Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How to get rid of a beaver

Ok I was out at Lake Chiclets yesterday, and sure enough I have a beaver. The lil sucker even gnawed on my dock . He has dug a hole into my dam. I am 100 miles away from my pond and need to figure out a way to get rid of the lil booger. I thought maybe a trap, but thought of a couple of problems:
1. What to bait the trap with (fish?,vegggies? Delicious twigs ?hehe)
2. How to keep coons from getting trapped
3. Humane way to do it, not very humane to have the lil guy in a trap to starve after a few days ( I am only able to get out to the pond once in a while)
4. where to set up trap.

Dan V will tell you to buy a Conibear trap and use it at the opening of the lodge, where the beavers come in and out.
Send him an email at danv@texoma.net for details. The beaver won't starve. It will be dispatched immediately.
But, learn about this trap before you set it. That's very important.

WOW Bob, you are the man!! I was expecting at least a couple of days (and maybe a joke or two) before I got my answer. PONDBOSS wins again!!

Joke or two, about beavers? Naw, that would be pretty unlikely!

Many states and counties have nuisance beaver eradication programs. Check with your county agent or Wildlife and Fisheries dept. Often they will get a county hired trapper to do the job for you.

Trapping beaver is not as easy as setting a trap. It take some work. Dan V can tell you the best way for you. Contact him.

I just sent Dan V an email. Thanks again guys, you are awesome. I have read a little on the conibear. Yup starving wont be a problem.

My neighbor had a beaver in his dam and solved it by putting human hair and fox urine around the entrance. The beavers abandoned it. Another time he had the same problem and had a neighbor in the area that set up an ambush area and shot the beavers as they emerged. Both worked to get rid of the beavers!

FMB, it is takes quite a while for beavers to build a lodge and sometimes they don't-they live in burrows in the bank. I live on my 3acre pond which is on the outskirts of Norman, OK and I am frequently invaded by beavers coming upstream from Lake Thunderbird (OK Wildlife Dept estimates 5-8000 beavers in this single watershed!). They wreak havoc on my landscaping trees and so I am loath to wait on them to produce "travelled waterways and paths" or to cut down enough of my purposefully planted trees to build a lodge. I contacted the state pest removal authority years ago when I first became aware of the problem. They put me on the list for beaver removal and six months and a number of phone calls later no one had showed up. I took matters into my own hands and learned to trap.
By googling "trapping supplies" you will find any number of supply resources. I have included a link to one which shows a page of trapping lures. Any lure made of the oil of the beavers' castor glands works fine. I use the conibear style body grip traps in the 330 size-10"x10" jaws. Beavers are territorial and
resent incursions into their territory by other beavers. They mark their territory with castor mounds(from the castor musk glands around the anus)spread around the lake. These
are little mounds of mud and sticks 8-12" in diameter and 4-5" high. They anoint these with their oily musk to identify their stakeout. Beavers are both curious about and offended by "foreign" castor mounds in their area. They will approach these to investigate from the water and the conibear traps can be set in the projected path the beaver will take to get to the new mound(which you create). The mound should be 8-12" back from the water's edge. The trap should rest in 2-3" of water(so that dogs and other animals do not inadvertently wander into them). Brush can be brought to either side of the trap to keep the beaver from going around the trap. The kill is instantaneous usually but in case it isn't the trap should be anchored-they usually come with short chains to use for this.
You can also shoot them of course, but in my experience you only ever get one shot at a beaver. They are extremely wary so you better not miss. They are excellent eating,way better than venison, something between pork and the dark meat of a chicken.
There are some manuals on how to do this on the trapping supply sites.

http://www.murrayslures.com/lure.html

Fatty,

Layton's post is exactly the way my professor showed us how to set them. We set our traps a little bit deeper in the water though. Only a few inches of the trap was above the water.

If you use a conibear make sure the trap is staked in place with some sticks. Place the sticks in the loop of the spring and jam them down into the ground. The sticks need to be stripped of bark or the beaver may knaw them off off.

I managed to resist the urge to post the video of Wynona's Big Brown Beaver.

Are you a Primus fan?

LAYTON HAS IT RIGHT...killer traps work while you sleep. Serious pond managers need to learn nusiance trapping as most eradication is only temporary. The same circumstances that attracted them in the first time will attract new beavers continually (recharge). For the novice with limited time, just placing 330s in tunnels and pathways will knock a hole in problem populations. Shooting is NEVER a long-term solution. I address this topic in next PB issue.

Dan VS

Sunil, I don't listen to Primus regularly but I like them. Now where did I put that pork soda?

UPDATE.

Tomorrow, myself and Mr Moderator himself. Young Sir Chris Steelman is going to accompany me to Lake Chiclets to assist me in the HOPEFUL trapping and removal of the beaver(s). Good stuff this pondboss forum. I might even learn a little something from college boy!!!

Just be aware that Young Blood bills out at $585.00 per hour, USD mind you.

Hopefully, you'll only need him for .7 minutes.

Fatty,if you have time,swing by my place on the way and Ill haggle his fees with him over cold beverages.By the time you guys leave he'll probably owe you $4.86.

Well....Not good. Looks like MULTTPLE beaver we set 2 traps and semi-closed the others:

BTW wanted to thank Mr Chris Steelman for his help today. Like I told him, Without his help those trap would have been rubics cubes to me. Thanks AGAIN!!!!!

Be sure to shoot some "after" photos. By the way McB, this would make a good story for Pond Boss. Good photos are key, though. Shoot some photos of the damage the beaver have done, as well as some photos of your trapping success (or lack of) and let's do an interview for a story for next fall. Maybe Young Blood and you could team up and write the story. What say thee, oh reapers of excess beaver?

Try to work in the assault rifle

in the last 2 shots you could put a stick across the top/above the trap/waterline

you guys are still killing me, build it and they will come

they will have some nice hams and after seeing eagles eating beavers i think you should eat them too

What do you think I told my wife it was for?

I have never seen any other beaver damage before but I thought that it was pretty bad. There were 5 dens. We set traps on 2 of them and tried to block the other 2. One den had already collapsed.One of the dens almost went to the middle of the dam.

Bob,

A story sounds like a good to me.

Fatty,

Take some pictures when you are standing on the dam. I think it will be easier to see all of the damage that way. Also take some pictures of where they are cutting down the trees.

Keep an eye on that one even after the beavers are gone. We had a den like that once and after the next big rain a hole popped on the backside of the dam where the den was. We had to drain the pond down two feet below normal pool and then had to have a bulldozer come in and repair the damage, it wasn't cheap. Did you happen notice an air vent hole on top of the dam?

Those 330 conibears work quite well, so do .22 lr and 000 buck.

No, but I wasn't really looking for one. The dam is overgrown with vines and briars so there may have been one under all of that.