Just got rid of the two beavs we had on the creek that runs through the farm. It came to my attention this summer as the bridge was damming up. I have never trapped them or dealt with them here. Took me about three weeks to get the big male and the little yearling with a snare I placed on a small slide at water level. I have no indication of anymore since then. I had to don a wetsuit on four separate occasions to break the dam free from under the bridge( 36,000 lbs of concrete on 6 steel beams. I made several different lengths of hooks out of #4 rebar to pull the sucker loose. Made a huge improvement on Tuesday and got the creek flowing under bridge as should be. There is a section of cow panel across the creek for cows and on Tues I extended it to the creek bottom to piss the beaver off. It did the trick as the beaver finally used the smaller slides sometime Tuesday during the night. Am good to go for a few months again. I placed the snares on Sunday( I have never used these snares before) worked like they were supposed to. I watched a video on the tube for guidance! Ha! Forgot to mention these beavs had three huge slides from the south bank of the creek up to a cornfield. Decimated that corner of the field, slides completely lined with stalks, two separate dams going on with nothing but stalks and a whole bunch of corn debris in their poop! I never knew they ate or used corn!
Last edited by troublesome82; 12/10/20. Reason: wording
Used to see a lot of beaver sign along “my” section of the Shenandoah. Nothing lately.
Saw one on the bank years ago that looked as big as my Lab. When he saw me he slipped into a hole in the ice without a sound. That was some big beaver.
About fifty years ago, my brother and I were floating down the Nechako River in North Central BC. We got into some pretty good fishing and spent a little more time than we intended so we were finishing the trip in the dark (midnight). There were always some big salmon rolling next to the canoe and we had gotten pretty used to that but at one point, we must have startled a beaver which slapped the water right next to the canoe. My brother over reacted with the result being an upside down canoe. The next hour was pretty cold and the reception from my wife not much warmer since we were well past our arrival time. There were beaver houses along the river, about every half mile or so. The tributary creeks were always dammed. Not bad fish habitat. The beaver and the willows had a bit of a symbiotic relationship.The beaver ate the willows and the water helped it grow. Good moose habitat too. GD
Beavers burrowed under my lake levee and big chuncks of earth were falling off into the lake .
TWRA gave me the name of a trapper and he set traps to catch them all . Just had to keep my dogs away from the lake for a few weeks .
I have busted several dams out where a creek runs through my property . Stand on the up side and when you get a good hole started the water flow will wash the dam out . Make sure you stand on the up side cause the dams are nasty and full of shet .
Tannerite is your friend when dealing with dams etc......and a lot more fun that doing it by hand.
I've heard it only takes old reloading powder, steel nipples and end caps, silicone, newspaper, and fuse to make a device that will help destroy beaver dams. Forgot where I heard that but it was many years ago and the fellow might not have known what he was talking about.
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
Yes James. Beavers typically burrow into the banks of drainage ditches and streams around here. I think I have only seen one actual lodge built in my life. It was up in the shallow end of an irrigation reservoir and was left high and dry each summer as the water level was drawn down.
All these beavers (or muskratz6) actually care about is that the entrance to their den is below water level, so the predators don't enter.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
I would just as soon have used something explosive on this but it was completely under a bridge at water level, bridge is 15' wide by 36' long and runs over designated trout stream in LaCrosse county. Neighbors to the west are arseholes in the extremes and do not under any circumstance want to deal with DNR on this issue, I just got a trapping license and took care of it so it did not become some other farmer's problem.
Last edited by troublesome82; 12/10/20. Reason: wording
