Muskrat Woes... Advice Please?

Okay. I'm ready to admit that I don't know it all.

I got a call from a man who's got a muskrat problem. They are burrowing into the dam and he's loosing water. He first noticed the problem when he noticed that the water level had dropped better than 4 feet. Already, I'm thinki9ng, "You've waited too late to call me."

But, I went out and set up the job anyway.

I found three dens where the entrances are a good 6 or 8 feet from the water, high and dry. I found one den in the dam that had already caved in and another right next to it. There is one den with one entrance still under water. A hollow stump just under the water. I know it's active because I saw the rat stick his nose out and turn and go back in when he saw me.

I've got colony traps blocking 6 different entrances, conibears guarding most of the others and a couple foot holds guarding a sandy spot on the bank where I found rat tracks. PLUS several more conibears blocking bank runs. On top of all that, I have 2 floats baited with apple.

I set this up Monday and still have caught NOTHING! You hear me? NOTHING!

Granted, with as much dry ground they have to cross before hitting water, hawks and owls could have taken a few of them but I know there is at least one still there because I saw him!

Any ideas on what to try next?

That's a lot of iron for one muskrat. I had a similar situation years back and I caught the three mushrats ( German pronunciation )

at the dam. They didn't seem to like running water anymore than the beaver. Catching zip is frustrating. Maybe you could come up and do

my squirrel job and I can go down to NC and get your muskrats.

Total of 14 conibears, 6 colonies, and 6 footholds. By all rights, I should have him if he sneezes!

Might check around for some groundhog holes if your confident you found all the dens. And I would ditch the colonies for bodygrippers.

Have you inspected for crayfish holes as well?

Here are a few photos from a golf course job that had a rat problem. Most of the water courses had large stone placements making it difficult for determining den sites. There were some old dens that had collapsed and some den areas under water going thru the rock over laps to under water dens unaccessable to normal trapping set ups.

I used a variety of sets to resolve this problem. There weren't many rats (3) but they didnt come easy. I had to do a couple of watches eventually at dusk to determine the origin of the rats emergence to the surface of the water. Then follow the water wakes. I found what I was looking for and set up the pole sets as you see shown. I caught a few in the foothold traps and one in a conibear in a collapsed den run on the shore.

I knew from the sign they were there but they weren't easy to find or see many good location set ups. The water was very deep just off shore. Never had much success with floats in these types of jobs. Too many ducks, geese and frogs to deal with. You will catch some bull frogs in the coilspring traps at times if they are there. They love those platforms that the traps create just below the surface area.

There are two traps set on each pole. One on either side of the pole. You can see that a trap is missing from the trap clip on the far side of the set trap. I am holding that rat in the photo almost under the bridge area.

Sudden Valley company from Missouri sells the rat clips that I am using. There have since been other companies offering a similiar type set up for the fiberglass poles that will hold the traps and also the bait clips. They work well particularly when you get close to their travel lanes and preferred feed bed/shelter sites.

If you can find some hidden feed bed shelters you will catch them fairly quickly. That is how I caught the ones on this job. Some were caught under a golf cart bridge another going in between two large rocks to a sheltered feed bed area.

Visuals (slices of parsnips/turnips worked best as they won't rust and stain like apples in a short while )and some rat lure did the job here.

My son Corey is setting a deep run pole set in the last two photos. I took a bath at that location the day before. There is a rubber liner running the whole bottom of each pond. Making for very slippery footing.

Muddawg- have you tried a setup similar to the one posted by Bob Jameson at http://www.trapperman.com/forum/ubbthrea...e?#Post5182629? If not it may be worth a try.

Bob,

I've seen that system and have plans to pick up some of those supplies at convention in a couple weeks. Right now I'm still having to work with what I got. I'm gonna swing by the Food Lion on my way out this morning and pick up some turnips and parsnips and try that on my floats.

Thanks for the advice.

LA,

It didn't pull the link up for me but I'm gopnna do a search and see can I find it.

Thanks.

One thing I've been wondering about.... There has been a hawk hanging around that pond for the last couple weeks or more. There are also lots of owls in the area as well.

With so much dry ground for the rats to cross from the den to the water, do you suppose the birds may have done my job for me?

Sniperbbb,

No ground hogs in the area. I have a ground hog job to set up this afternoon but it's a good 25 miles away.

Birds of prey, particularly owls and mink/fox/coyote can certainly make fast work of a small rat population. During periods of drought and water level drops this happens more than one might think.

If animals are forced to be more exposed than usual to reach their food source that is a very good possibility that there may have been some taken from a predator or bird of prey.

Just what I was thinking Bob. I've had to share my paycheck with a number of predators this time of the year.

I've been back out there with my steel probe. I've poked around, literally, and found nothing. I poked in every den I found and nothing ran out.

In times past, when I start poking around with a steel probe, they can't get otta' there fast enough.

I'm gonna have to conclude that they ain't there no more.

Thankfully, the man agreed to my set up fee, so at least my gas will be paid for.