re: How to get rid of beavers?

quote:

---

Take a rake down to the damn and bust off just the top 6" or so about 2' wide where the water starts draining. They will come out in the evening to patch the hole and thats when you let the lead fly. Buck shot with a full choke out a 12 gauge will work.

---

This. Them SOB's will cut a shite load of small trees in no time.

Dat tail

They got in my papaws pond when I was a kid. Went from a 2 acre pond to 10. Killed lots of trees. He fought them for years but they won. Eventually it put such a strain on the levee, that they were the only thing keeping the pond holding any water. A few years later and the entire levee collapsed and no more pond. The beavers moved down stream and now it’s the neighbors problem.

Don't you Bama folks have a Rammer Jammer? I think that takes care of beavers pretty well.

How’d he get the drop them?

I trapped beavers for parish police jury a few years ago. Did it part time for a year. I had trapped beavers before but learned a whole lot during that year. I caught about 225 during that year and didn’t even dent the population. Solved the problem in a few places but just slowed them down in most. Best control is get rid of drainage issue if possible in the cases where they are plugging small culvert. Traps work if you are not sloppy with first few catches. If they have never been trapped really easy to catch first couple but They get trap wise quick. Leghold with drowning wire in front of dam is best. I caught 18 over about three months in same trap. Get someone to show you how to set traps and leave traps out there and eventually you can get them if you are persistent. But if you just trap haphazardly a couple months a year you probably not gonna get rid of them. There was one pair of beavers that was plugging a driveway culvert right next to a highway. I caught the female the first night. The male tricked me every night for about a two months. Setting off traps and burying them in the dam repair. It became a “mission” to catch him. I would cuss and talk to myself every time I had to dig that trap out the mud. I swapped to a snare when I finally found a faint trail where he was feeding on grass on the bank. First night the snare missed him. Second night I caught him. I was so excited to see him caught. I went to the truck and reached for the .22 but instead grabbed the shovel. I went back and knocked that sucker in the head. Took several wacks. Luckily no one was passing by on the highway to witness. Haha

I was coming to say something about feeding them wedding cake...

Look on the internet for Clemson beaver pond leveler.

Yeah they ain’t going away until the pond and water is gone. Traps will save you the headache of staying up all night, night after night after night. Like someone said get some water flowing and they will come, set the trap in the water right outside the hole and pick up your prize the next morning.