Posted by Scott Willbanks to
Predator Control For Ponds
VS 
Which works better the Motion Activated Scarecrow Sprinkler or the Blue Heron Decoy?
A lot of pond owners have problems with keeping blue heron away. We get a lot of calls every week about the blue heron that ate my Koi.
Some of the comments are:
It just cleaned me out over the weekend
That heron got my biggest Koi.
Every time I see him I run outside.
I'm getting tired of running. I want to shoot them.
So we are all asking what can we use? We have searched through the Internet over and over again looking for answers.
Well, here are a few ideas you can try.
Pond Netting - One of the best ways to stop the pet stealing blue heron. It won't allow the heron to stand in the water looking over your colorful fish. You will want a small hole size or you will want to raise the pond netting up off the ground. If not the heron could still kill your fish even though it won't be able to get it out from the netting. By using netting you might end up saving your fish however the netting isn't the most pleasing to the eye if you like looking at your pond and fish.
Fishing Line - We have all heard about this one. Putting fishing line around your pond up about 10 inches around your pond. A lot of times heron will land and walk into your pond so this can be a deterrent for them. Not the most effective and be careful you don't want to trip into your pond.
Scarecrow Sprinkler - This is a motion activated water sprinkler. It senses motion during the daylight or night. It bursts a spray up to 35 feet spraying from one side to the other approx. 45 feet in width, depending on your settings. Has about a 86% success rate against blue herons says the mfg. It takes a 9 volt battery and a water hose. A bracket can also be used for mounting purposes. If you have had one you most likely have gotten sprayed from it forgetting it was there. But it beats falling into your pond from fishing line. This product has the highest success rate.
Unfortunately the Scarecrow Sprinkler is no longer available.
Blue Heron Decoy - A decoy is one of the most inexpensive products. Blue Herons are territorial and so by putting one of these bad boys up it should keep the real ones away. But does it work? We can say from the customer's comments that have purchased one, that it does work. However, the length of time that it does work can vary from days up to years of being heron free. For the record we did have a customer that wanted one overnighted because his Koi were being eaten. Soon as he put it it up by the pond the real blue heron didn't come back. Suggestion, if purchasing a decoy you may want to move it around every 3 to 5 days as if it was a real heron. It could make a difference keeping the real blue heron away.
Bottom line is nothing is full proof except that some tactics work better then others. Doing nothing though could mean losing your pet fish.