Do ducks kill the lawn?

[Miss Ducky]

I remember reading that they'll tear up gardens looking for grubs, will they ruin the lawn as well? Just wondering, because I need to decide how much to encourage mine to play on the lawn.

 

[Amiga]

Ducks do like to dabble around looking for grubs and such, and a wet lawn really encourages them to drill into the soil, which can leave muddy areas where the lawn was.

It matters how many square feet of lawn you have available for the ducks. If you have twenty five square feet of lawn for each duck, you may not have any difficulty, if you keep them off the lawn when it is wet.

 

[katharinad]

My 9 ducks get the backyard every day for 2 hours. They eat the bugs and weeds and fertilize while at it. You have to find the balance between beneficial and destructive. My lawn would look bad, if I gave it to them all day. 2 hours and that is it for my lawn, and it does look good.

 

[RamblinLizard]

My 3 ducks live in the backyard and i've never had problems with them tearing it up...pooping all over the lawn is another story but putting out a sprinkler quickly dissipates the waste.

 

[redhen]

Not too bad.. no.
Nothing like the chickens! They DESTROY the lawn in a week...
My ducks mostly just chase bugs and stuff.. they dont mess with the lawn to much.. unless there is a puddle.

 

[Eggs4Sale]

Any standing water means kiss your lawn goodbye. My ducks have access 24 hours a day, and it's hard to water the yard without them thinking it's a wonderful time to come over and drill, baby, drill. Yes, holes everywhere. I could bury golf balls if I wanted to.

 

[MysticalMom]

Wherever there is any standing water for any length of time the ducks are going to try and dig their own pond.

My lawn is toast over where the pools are. Snakeman drains the pools and 21 ducks have a blast digging their holes. And some of them can get pretty deep. We do have a really big yard, but the rest of it is fine.

 

[duckyfromoz]

I have 15 adult ducks in my suburban backyard and surprisingly it looks good. Its winter and we have had alot of rain- but the only grass missing is at the base of the shed where the gutters overflow in heavy rain and behind the shed where I dug it all up. I get some soil occassionally to backfill the holes and sprinkle a little grass seed in it. It a little thin at the moment and I am hoping for an early spring - But it doesnt take much to keep it patched up and looking good.

 

[Moments]

If they free range during mud season in the spring or when it rains in the summer they absolutely can, especially if there's an area where the water may pool a little. Mine did. My back yard has hardly any grass on the flat area and before they decimated the grass they made a mini golf course with the holes they dug

 

[Miss Lydia]

Mini golf course is a good one. lol