to hunt in and
your pond will be safe and I also think
it's a pretty good excuse to go out and
give a shelter dog a new home now
hopefully your dog doesn't actually kill
or catch the great blue heron hopefully
he just scares him away method 7 isn't
necessarily a way to keep the herons
away but more of a way to protect your
fish if a heron does show up this is
gonna be the koi Castle method and these
koi castles come under many different
names you can build your own or you can
buy one but it's basically a structure
that sits at the bottom of the pond that
allows your fish to swim inside of it or
under it in the event that a predator
shows up and this way a predator will
not be able to get at them it's good to
have something like this in any pond to
protect them from something like
raccoons herons maybe even otters if an
otter manages to get into your pond so I
would definitely suggest trying one of
these out this next one is one that I
haven't personally tried myself but I
have heard many people recommend it and
that's the use of sound many people will
suggest using radios maybe on some type
of speaker system next to your pond when
you're not home and set it to something
like a talk radio show where there's
constant human voice because the herons
will try to stay away from human voice
they won't really be comfortable with it
so this will help deter them and some
people have also suggested using wind
chimes around your pond between the
noise that the wind chime makes and the
shininess of it when it blows in the
wind it will also help deter them no
like I said I haven't tried either of
those out but I have heard from people
that they are good ways of keeping
herons away from your pond number nine
is a method that will not only
determines but it will also determines
Fisher Cats anything that's picked up by
motion this is the motion sensor
sprinkler method they sell these motion
sensor sprinklers to help protect ponds
and gardens and it's basically just a
sprinkler with either a power cord going
to it or a nine volt battery and water
hooked up to it and when any animal
passes within its range it just starts
shooting off a couple of bursts of water
maybe for a couple of seconds or a
minute some of them have adjustable
timers but basically this will scare off
any predators that enter the vicinity of
your pond and these sprinklers usually
go for anywhere between fifty to maybe a
hundred dollars and you do just have to
be careful the way you angle it because
you could also end up spraying yourself
by accident so a little bit tricky
setting them up but they definitely are
effective and number ten is probably the
most effective method but also the
ugliest method and that's netting that's
just entirely covering your pond and
netting to protect it from all predators
it will also stop debris from falling in
your pond so the effectiveness rate of
this is pretty much gonna be 100%
against herons it's gonna take a very
very smart Heron to get past this but
like I said it also really really takes
away from the beauty of your pond so it
comes at a cost saving your fish will
come at a cost but if all else fails and
nothing is working you might have to
resort to this now that is the 10
methods that I have on how to keep
herons away from your ponds I would love
to hear from you guys in the comments if
you have a method that I did not list
and I'd also love to hear your
experiences with herons and your ponds
down below in the comments if you guys
found this video helpful in any way at
all hit that like button down below and
if you're new to my channel hit that
subscribe button for lots of awesome
pond videos just like this and as always
guys thank you for watching
