PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Canada geese are everywhere you look along the North Shore, but it’s what they’re leaving behind that’s a problem.

“The geese poop,” Kalene Capilongo, of Shaler, said. “Definitely gets all over your shoes.”

The City of Pittsburgh and the Stadium and Exhibition Authority say they vacuum and flush as often as three times as week trying to stay on top of the poop.

“We put a geese repellant called Flight Control Plus on the grassy areas and that adds a grape flavor to the grass to give it a sour taste to the geese to deter them from their food source which is the grass,” Mark Johnson with the SEA explained.

But everyone involved says there’s only so much that can be done about the geese because they are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Under the treaty, there are very limited times of year when they can be hunted, captured or killed.

“There are geese everywhere and geese are going to make waste, so that’s just a part of life,” Claire Wellington of Cranberry said.

So if running or walking in or around the droppings is inevitable, is it really safe?

“Wash those hands,” says Dave Zazck with the Allegheny County Health Department. “We always go back to public health 101, but it’s true. You want to wash those hands to really break any chain transmission between the feces and your person.”

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