Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Nutria

Has anyone seen a nutria den where they built up an area on the bank with mud & large sticks & then burrowed a den underneath? Examples I have seen are just a burrow in the bank.

Looked like a beaver lodge size wise but there are no beavers. It was to big for a muskrat. Then I thought, a female gator had built a nest for her eggs. As I tore it apart I found an open space in the center, beaver lodge like. I have eliminated a few nutria in the past but have not seen any lately although earlier this year I have seen gnaw marks on green branches that I have thrown out into the water. Normally, I see nutria on a bank sunning & grooming themselves regularly, if they are present.

Later: after leveling the mound , I am sure it is a nutria den. Removed all the sticks & started to backfill with the accumulated dirt I stepped on it to pack it down & sunk about 2 feet as his tunnel to the pond collapsed. A soft area not far from the first, another escape tunnel. Looking more closely & 15 feet away there is a new very sandy area, a brand new tunnel for a den was started last night. Walking further up the bank another soft spot & tunnel begun.

I am declaring war on the pond's nutria.

No, I've only seen nutria nest up in vacated beaver huts. Same with otters. Nutria do burrow up, but beavers do also. I've caught 2 beavers that dug straight into our dam with no limbs at all, and they're the easiest to catch. I whacked our nutria with 330 conibears at the hut's entry, or entries, and if set correctly, it's an instant kill.

Here's one day's victims.

Damn, Al!!! So brutal...

Stinkin' goobers. Between them and grass carp, I've lost somewhere between 30K and 35K worth of hardy water lily tubers. Most of the water lilies I posted last year are gone, but luckily the drought protected some of them.

The Nutria war is over! They are beavers. I did not know Florida had beavers. Trapper said he caught 60 in the past few years in the surrounding counties. I understand now why nothing was taking my sweet potato bait in my live trap. Now to get a county wildlife trapper to come remove them. Do beavers like spadderdock?

I have been wondering what the beavers have been eating? I have not yet seen any damage to trees around the pond but I have seen pieces of spadderdock floating in the pond, both the leaves and stalks as well as the rhizomes. I don't remember any nature shows mentioning that a beaver ate pond/swamp weeds only bark from tree limbs.

I bought blue pickerel pond weed starts. I grew them in gallon pots & were at the point where roots were growing out of the bottom anchoring the pot to pond bottom at the edge of the pond, from $5. starts to $25 full gallon pots. Counting my chickens before they hatch, I had plans of dividing each gallon pot in the Spring & planting them along the shore's edge. All gone in one night, an animal dragged the pots out into the water & ate the plants roots & all. Beavers, I am sure, the same with the disappearing Spadderdock. I am trying to establish cover for forage fish & the beavers are eating it faster than I can grow it.

They must go, another call to the county today for some action.

Look at muskrats too. Beaver don't like pine trees, but trees like Cottonwood, willow and other relatively soft woods are tops on their list. Muskrats dig in the pond bottom for tubers (cattail roots, etc) to eat. Spatterdock roots are on their menu too.

If you are trying to establish cover for forage fish, Spatterdock and Pickerelweed are not the best choices. Make brush piles from Christmas trees, and other "things" that have small openings between them. Think of 3"no more than 6" between pieces of the cover for small fish to hide in. i.e. what we would consider to be dense branches on dry land would be good cover for small forage fish. Look in the archives for ideas of different types of cover for fish. There is a whole long thread on it.

To me, that's describing a beaver hut and tunnels. Get familiar with 330 Conibears and you can trap them yourself. With all the information that is on the internet, look for youtube videos and information on how to trap beaver. You can catch smaller animals in the 330's but if you just set 220's you will have a hard time catching beaver or other larger animals. Get a subscription to Fue-Fish-Game magazine for a year. There is a lot of information in it.

When I read your original post I was thinking man that sure sounds way more like beaver but than I dont know much about nutria.
I had some trying to re-establish residence after I got the last ones several yrs ago. They were trying to add on to an existing brushpile that was halfway in and halfway out of the water, their entrance is somewhere around the submerged brush so trapping there is almost impossible, however, they been trying to add mud, waterplant roots and twigs to the top of the pile, and that is where they were intercepted with the old 330 conibear.

They had a trail up each side of the pile right at the waters edge, a row of their own sharpened, debarked, and cut to approx 2' long, stuck in a row like a fence with one gap in it where the trap was set, one on each side. they are too easy to guide straight into the trap.

I dont know much about your states department of wildlife, but if its anything like the rest of them, calling them or waiting on them to do anything is pretty much a complete waste of time. they wont do anything.

Scoped 22 long rifle

Good set