Small Game, Predator and TrappingFrom shooting squirrels in your backyard to calling coyotes in Arizona. This forum now contains trapping information..
I have no experience trapping. My grandmother is all upset cause these beavers are killing her fruit trees. So I borrowed a trap. I tried putting corn in there. But why would they come in there when there is 10 rows of it behind the slide to the river. Any other suggestions. Somebody said musk oil, but where do I buy such a thing?
Talk to your state wildlife authorities about the problem. They may suggest wrapping the trees with some kind of unchewable shield, but many of those fail. You may be able to get a special " nuisance" permit to destroy them. A 12 gauge w/#2 or 4 shot does the trick. It' s a little more pro-active than trapping.
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You can get anything you need from these people. Castor oil or castor based lure would be what you need. What kind of trap did you borrow? The best bait would be a freshly peeled stick from the tree where the beaver are eating. If you are interested in trapping at all beavers are good to start on because they are fairly easy to catch. Charles Dobbins book, Open Water Beaver Trapping will tell you everything you need to know about the biology, habits and how to take beaver. You can get that from the above link also.
I like the 12ga route also. But I am here in MD and my 80 year old, very daring grandmother, is in Ky. I am just trying to help her catch them. The trap is one of those live traps.
A hancock clam type trap I' m assuming. Get some castor based lure first. Peel a couple of sticks like the beaver are eating and attatch them to the trap. Place the trap near where the beaver are exiting the water and put a little bit of the lure on one of the sticks. They usually work better if half of the trap is submerged but I have caught them with the entire trap on the bank.
Set a drownder rig for beavers, use a size 2 double coil trap. Buy some beaver castor and put a little above the trap on the bank. Set your trap so it is level about 2 inch below water level. Beavers dont like the smell of other beavers comeing into thier turf. The drownding slide is very important, we use to use a old style can opener and run the wire through it. Your weght has to be pretty good sized like a bag of bricks.
heres what u do man. Get yourself a 330 connibear trap. place this trap where the beaver seem to be coming up onto the bank. put the trap down so some of the trap is underwater but leave enough space between the top of the water and the top of the trap for a beavers head to easily slip through. tie down the trap with some heavy wire to something good and solid. then brace the trap by taking 2 sticks and sticking them into the bank in between the springs of the trap on both sides. this prevents the trap from moving or the beaver pulling it over. finally cut a green stick about 3 feet long poplar works great then shave a little of the bark off the stick. wet the stick in the river and place it about 3 feet back of the trap standing upright stuck into the bank and my friend you are now in business.
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Its 35 below or its 98 above and he's workin through it all cause this is what he loves.
Trapping Beavers
