They move around this time of year, You kill one, another one moves in. I've never been able to prevent beaver damage by trapping alone.
With snares you can eliminate them far faster and more successfully than explosives. I've done it, in fact I cleared out one last old educated one at the request of a govt trapper in the Black Hills. Took about 48 hours.
We re all on "the list" now, you know, if we weren't before.
That's bad. Once you're on the Beaver List, you're on forever. Because a varmint will never quit -- ever. They're like the Viet Cong. The Varmint Cong.......
I've been at WAR with beavers on my land for over 15 years....I trap them during trapping season get a Permit from the DNR to do summer trapping they just keep coming by water down the streams and river....maybe get rid of them for a year but they come back....
One of the best way is brake open a hole in the dam in the morning and get the water to drain down....then sit by the dam hour or so before dark with a .22 LR with a suppresser....might take 2 nights to shoot them all....but next year need to do it again....
DNR will only give me a permit to shoot 10 every year....one thing good about beavers is they make great bear bait....every year I use beavers to open up baits in the fall.....
One of those red dot sights on a 22 rifle works good in the dark. The dot won't show up on water but when it hits a beaver just pull the trigger. I used red and don't know about the green ones on water.
There are several designs of "beaver deceivers", and they work very well. I had chronic problems with beavers trying to plug up the in take to the fish farm until I put one in. Worked for years without trouble.
Google "Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler". You can make them out of PVC pipe. If the beavers aren't dead, removing the dam is just exercise and there is a high probability that another pair will move in next spring.
I just spent 2 days with a young Hutterite gentleman escorting us around a couple of their colonies hunting with my grandson during the Montana youth hunt.
Noticing a beaver dam, I asked him if they pose any issues for them. He responded that they remove them with tannerite and went into some detail how they do it.
Well, 4 pounds of Tannerite was a dud. The problem is that to get it in there where it should be, you wouldn’t be able to see to shoot it. I blew a small picture window in it. LOL!
Not even close to enough. You'll need at least 10 pounds, maybe more. Buy the AN in bulk, and mix about 1-2 tablespoon to the pound of "blackhead aluminum" powder with the prilled (BB shaped) ammonium Nitrate. I buy AN 20 or 50 pounds at a time from online suppliers. A couple of pounds of blackhead is plenty. It's MUCH less expensive than buying commercial "Tannerite".
Us chemical supply is your friend. I used to get it for $75 with free shipping for a 50# box and now it’s $135 but still cheap. The locals claimed they were going to slip onto the farm I lived on and shoot the bulls opening day of elk season so to keep myself from getting in trouble for something they started I shot an 8# jug of the stuff at about 9 pm the night before season. The Tillamook county scanner page went nuts as well as our phones wanting to know what happened in the little valley we lived in as some thought the air national guard had broke the sound barrier over land again while others thought transformers had blown yet they still had power. The wife spent the next week trying to get all of the pictures in the house level again.