LOL! I actually have my "City Slick" wife interested in Tracking and researching scat to tell what kind of Critter it is. Of course after she gets her make-up on. I told her the beavers like the "natural" look. But I am excited that she is getting over the being scared of the woods thing. I may have a partner....

10th, Good luck on that partner thing; my City Slick wife now runs the company, which includes me!

Guess we are some of the Lucky Few.

If you are with (married or other wise) a woman it's not long until you find out WHO is running the outfit!
bob

by the beaver with no set up fee.....

I think like any business you can only charge what people are willing to pay in your area. You provide a service and therefore should be paid accordingly but I'll tell you now if you lived in my area and charged these prices you wouldn't be in business. Now drive 3 hours south and you could make a living on ADC at those prices. Not that you don't earn it but people aren't going to pay it. They'll shoot every beaver in the county first. Now if it was a service you provided on top of lawn care or plowing you could afford to price that high and live with the 1 or 2 jobs a year you got because of your other income. Maine licenses Animal Damage Control Operators. The majority are trappers who want to trap and price more according to that then making a living at ADC. For my town (Roads) I charge just 35$ a beaver. No set up, mileage or check fee. I like helping the town out. Do I make money? No! For private custormers I charge 35 per beaver, 35$ set up fee, and either a weekly check fee or mileage, usually around .37 mile. I could not make a living doing it but I suplement my full time income a little. Another guy I work with does ADC and usually just charges per beaver, 35-40$ and thinks I'm a crook for charging a set up fee and weekly fee. Course he's a good friend. That's the community I live in and what is the norm. There is a few that charge as high as 50 and get their fair share of jobs too. Just my experiences.
Good luck

15 years ago I thought the same thing..... however, you would be much better off working a part-time job compared to catching $35 beavers. About a year ago there was a great post regarding actual costs to operate a commercial wildlife control business. The AVERAGE cost just to break even ranges from 60 to 75 bucks per hour. That takes into consideration all expenses. If property owners will not pay the price YOU REQUIRE to operate and make a profit, it makes much more sense to focus on something else (other type of animal control). It's important to keep in mind those beavers are not YOUR responsibilty. If they view it as a serious problem, they will pay accordingly. If they want nuisance trapping services for practically free, they obviously don't have a problem.... yet.

If you DON"T want the responsibility of removing ALL the beavers and NEED TO LEARN, I would ask the landowner for permission to trap other critters, as well.
This would help offset SOME expenses and releive the pressure for total eradication
I charge $40/beaver and $100 set up, normally, BUT, I am not earning a living at it either.
Hope this helps
John

"Ron has a great point that i never thought of. The number of animals has nothing to do with solving the problem to the customer."

The number of animals has allot to do with solving the problem dont get me wrong problem solving is the name of the game but the number of animals is what is going to set the price so to speak as to what it is going to cost them. If you price by the animal or by the day for trap checks(figuring how many traps checks you will have to get the job done depends on how long you been trapping beaver and how well you read the sign)and what traps you can use in the area, along with what other things and people are in the area, like a small pond on a populated area with kids around.

But in the end it will all boil down to what the cost is out of there pocket (most of the time). And thats what they are looking at for the bottom line.

But it depends, If they are doing major damage and costing a farmer, city or who ever a bunch of money per day or week. It maybe an easy sell. If not they are going to drop back to the bottom line figure and see whats best for there income. Just depends on what kind of job you looking at and who you are dealing with.

By doing the Insp before I give a price it gives me time to get my facts, figures and such in line before I give a price. And in the end may give me a better idea of how to sell the job and show them the figures they are looking for to show them how they will come out ahead in the end.

Thats why I never give a price other than a sevice call and Insp fee before I look at a beaver job. And I tell them why I wont give a price over the phone. Allot of our work falls way out in the country, long drives to make trap checks. The time of year makes a differance on time as well. Winter or sping or summer. How big is the area, what feeds the area or were are the beaver comming from. There are allot of things that can effect the price of a beaver job.

Look at it this way....If you get a call and know up front another trapper has been in there. And there is one beaver they just cant get. Now they are calling you! Are you going to expect to go right in and take out that beaver? Not knowing all the details? Or looking things over? Not me!

For a 150.00 set up and a 100.00 a beaver, you might get the beaver the first night then maybe not? If you dont and it drags out, you loose money.

My point is thats why I just dont give a price other than the Service call and Insp over the phone on beaver jobs. I can give them some idea of the cost but not a exact price with out looking things over first and setting down and going over everything from the start of the job.

Brent

Somehow my first response was mis-quoted. I stated the number of animals has nothing to do with the COST. The example above about a single beaver that may be difficult to remove makes that point very clear. That's about as goofy as per mole pricing on a job 40 miles from home with a single mole in the lawn. Very poor idea from a business perspective. Beaver and muskrat jobs almost always require a site inspection, just like bat work. As stated in the post from Kee Kee, it is the many variables that must be considered that will determine a cost for the program. The number of animals is only a small consideration when working out a price for the program. Customers want a bottom line price in most cases, and will seldom approve a job with an open-ended amount possible on the final invoicing.

The going rate here is $450 for total eradication.

Sadly, the eradication may not last 6 months, if the "supply" is not cut off.

When, I charge a set up and per beaver AND it is not too far (20 mi, one gallon of gas).......it MAY spread out the cost over a couple weeks for the customer.

10th Mountain Man

I have several podcasts on my site that David Vinke, Mike Flick,Ron Jones, Brent Saxton,Reginald Murray, Maynard Stanley, Kevin Dahn, Mike McMillian and many others have donedid that will address all of your questions in detail with their own experiences.

There are over 77 different podcasts with over 12,000 minutes of audio on the site.

I recommend Beavers, Beavers *& More Beavers and a few others.

ron is right, with ALL the costs associated with running a business i figured one time i need around 70 an hour, of course i dont get it all the time but i do keep this figure in mind when i do any adc work. Hey if they want to sit out there and shoot beaver on their time i encourage them to go for it but if they want me to solve the problem this is what i have to charge. otherwise I'll go on to the next job and make money no sweat!

traprjohn,
How big an area are you doing total eradication in for $450.00,
a five acre fish pond or a thousand acres of paper wood. I know I am a little dense, but your answer does not make sense to me.
Thanks,
45/70,
RKBA!