Huntley

I am finally down south and in a place where I can start hunting! I am thinking about getting into Nutria hunting and I was curious how y’all usually go about hunting and trapping them and if y’all ever us dogs (if so what kinds) or just traps and guns.

MudderChuck

There was a time when I hunted them fairly often. We knocked back the numbers to manageable levels and now they have a season here.

Depends on the habitat how you hunt them. And what the regional law allows. Where I hunted them was a steep banked Creek. I used a dog to find their burrows. marked them with a flag. Or you can see where they have been feeding, I've watched them harvest grass on the bank, they cut it with their teeth like a scythe and leave what looks like a freshly mowed lawn behind. Best luck is IMO Jack lighting (flashlight on a shotgun) them. They are mostly nocturnal.

I'd check on local laws, but you can spot a burrow that looks used and fire tear gas rounds in there (I have an old tear gas revolver). Have somebody standing by with a shotgun, they come out of the burrow like a rocket.

Nutria can really do a number on the landscape, between the burrows on the creek bank and eating all the vegetation that keeps the bank stable, they can change the course of Creeks. We got a permit to clean them out and to hunt them any way we could for a few years, they were really screwing the Creek up.

Oldtimr

When I duck hunted in MD , the marshes we hunted had nutria. The game department wanted them dead and told us to shoot everyone we saw. While they were brought to the Northern states for a source of fur, their fur it pretty much worthless. The Cajuns in LA like to eat them, that is about all they are good for.

Huntley

MudderChuck

My Weimaraner trained himself to find them. The first time he stuck his nose in a burrow he was hooked. He'd dig them out if I would have let him, that dog could really move some dirt, quick. I didn't want him destroying the Creek bank so I'd call him off and mark the burrow with a flag, orange construction tape on a stick. They are often loosely knit packs and/or family groups. If you see one, others are usually nearby.

Another good way to spot them is from erosion, if you see bank erosion there is a good chance Nutria is the cause.

MudderChuck

Almost forgot, if you find a burrow on a steep Creek bank, look for a back waý out maybe six +/- feet from the bank on the flat. My guess is the back door helps them escape Fox trying to dig them out. Watch where you are walking, by our creek a fisherman a year breaks an ankle caving in a Nutria burrow.

Huntley

MudderChuck

Here is a picture of typical Nutria damage, I could post a bunch more on the same Creek, pretty much the same as this, some worse. They strip off the vegetation and the burrows weaken the bank. The rain and the swelling of the Creek does the rest.

Huntley

Huntley