Control Little Green Herons

Control Little Green Herons

The Little Green heron (Butorides virescens) is a bad pond nuisance heron in my area. They can land on objects near the pond surface, including floating plants, to fish. They will fish all the mosquitofish (added to keep mosquitoes under control) out of livestock watering troughs, and rainwater storage barrels, etc., and unless the farmer/owner constantly replaces the mosquitofish, these birds end up causing a bad public health hazard by removing the fish that help keep mosquitoes under control. These birds can thus increase the danger from West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.

I suspect they clean out small pools and ponds all around, leading to mosquito and disease problems for humans and other animals. I consider them a much greater danger to humans than other fish-eating birds because they endanger human life and keep on causing the extra work of constantly stocking out mosquitofish. They are hard to defend against.

Any bird netting used on a pond or tank to exclude them MUST be at least a bird's head length plus neck length away from the water because they will stick their heads through some larger mesh netting (1.25" bar mesh) to fish in a pond or tank. They can learn to land on bird netting to use their weight to get netting closer to water in order to fish through netting mesh. These birds can also learn to use bread or crackers, etc. to attract fish within striking distance.

I also suspect that some of these birds have changed their fishing habits to now fish mostly in man-promoted ponds, water troughs, barrels, etc. They are becoming more dependant on man's water activities, and easy fish to catch in small bodies of water.

In some catfish farming areas cormorants have become so numerous (from feeding on the channel catfish) that catfish losses can be 20-30 %. Catfish farmers are now allowed to shoot cormorants at their fish farms under an order issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in March 1998.

I believe we need to kill those little green herons that have learned to fish out small ponds and watering troughs, etc., before they train others of their kind to fish the same way and keep increasing our exposure to mosquito-borne diseases. It is a public health matter now, with human lives threatened by some of these birds.

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D. ,  (C) 2011 --