Beaver damage, What to do?

southsoundtree

southsoundtree

Been here much more than a while
Location
Olympia, WA
I have customerw that got the double whammy. Not only are the beavers chewing down mad amounts of trees, forming a new, downstream beaver pond, but they have laminated root rot and lots of susceptible Douglas-fir. In the week since I visited their property, they lost another D-fir. There is a 120', 4.5' DBH D-f at about 50' from their house.

Root excavation and sampling for indications of LRR infection will probably come.


What can be done with the beavers? They only got one response from a licensed trapper. $3000 to relocate 4-6 beavers. There is an upstream beaver pond and population seems to have outgrown it, so they are moving downstream and chewing and damming.

The customers only bought their house last November.

They have chicken wired a bunch of their trees. I think that they will have to do more of it. I don't recall the success of this. They put "animal scent" products on the trees. Ineffective and expensive. I suggested that they pee on the trees themselves. Can't hurt, right?

I wondered about cayenne mixed with water and applied with a garden sprayer.

Thoughts?
 
I have used metal wire fence and metal lath.
They will move on to unprotected trees. Sometimes quite a ways from the Lake or River.
Best solution is trapping.
Most DNR will give you a permit to remove them, sometimes allowing any means possible.
 
You can't relocate beaver to any area that already isn't over populated by them.
It's like relocating raccoons, you just pass the problem onto someone else.
You can shoot them or use killing traps to get rid of them, depending on the area.
The price of fur is way down and trappers won't trap them unless they get paid well.
They should be trapped out by an experienced trapper every year or two.
 
Overpopulation? The beavers might think seven billion humans--a number which is increasing at over 200,000 plus per day--is the problem. For anyone over forty-five, there are more than twice as many people on the planet than there were on the day you were born.
 
...and we could give everyone in the US a quarter acre lot with house and fit them all in Texas with more room to spare....

But that is beside the point, barriers on trunks do work and relocation waaaayyy out into the country can work. Lead supplements for sure, but is that the most reasonable solution?

Not so sure unless you can take out 10 or so and make a coat for the Mrs....
 
[ QUOTE ]
Tom seems to be a big fan of lead poisoning lately. Is there something about you Tom your not telling us? 7.62XTOM!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahaha...no...22 shorts..open sites...single shot...nothing fancy! Heck a good pump up pellet gun with a good shot would do the trick.

Who is the invader here? Beavers or humans?

Maybe an increase in the predators above the beaver is in order? What would that be? Coyotes? Wolves? I bet that any of the herding dogs would keep the beavers in the pond!

The practical solution seems to be fencing though.
 
[ QUOTE ]
...and we could give everyone in the US a quarter acre lot with house and fit them all in Texas with more room to spare....

[/ QUOTE ]

Congratulations! By moving less than 5% of the world population, you've solved the problem for all American non-Texan beavers. What the Texas rattlesnakes think of your solution is a different question.
 
They have to eat and they have to keep their teeth ground down by chewing because the teeth continue to grow.
Fencing might be a short term solution but they will move to the neighbors or flood out the area to get further back.
They are just doing what comes natural to them.
Wolves and bears will kill them but when they run out of beaver that only creates another problem.
The only place you can relocate beaver would be the desert because they are everywhere.
If they aren't there then chances are there is no habitat or someone has already taken care of the problem.
That's why the humane society has to kill millions of cats and dogs, too many and too expensive to keep them all.
It's a necessary evil.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
...and we could give everyone in the US a quarter acre lot with house and fit them all in Texas with more room to spare....

[/ QUOTE ]

Congratulations! By moving less than 5% of the world population, you've solved the problem for all American non-Texan beavers. What the Texas rattlesnakes think of your solution is a different question.

[/ QUOTE ]

I,m not sure how us Texans would feel about that. Maybe it wouldn't matter. The whole State is mostly private property anyway.
 
Can't we all just get along?????

beaver6.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 224513-beaver6.webp
    224513-beaver6.webp
    7.3 KB · Views: 40
[ QUOTE ]
The whole State is mostly private property anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

Derail ahead...giving you fair warning
wink.gif


In Texas the ratio of public land space to population is the lowest in the US. After moving to Texas it took me a while to understand why. After looking at the history it makes sense. Since most of the rest of the continental US started out in Federal hands and went to private ownership there was a little control over what was set aside for public use.

Another reason...Texas is pretty sparsely populated. Not a lot of people living west of the I35 corridor. It's really not prime beaver range either
grin.gif
Long horns and prickly things grow there not cute, fuzzy critters!

Years ago the American Refugee Committee, which is based in Minneapolis, was involved in relocating Hmong immigrants from SE Asia. A lot of the Hmong were paired up with families and communities in MN/WI. Can you imagine what the first winter was like for them?
wink.gif
To go from the jungles of SE Asia to sub zero snow?!?!? Some of the families stayed but many more moved south. If the beavers were transplanted to Texas there would be a few that would adapt and thrive. They'd find a few of their Texican relatives here already:

http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/TMOT1/castcana.htm

Since Texas only has one half of a real lake they would rely on surface water which can be quite seasonal. I can imagine that the Texican beavers would be appealing to the powers that be to stop the immigration and transplanting idea. Build a dam or fence around the state to keep out these non-local beavs! Texas for Texan beavers!
 
If the person who is having problems with beavers don't want to pay that much to have them removed, I know they can find some recreational trappers (They can make an ad on craigslist saying "beaver trappers wanted" and they will usually do it for free since they turn the fur pelts over to fur buyers) to trap them when beaver trapping season is in which is usually in the winter months. If I was a beaver trapper I would do it but I'm a raccoon and coyote trapper and I live in Ohio so that would do no good for me anyways.
 
i have not read the other responses, but your post caught my eye.

beaver populations have gotten huge, no more trapping for fur, no more predators to speak of.

they are huge rodents and reproduce fast.

aquatic groundhogs I call them.

get a 22 rifle with a scope and fill those bastards full of lead.

those SOB's come to my property twice a year and cut down my trees at my pond.

a few weeks after I put in a dogwood for my wife on mothers day last year, one came and cut it off at 3 inches high.

they chew on anything.

I have replace a bald cypress three times, a golden thread cypress 3 times, they chewed off numerous dogwoods, dig up cat-tails and try to get at my tri-folia orange.

my dad did a park bench in red cedar for me. they chomped on the wooden bench rungs too.

they are everywhere, every little stream here has beaver.

kill them all! :)
 
you can do that but if you kill any animal out of a hunting/trapping season then you are considered to be a poacher and that is illegal. An animal control specialist is the best option to go with when beavers are not in season.[ QUOTE ]
i have not read the other responses, but your post caught my eye.

beaver populations have gotten huge, no more trapping for fur, no more predators to speak of.

they are huge rodents and reproduce fast.

aquatic groundhogs I call them.

get a 22 rifle with a scope and fill those bastards full of lead.

those SOB's come to my property twice a year and cut down my trees at my pond.

a few weeks after I put in a dogwood for my wife on mothers day last year, one came and cut it off at 3 inches high.

they chew on anything.

I have replace a bald cypress three times, a golden thread cypress 3 times, they chewed off numerous dogwoods, dig up cat-tails and try to get at my tri-folia orange.

my dad did a park bench in red cedar for me. they chomped on the wooden bench rungs too.

they are everywhere, every little stream here has beaver.

kill them all! :)

[/ QUOTE ]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom