Beavers..

On my lease in ETX I'm having problems with beavers. We have 3 creeks running through our property 1 large and 2 small. We have blown up dams with tannerite, trapped them with foot traps, bust up the dams regularly, set up motion lights. You name it we have tried it..any recommendations on how to get rid of these things. They are wreaking havoc on our place. They are causing major flooding on our roads, backing up water all over the property. I could bust up the dam tonight to get the water flowing again, and by morning they would already have it built up again. I have gave up on foot traps I swear they would set them off by putting a stick in them. I'm lost on what to do next..any help would be greatly appreciated. One of the dams we have been pulling out logs and sticks piling them up for the last 2 year's and the pile is is taller and longer than a full size truck. Whats funny about these things they won't touch the sticks we've pulled out of the dam they just bring in new ones..

Go spot light them and shoot em. It won’t solve the problem but it will help. You start shooting them they will move along eventually.

Call your County Agent and get the name and number of the county trapper.

Beavers always amazed me.

You need to import some timber wolves and black bears. Beaver is pretty much their favorite snack. Baring that find their lodge(s) and when they are inside load them up with anfo and kill the whole mess in one shot. Prior to 9/11 all you needed as a 16 year old kid to buy a whack of anfo in my neck of the woods was a note from your parents saying you had beaver problems.

Shooting and trapping are your only other alternatives. Although if you destroy their dams immediately every time they rebuild them (talking like every morning) they will eventually give up and move on but you have to be more relentless than they are.

They are a fascinating creature. The things that they can do with wood is astonishing.

Lmao

Bring felt hats back in style. I like the anfo idea too.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. A good ole beaver thread!!!!
Once, I thought I was going after beaver. Turned out to be a cougar!!!

"And it's been the ruins of many a poor boy..."

Spotlight or thermal at night after breaking the dams. That's the only way we ever made a difference.

Alligator...….

Going to take an awful big alligator to take care of the beavers.

Then what are you going to feed a large alligator?

Lead

Seems like a waste to me.

The alligator does his job, you feed him lead and then more beavers move in.

What next?

Time for the kids to have some night time fun

I do that or just camp out repeatedly with thermal and shoot beaver as I see them. It is important that there are no livestock, people, structures in the immediate area behind the beaver due to wacky ricochets off of water. You can wait until they get up on the bank, but that may take a long time. An opened dam does get their attention, however.



Generally speaking, I found that I have been leading beaver too much in the water, assuming that they were moving a bit faster than they were. Inside of 100 yards with a centerfire rifle virtually no lead is necessary. They are going slow enough that they will not have moved a significant distance before the bullet impacts. With a .22 lr, that will be different, of course, unless they are really close (sorry, haven't worked out the ballistics for .22 lr). My point is that if you know your ballistics and have a good zero, beaver are a challenging target, but certainly very huntable in the water.

Just wait til dark,,,,,offer it some alcohol, put on some good ol tunes and you will own that beaver before you know it. " The Beaver Whisperer ".

I fell your pain. I have a 3 acre pond near Fairfield Tx. and they keep putting mud with sticks on the spillway and I have to bust a opening through it. They keeping borrowing tunnels in my dam. The tunnels made the dam break after spring rains 10 years ago and I lost many fish. I had the dam repaired and the pond restocked and they just build more tunnels in the dam and around the shore.I have killed many beavers over the years just to have more come back. I have made Crappie condos out of pvc, wood, and bamboo and place them in the pond. The beavers use the material from the condos to add to the 2 huts they have built.
Good luck getting rid of them!

MIL..

"I fell your pain. I have a 3 acre pond near Fairfield Tx. and they keep putting mud with sticks on the spillway and I have to bust a opening through it. They keeping borrowing tunnels in my dam. The tunnels made the dam break after spring rains 10 years ago and I lost many fish. I had the dam repaired and the pond restocked and they just build more tunnels in the dam and around the shore.I have killed many beavers over the years just to have more come back. I have made Crappie condos out of pvc, wood, and bamboo and place them in the pond. The beavers use the material from the condos to add to the 2 huts they have built.
Good luck getting rid of them!"

Why do folks pound their heads against trees, beavers do not?

In the spring beavers have little beavers and raise them. After the little beavers are raised their parents run them off, called the empty stage of life. The run off beavers go in search of a new home. That is where they come from if you are wondering.

As I pointed out above, call your local County Extension Agent, he can put you in touch with the county trapper or Federal Trapper in the area. If you have beavers, so do your neighbors, ban together and have a licensed trapper remove them all.

Seems really simple to me and it works The trapper can remove coyotes while he is there. The price he charges is zero (0).

I tried that, he spit her out and headed south.

I have the same problem with our place in Anderson County. I just sent the local Extension Agent an email. Will let yall know how it works out.

Easier said than done. Our place in Panola Co is covered with the bastages. Still haven't been able to get a trapper out yet.

It’s amazing to me that in the 1820’s they trapped out beaver in the entire western North America but we can’t get them off our piece of land.

Get a pro to do it, and they will get them all. Folks trying to shoot them, or trap them when not knowing how to, will just educate them. Then it will take a pro and a lot of time to get rid of them.

Done right the first time, they are not that hard to trap them all out.

-TJ

Interesting on educating beaver by shooting them. I had not noticed this when shooting them. Of course, I shoot them at night when they are most active.

Because of how they lay in the water, you don't always kill them. And you won't get them all at one time. It just takes one to get away, or see another get shot, and they quickly learn not to make themselves open to being shot again. I have trapped a few that have been shot and lived, including one with a 22 in it. If you think you can eradicate an entire lodge by shooting them, then go for it. Let us know how that works out and how many nights it took.

-TJ

I second the idea of contacting your county agent. You want a nuance or animal control type trapper. They are different than fur trappers and go about the job differently. Try the website, Sullivan's line (He writes for Fur-Fish-Game Magazine). He does a lot of animal control, primarily beavers and you have to clean out the whole colony.

LOL, more often than not, I head shoot the beaver when they are in the water. They generally don't recover from that, especially when you see pieces fly off of their head and splatter in different locations in the water. Yep, have finished off colonies twice in single nights. In this first video, the owner had shot two and I finished off the last three. The day after I was there, the owner broke open the dam and the beaver never repaired it again and no activity has occurred.


In this second video, the owner has had in trappers and shooters previously. Every other year or so he has to bring somebody in because beaver reinfest the tank. I went back for a follow-up visit and saw none and the landowner reports now new activity damning his drain...


I am currently hunting a 10 acre lake that is a challenge. It has multiple dens in banks (no lodges identified) on it, at least one of which is on the neighbor's portion of the lake that can't be hunted. The biggest complain I have had hear is when the owner's grandkids come and hunt and they take the boat out and discover beaver bodies floating in the water.

I think if you are an animal control trapper you start out with traps far from the den and then work in closer. It is a different approach.