Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Muskrat??

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