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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[Derputy Dawg]

I have heavy clay soil, so it's a challenge to keep a lawn alive to begin with. I have to block off sections and seed it with duck resistant grass.. which I have yet to find.

 

[Moments]

Mini golf course is a good one. lol

As of this spring and some rainy weather it's more like a post apocalyptic war scene...

 

[Moments]

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.

I made the mistake as a new duck owner of letting them out on a rainy day.... and our back lawn has areas the water pools so they practically built a trench....

 

[Moments]

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.

If water pools up at all they will mud it up. Sometimes not too bad and it can recover but often times if left at it they can do maximum damage in a short timeframe, they're very destruction efficient. They even mud up around their pool if any gets splashed out.

 

[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.