Koi watch: How To Prevent Herons From Stealing Your Pets
Herons, by nature, are majestic and beautiful birds, but they only have one big flaw: they are one of the predators that love to feast on the Koi. That’s why for pond owners, taking care of their koi means they must be on guard all the time by never leaving their pond unattended! This is one of the most important rules of koi watch .
Herons are really deceptive birds: when you first notice them walking around your Koi garden, they may seem harmless. Standing around 2 to 3 feet in height, they have very wide wingspan, coupled with a very graceful appearance. But don’t get bamboozled by these looks, for what you’re looking at are cunning predators, getting ready to snatch up and eat your pets!
When you look at your Koi pond and you notice that you are lacking some pets, chances are that the heron is responsible for it. If you notice some large gaping holes seen at the sides of your pets, this tells you that a heron have attempted to catch your pets, but it didn’t have the grip to get it successfully. Other cases of heron attacks include pets lying on the lawn just a few feet away from the pond, and this is because the heron dropped the fish after it has scooped it up from the pond.
Here are some necessary measures that you can take in order to avoid these incidents. These kind of “detours” will only work for a small amount of time.
Plastic herons - Place a fake (plastic) heron in your Koi garden. This is to detour another heron from landing on that certain spot. This will work for parts of the season, but will be ineffective when mating season starts, as they may land near the fake heron as they are looking for their mate.
Making noise - If you catch a heron about to snatch your pets, make noises and physically frighten it. What you can do is shout, throw things at it, or whatever means there is to scare it. The more frightened it is, the lesser chance there is for it to return at a later time.
Changing your routine - Constantly change your routine. Herons are smart enough to know that you’re around. Make frequent visits to your pond to increase your chance of catching the herons in the act of stealing your pets. If you can’t, ask or enlist someone to visit your pond for you. Give permission to older and trustworthy children to visit your pond, as they can add presence to it.
Create a place for hiding in the pond for your koi - You can create a hiding place for your pets in the pond. You’ll observe that after a heron attacks a pond, it may seem that the bird has successfully gotten its prey, but the reality is that your pets will start to appear from strange hiding places once the attack stops.
As you provide a hiding place for your pets to protect them from heron attacks, you will be able to reduce significantly the amount of pets that the herons will catch (and do not worry if your pets may seem like they are hiding from you, as they will know and trust you that you will not give them harm!).
Don’t restock your pond immediately – In koi watch, another thing that you can do for your pets is by not restocking your pond right away in the event of an attack from a heron. Taking a little bit of time before restocking your pond will force the heron to search for new feeding grounds in the process.
