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Goosebusters work to move geese from Charlotte school

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Aggressive geese are becoming a huge problem across the Charlotte area.

On Wednesday the so-called "Goosebusters" used unique tactics to prevent a flock from growing around one south Charlotte school.

Wildfire officials said they are seeing more geese showing up in the Charlotte area, and in many cases, they are aggressive and can hurt people.

That is why one local company is getting more calls to help.

At first, when the geese started showing up at the Kennedy Charter School in south Charlotte, workers and teachers thought they were cute.

"At the front of the school, you couldn't even get into it. And you couldn't use the sidewalk," said Charles Battaglia.

Battaglia works at the school and said it is at a point now where the geese are aggressive around students.

"So I walk around with an umbrella," he said.

And that umbrella may be the only defense to keep the geese away.

It is how the crew from the Charlotte company, Goosebusters, gets close to the geese and near their nests.

Eyewitness News mounted a camera on the helmet of one of the workers as they moved toward the nest to coat the eggs with corn oil to keep the eggs from hatching, a method endorsed by wildlife groups to help control the population.

"This is one way of keeping the geese from getting out of control really," said a worker.

And they are doing this in more and more areas of Charlotte where the geese are showing up.

Wildlife experts said the population has grown in recent years and they are much, much more active -- especially right now.

"This time of year, the adult male and female geese that are nesting can become very aggressive," said Diana Travis of Goosebusters.

This company only uses the method of coating the eggs with cooking oil.

It believes it is a better option than using a fog machine to move the animals, a method used by some other companies.