I think i have a muskrat at my Pond. If they look like a beaver but have along rat tail then i know i have a muskrat.
Do they cause any harm to a pond. I heard they only eat vegetation?
Thanks

Damone, yes, muskrats can cause damage as they burrow into your pond's banks. If they do so in the dam, they can weaken it or breach it in the worst case scenario. Get 'em out!

I have muskrats also. I was thinking about putting a couple of same sex mink in the pond to execute the 'rats. Comments please.....

Mink will eat just about anything. Fish, frogs, Crayfish, Rats, Mice, Ducks.... you name it, if they can catch it they will eat it. mean and nasty little boogers.

If you want to let nature take it's course mink against rat go with the mink but then your left with mink eating your farm raised fish... which is the lesser of two evils ?

I would try the .22 at 150 yards option over mink.

but that's just my opinion. I don't see a benefit at pond side by having mink, only downside.

Conibear 110's work very well for muskrat removal.

Not only will they hurt the dam if they burrow into it, in a year or 2 the banks around the pond where they burrowed into to make a home will start to collapse, leaving you with good sized depressions that twist ankles and make cutting the grass interesting.

I agree with Attica Farmer - no way on the mink! Muskrats won't eat your fish, mink will. Trap or shoot the rats. A breeding couple will produce as many as 20 - 25 babies yearly from some reading I've done on them. I have them in my larger pond and they did some damage to my dam such that it will now need to be replaced at considerable freaking expense. I am as anti-muskrat as I am anti-watermeal!

I gave 6 the 22 treatment last year haven't seen one since.

Well done!

To bad it was after they trashed about 500 ft of bank

I may have missed Damone's location in a past thread (USA isn't overly specific).
But, if he's down in my neck of the country, his "muskrat" (a beaver with a long rat-tail) just might be a nutria.

Kelly:

That is true, and they definately have a "rat" type tail. If that's the case, then I'd bump the 110's to 220's.

Thanks for the input boys! I think I'll nix the mink and sight in the .22 ! Thought I had a stroke of genius, but evidently I had a little dimwit mixed in!
Mark

This is my idea of a good Muskrat

That's one of five we caught or shot in my little BOW. The damage they did cost me a lot of time and money.

Don't waste those marsh rabbits:

Everything Muskrat - Recipes

And -- don't forget . . . Pond Boss has its own traveling and beloved PVC Muskrat exterminator!

Expert Muskrat Removal

Thanks Ken!!!

I was probably going to deliver some fish to Bluegillkiller, but since he is building some PVC structure and if he reads that thread, he may not want me near his place!

@JWB...I totally agree....the only way that pic would have been improved is to have had 2 or 3 of the little suckers on your sidewalk!
@catmandoo...Love the link! Maybe I can hire Dirty Harry...errrrr...Rex to come over and dispatch my drain AND my inlet....nothin' better than shootin' PVC doubles!

Or the .22's to .223's!

Don't sweat it, Mark. You were obviously busy running to save your Lucky Charms and just not thinking straight!

Rex -- no problem. This kind of exposure can do wonders for a small business.

BGK -- if you don't already know Rex, he is actually a really good guy -- and that is the truth! I think everybody who knows Rex would give him a two thumbs-up validation.

Ken

And he's a heck of a shot when it comes to exterminating PVC "muskrats!"

Those weren't thumbs I was holding up Ken.

Although I would never admit it publicly, Rex is a great guy. Unfortunately he and Yolk Sac (what ever happened to Yolk Sac, anyone hear from him lately?) have an irrational hatred for GSF.

What size live traps would i need to catch muskrats? And where would the cheapest place be to buy one. I only have about 3-4 days a month to try and catch them. I don't have the time to sit and watch for them to come out ans shoot them. Little jerks dug tunnels through the shore.

Why the interest in live traps?

If you can find the runs or tunnels, use a Conibear 110 and don't worry about getting them alive. They have teeth, and they WILL bite.....

As a kid we used to trap some muskrats. We staked a trap and set the trap in the water at the entrance hole. In high school we tried to kill fox by poring water down the hole, then gasoline so it wouldn't sink into the dirt but float on top and then we threw a match in. We never got any fox but the fire blast coming out of holes all around us was exciting. I had a friend who's pond dam was collapsed by muskrats. I don't know what he did about the muskrats but he used dynamite to blow up fox holes. I remember him saying he blew up a fox hole and the fox hit the ground running.

I'm probably the only one on the forum that depends on muskrats for some pond control. They come in and thin out my spatterdock lilies and leave. And they stay at the far end of my pond which doesn't cause any problems for me. Where they dig, some times collapses and makes small coves where minnows like to hang out. One strange thing I saw muskrats do is swim across my pond and goes into my tall Bison grass, bundle it up and swim back across the pond with good size bundle in their mouth. They had plenty of plants to eat in the pond so the only thing I could figure was they might be lining their holes with the grass.

I love shooting those little white plastic buggers!

Jhap, I talked to Yolk a few months back and think his pond meistering has had to take a back seat to his business for the time being. He had sold his SMB pond and bought another, but his cabin and pond got hit in the big Nashville floods.

Rex, thank you sincerely for the update on Yolk. I really miss his presence here on the forums.

Damone,

I would suggest colony traps for catching the muskrats. They are easy to build and you will be able to catch more than one rat at a time. Place them in the mouth of the dens in the bank or in the runs that you see on the bottom of the pond in the shallows. Keep the traps completely submerged and you will have dead rats when you return. Do a search on the web for "muskrat colony traps" and you should find lots of information. Good luck and take care!!

seantOH

Good suggestion. Those colony traps work very well and will clean out a den in one evening.

Thanks essup! Yea they can be very effective! When I was much younger, I did a lot of trapping and I relied heavily on the colony traps. The muskrats were easy to catch and at $6 per pelt they were a money maker.

sean

Same here, but Indiana didn't allow them at that time. Now they are legal and are a great tool to make multiple catches during one night. I've used them since they were legalized and the most that I've had in a trap was 6. I really don't know how they all fit in there, I had a heck of a time getting them out!

Ha ha! I agree 6 is my best as well and they do cram in there very tight! In the right situation, there is not another technique that will remove them quicker.

Last fall I was asked to remove some rats from a friends pond that were a problem. Feed bed sets with #1 long spring trap worked out better, 4 vs 3 on the colony traps. The pond had evaporated so much that the the normal dens were above water and I could not find more than 1 den/run. The feed beds were obvious and worked well.

sean

Nutria and muskrats share a lot of traits in common, including a very prolific nature.
Here's an example of what nutria can do to an urban pond with a steep embankment (similar to a dam).





And here's my covert, pet-safe, non-patented nutria "snare-barrel", complete with a one-way drowning-wire harness - shown in the red circle (keeps the dead rats out of sight from squeamish city-folk). Two 5-inch, capped PVC pipes are secured midway inside the drum (length-wise) for flotation purposes. Sweet potatoes for bait. Rats have to pass through the submerged opening - and engage the snare - to gain access to the bait. Not sure if this concept would also work for muskrats, but it might.

Neat trap Kelly