When my boyfriend picked me up from work today he had bad news. The "majestic" great blue heron came to visit and made a snack out of about 300 bucks worth of my poor koi. We have plant cover, we have a motion activated sprinkler, we have two dogs. Still this jerk ate quite a few of my lovlies (two of which I thought were large enough to be safe.) including a show quality shiro utsuri, an orange butterfly over a foot long, and my platinum butterfly. He got my fish that had four perfect bands of blood red on a snow white body (gorgeous fish, he was )He wounded another (tancho)and it died from the wounds. Tonight we laid down two plywood planks (too flimsy for it to stand on) to add more cover to the pond. We've done a lot of try to keep this from happening, and apparently without luck. What else can be done to stop this thing? As much as I would love to have my boyfriend just shoot him, I have read this is a federal offense and really the animal lover in me can't do that.

Is there anything more than what we've done that actually works? I have plant shelves so a wire around the pond won't work, he'd just hop over. I've read heron decoys don't actually work.. they let the real heron know it is safe to land! Anyone actually had good results with this? I live in Washington so I doubt an alligator decoy in the pond would scare this guy, we don't have gators here.

Any advice would be appreciated. Sorry for the novel length post, just needed to vent

Amongst looking into placing my common goldfish into my grandmother's pond we also were faced with the heron porblem. I have heard that the only sure way to beat a heron is to have a pond that is over 4 feet deep in the middle so the bird cannot pin the fish to the bottom of the pond to get them. Have you tried netting over the pond to keep the heron from being able to wade into the water?

In the end my dad did not want to listen to my sister cry if her fish got eaten, and my grandma will not put a net over her "decorative" pond, so the fish is still living inside the house in a giant rubbermaid tub.

Good luck in keeping the rest of your fish safe.

You can run a hot wire around the perimeter of the pond -- that will definately do the trick. A shock or two and the heron will be move on. Just be sure to turn it off when you're out there working, LOL. Shock wires are also great to deter dogs, cats, racoons and opossums.

Netting over the top works too..... but it can be unsightly. On the plus side, it keeps big leaves out of the pond and that's a good thing.

A pond with absolutely straight sides is good as it gives the heron no place to stand and stalk the fish. I have no planting shelves on my pond for that reason and the herons visit, but they can't figure out a way to wade into my pond, to they move on..... thankfully. On a rare occasion I lose a fish or two to the local hawk, but even the hawk has a hard time with the straight sides of the pond......

Also, I once saw a terrific set-up where the pond owner ran thick strands of wire across his entire yard from the back of the house to the back gate. The wires were spaced approximately every 14 inches. It was rather unnoticible and the strands were high enough to walk under. He probably had them up like 12 feet or so. It was a small yard, so it was easy to do. The great thing about it was that birds of prey absolutely COULD NOT get by those wires, thus the koi were safe. If I ever lived on a small lot that's what I'd do......

Good luck.

Blue herons especially can be a pest, and I remember very fondly the story a friend of mine told me with a heron in the yard. To make a long story short, the friend ended up being chased by the heron around the yard. The friend put a gazebo style wood work over the ponds (which are above ground), but the above discribed wiring and/or pond netting works fine too. I'd probably cement a few 4x4s in a rectangular or square shape around the pond, and then put the pond netting on top of it, so you can still comfortably walk and work underneath it.

I hate things like that happening, their is a wild cat with fleas that somtimes tries to get my brothers guinea pigs, stands hissing at them hissing and trying to get his claws into the big pen type thing, lets just say this guy doesn't take a hint, he STILL comes back after a football to the body, a couple of shots from my paintball gn up the ######, s few sall stones to the body, being chased down the street haha and being pushed into a bush, oh and catapulting numerous things at it, stupid ******* of a cat

that is animal cruelty not nice you can go to jail in the UK for that i hope that poor cat is alright

but susan my friend had a similar problem with kookabura (australian bird) what he did was first had a scarecrow which was kinda creepy as when i slept at his house i would poo my pants waking up in the middle night seeing a guy with a scythe in the backyard lol he ended up using netting but the clear stuff you can't notice it up clolse or far away silly me kept walking into it lol

I wonder if a motion activated device that made a lot of noise would scare him off, like one or two of those Halloween decorations. Good luck with those guys, they are gorgeous birds but I do not care for their choice in diet.

Yeah, but it bite me

I also live in Washington and I had an expeirence with herons and my pond. My pond is only 3 ft deep, so the heron has easy picking but when I got out there I luckily saw him before any were snacks. So I read up on it and the only real way to stop it is to put a net over it. I went out and bought deer/garden net and it did the trick. I have seen people with ponds 5ft deep and still have trouble...nets are the only true way to stop it.

not getting into an argument but my dog bit me and i did not attack it animals bite when they are scared or have been mistreated or as a kitten or puppy teething

lol i would of loved to see that, u funny thing, lol.in aus we dont have them problems so it took me a bit to work out wat yas were talking bout,didnt no wat a heron was, i do now lol.

whoops sorry dan in aus, ya right that wasent good, but it would of been a bit funny.... i guess ..or maybe not

Thanks for the responses everyone, I installed a second scarecrow but I haven't seen the heron in quite awhile! I guess maybe they migrate south for the winter? Anyway, I know it's a matter of time until the same one or a different one shows up again. I think I will invest in a net, unslightly as they can be (anyone have any ideas how to minimize the asthetic impact of it?) and Maceo interesting idea with a Halloween decoration, they always startle me,why not a heron? :-D

Fish Man... I know that animals can be very frustrating but I don't condone the way you are treating that poor cat. Maybe try a spray deterent or something a little more humane ? I'm not a bleeding heart but one has to consider the cats' welfare.

I've heard that having a fake snake hanging round the edge of a pond sometimes works.

Your dog is tame. This cat has tried to eat my little brother ginea pigs, and gave all my friends kittens fleas (he lives down the road form me) And it bullies my neighbours cats

i have heard that heron's respect each others terretories quite well. so if you put up a fake heron, it'll keep others (life ones) away. it's been a while sice i've heard that, so i might be wrong

Yes, this is true..By setting up a fake one will keep others away..They are extremely territorial..

OPPS older post..sorry