Repelling / Deterring Beavers

[BryceSteiner]

I've got real problems with beavers too. One dam is 10' high and over 100' long. last month caught a couple. I made a dam breaker that you can hook to your tractor (and work from a distance). I'm on the third version and it's doing pretty well on smaller dams.

 

[TGM5040]

Seems like the city of Denver had a beaver problem years ago. They found that killing or moving the beavers just freed up space for new beavers to move into that territory.
Their solution was to spay female beavers to prevent them from having pups. The beavers are territorial, so the spayed females would keep other beavers from moving in and creating more beavers.
The fix didn't remove all beavers, but kept them down to a manageable level. But unless you are a veterinarian, this method is probably not feasible for the average guy.

New Mexico suggest this. Not as much fun as the $.50 solution (which with current ammo prices, is probably the $1 solution).

 

[lej]

Howdy this is definitely off topic but I thought I would see if some of the smart folk on here could give me some advice. I live in Northern Utah and have acreage on the Weber River. We had a beaver family that did enormous damage to our cottonwood trees a few years back (prior to my buying the land). I had them trapped and sent off to beaver heaven.

I recently discovered that they are back in the neighborhood. It is to late to bring in a trapper as the river is already pretty significantly iced over so that will have to be done in the spring. I am wondering if anyone on here has had any luck with a repellent. I have read that hot sauce may do the trick but I have a very large river woodland area (at least an acre right on the river) so I wanted to get some feedback before I start in on this. They have already decimated two trees in a matter of a week or so to the point where I will have to fell them as they ready to go and are quite dangerous.

Any advice is appreciated. And, no, I can't fence the area it is to large.

Thanks,
Kevin

Ice over is the perfect time. Find the lodge and go to Rural King and buy 5lb of tannerite. Put it in a container and paint it white for good visibility. Place it at the lodge and shoot it from 100 to 150 yards. You blow the lodge and the whole family won't survive the winter. I blew up a lodge myself this year. Good Luck!

 

[Rockbadchild]

My opinion is that shotting beavers is not practical at all ... one beaver house can have 10 beavers in it, and they are nocturnal so you only have a few hours at night and in the morning that you can practically shoot them and in most cases, you get one chance per night then it goes quiet because they get the message... that's without saying that shooting a riffle in the water is illegal (in Canada anyway) and dangerous because of the ricochet. Setting up traps is much more effective to eradicate them.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Another option is if they have a dam retaining the water, break it down, so the water level lowers then the water in their tunnel will freeze trapping them inside the beaver house and killing them all.

 

[priberc]

Howdy this is definitely off topic but I thought I would see if some of the smart folk on here could give me some advice. I live in Northern Utah and have acreage on the Weber River. We had a beaver family that did enormous damage to our cottonwood trees a few years back (prior to my buying the land). I had them trapped and sent off to beaver heaven.

I recently discovered that they are back in the neighborhood. It is to late to bring in a trapper as the river is already pretty significantly iced over so that will have to be done in the spring. I am wondering if anyone on here has had any luck with a repellent. I have read that hot sauce may do the trick but I have a very large river woodland area (at least an acre right on the river) so I wanted to get some feedback before I start in on this. They have already decimated two trees in a matter of a week or so to the point where I will have to fell them as they ready to go and are quite dangerous.

Any advice is appreciated. And, no, I can't fence the area it is to large.

Thanks,
Kevin

My .25c worth....and likely unpopular with you
1, If there is available food and from the picture it looks like there is.....the beavers will return again and again and again. They were there long before you arrived and will be there long after you are dust
2, IMO Let them finish their work. They are excellent fallers and not big on dragging wood to water. So the tree/trees will end up in or near to the river.... and then they will clean up the tree for you. The cotton woods will sucker and you will have an even more dense copse of cottonwood protecting your fields/land from river erosion should there be a heavy rainfall/flooding in your area. Beaver are great managers of water. If the tree is not going to fall on your house or any out buildings just let them do their thing
3, Looking at the price of a beaver pelt in Utah [10-25$ per in 21/22] you will be paying by the hour maybe with milage for an ongoing and losing battle trying to eradicate beaver in your neighbourhood
Food for thought

 

[ArlyA]

We find beavers move in and make a nice dam, then a few years later they move up of down stream. Might not help the OPer but today, we just wait them out.

 

[ovrszd]

We find beavers move in and make a nice dam, then a few years later they move up of down stream. Might not help the OPer but today, we just wait them out.

Yep. They come and go in the creek that goes thru my farm.

 

[Rockbadchild]

We find beavers move in and make a nice dam, then a few years later they move up of down stream. Might not help the OPer but today, we just wait them out.

yes, the reason is because the food ran out/ got too far to haul out, or because the area got overpopulated and disease got the best of them... beavers constantly push individual out of their colonies so if food is present and beavers are around, they will always come back...

 

[bgr]

Howdy this is definitely off topic but I thought I would see if some of the smart folk on here could give me some advice. I live in Northern Utah and have acreage on the Weber River. We had a beaver family that did enormous damage to our cottonwood trees a few years back (prior to my buying the land). I had them trapped and sent off to beaver heaven.

I recently discovered that they are back in the neighborhood. It is to late to bring in a trapper as the river is already pretty significantly iced over so that will have to be done in the spring. I am wondering if anyone on here has had any luck with a repellent. I have read that hot sauce may do the trick but I have a very large river woodland area (at least an acre right on the river) so I wanted to get some feedback before I start in on this. They have already decimated two trees in a matter of a week or so to the point where I will have to fell them as they ready to go and are quite dangerous.

Any advice is appreciated. And, no, I can't fence the area it is to large.

Thanks,
Kevin

I learned a lot about beaver control methods in the posts here. Thanks everyone.

Just want to add a story about how tough and single minded beavers are. We live in upstate NY on a property which is mostly forest with one stream running through it. Our upstream neighbor is a large landowner with extensive swamp acreage and a large beaver colony. Every year, young beavers leave the colony and head downstream looking for a place to start on their own. There is only one flat area on our place suitable for a pond, and they always try a dam there. Lumber roads and walking trails cross that little valley, so we need to stop any dam building. We try to break the dam and trap the beaver in early winter.
Usually we can rip a 3 foot deep hole in the dam, put in Conibear trap, catch one beaver and the rest will move on.

Couple of years ago, we ripped the dam and put in the trap as usual. Came back two days later and the dam was completely rebuilt in the gap we had made.

We though the trap had been sprung and the gap repaired. When we dug down to the trap to reset it, the trap was there with a dead beaver in it. The others had rebuilt the dam right over him, literally the day he was caught in the trap. We had to repeat the cut in the dam and catch a beaver twice more before the rest left. Those beavers were building their dam back over the body of their friend while it was still warm. Pretty tough animals.


BG