Repelling / Deterring Beavers

muttbarker · Dec 6, 2022

Howdy this is definitely off topic but I thought I would see if some of the smart folk on here could give me some advice. I live in Northern Utah and have acreage on the Weber River. We had a beaver family that did enormous damage to our cottonwood trees a few years back (prior to my buying the land). I had them trapped and sent off to beaver heaven.

I recently discovered that they are back in the neighborhood. It is to late to bring in a trapper as the river is already pretty significantly iced over so that will have to be done in the spring. I am wondering if anyone on here has had any luck with a repellent. I have read that hot sauce may do the trick but I have a very large river woodland area (at least an acre right on the river) so I wanted to get some feedback before I start in on this. They have already decimated two trees in a matter of a week or so to the point where I will have to fell them as they ready to go and are quite dangerous.

Any advice is appreciated. And, no, I can't fence the area it is to large.

Thanks,
Kevin

Jstpssng · Dec 6, 2022

Call a trapper, even if the river is freezing. I wouldn't even know how to catch a beaver if it isn't under the ice.

ovrszd · Dec 6, 2022

Actually freezing over helps the trapper. Call a trapper.

Jstpssng · Dec 6, 2022

ovrszd said:
Actually freezing over helps the trapper. Call a trapper.

I've got a few problem houses I need to set up myself, but am waiting for things to freeze solid. I just found another one tonight, we already are losing a culvert because of it. The cold also makes the fur prime up.

m1garand762 · Dec 6, 2022

Check with the department of wildlife in Ohio as the landowner I can trap out of season when the water isn’t frozen. I can also shoot them which I do all the time, including the one on my. Wall that took a .17 hmr to the head in an unfortunate collision

Jstpssng · Dec 6, 2022

m1garand762 said:
Check with the department of wildlife in Ohio as the landowner I can trap out of season when the water isn’t frozen. I can also shoot them which I do all the time, including the one on my. Wall that took a .17 hmr to the head in an unfortunate collision View attachment 773508

He looks like he should be wearing a cape!

oosik · Dec 7, 2022

Around these parts - winter trapping is the most successful. Call your state wildlife agency regarding trapping. Many places have a government trapper that will provide the service.

riptides · Dec 7, 2022

muttbarker said:
Howdy this is definitely off topic but I thought I would see if some of the smart folk on here could give me some advice. I live in Northern Utah and have acreage on the Weber River. We had a beaver family that did enormous damage to our cottonwood trees a few years back (prior to my buying the land). I had them trapped and sent off to beaver heaven.

I recently discovered that they are back in the neighborhood. It is to late to bring in a trapper as the river is already pretty significantly iced over so that will have to be done in the spring. I am wondering if anyone on here has had any luck with a repellent. I have read that hot sauce may do the trick but I have a very large river woodland area (at least an acre right on the river) so I wanted to get some feedback before I start in on this. They have already decimated two trees in a matter of a week or so to the point where I will have to fell them as they ready to go and are quite dangerous.

Any advice is appreciated. And, no, I can't fence the area it is to large.

Thanks,
Kevin

They come and go. I ended up putting chain link around some trees to deter them. I also trapped them with great success using Conibear 220 traps. Easy to use, simple to setup, great kill rate. A phone call was all I needed to DNR with the magic word "pest" in it, to get around seasonal and other regulations in my state.

oosik · Dec 7, 2022

BTW - welcome to TBN - muttbarker. Around our area the beavers do not bother the cottonwood trees. And fortunately not the pines either. All I have here are Ponderosa pines. Our beavers are strictly the "smooth barked" tree beavers. Popular, alder, quaken asp, willow, birch and, I suppose, fruit trees if they are close enough.

I have an extended family of beavers on my ten acre lake. Their efforts are beneficial. A low dam at the outlet provides excellent water level control. The beavers here pull up cattails and eat the bulbous root structure.

MiniDonkey22 · Dec 7, 2022

i have been at war with beavers for a few decades in upstate ny. They can flood 10 acres of my meadows if left unchecked. Agree with trapper; but i enjoy actively putting pressure on them - pulling down their small dams and very importantly - get out there in early spring (snow still on ground) and dissuade them from bedding on my property to have pups. I like the time in the woods, good cardio exercise pulling their dens and dams apart with waders on. A few weeks of nearly daily 'war' and they move to a different section of my streams which are completely wild - no people or farms.

MossRoad · Dec 7, 2022

Our local parks department loosely wraps chain link fence around the trunks of any trees they want to save in the local parks near the river and small lakes, ponds. Works great.

HawkinsHollow · Dec 7, 2022

A large portion of my property is bottomland along a creek with a pond and plenty of swampy areas. I had problems with them damming up the inlet to my pond and flooding a 3 or 4 acre area. Installed a beaver deceiver at their little dam and it worked for years. I now have a culvert in that spot, so time will tell if they start acting up again. For some reason I have NEVER seen beaver damage to any of my trees. That being said I have always wanted to trap a couple for their pelts and I am sure I will some day. I've seen wallets made out of their tail leather, looks really nice. If I was having serious issues with them like you are I would not hesitate to trap them as well. Good luck.

deserteagle71 · Dec 7, 2022

We fought them for years on the farm in Pennsylvania where I grew up. They kept damming up a small stream that ran across one of the fields. Each time we destroyed the dam they would just build it back bigger. Finally we gave up. There is now a good-sized lake that even appears on the maps.

On a hot summer afternoon our cows would cool off in the water:

60-some years later, the beavers are still there!

dmccarty · Dec 7, 2022

You will have to protect the trees you value the most until the beavers leave. I used chicken wire wrapped around the larger trees I wanted to keep from being killed off by the beavers.

Trapping the beavers will only buy you some time.

We had to install a beaver pond leveler in the dam to force the beavers to leave, there are more than one conversations about beaver issues on TBN, but this is what we did, https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/assistance/backyard/privatelandhabitat/clemson_beaver_pond_leveler.pdf

As others have suggested, check with the local and state laws and regulations. The state extension office is a good resource here in NC so hopefully your state has such a resource.

Later,
Dan

Eagle1 · Dec 7, 2022

We have beavers come to live in our pond every year, usually they run into my Savage Mark II unless I need to clear some section and they cooperate earning them a short stay of execution.

oosik · Dec 8, 2022

Loooong ago the WA state game dept would dynamite beaver dams if they were doing property damage. Then it became obvious that dynamite was not the answer. They then employed trappers. The beavers would be trapped and relocated. This proved to be a far better solution.

Apparently that is no longer the case in WA. There are now private trappers who are licensed by the state and will provide that service.

Check with your state game dept - that should provide all the necessary answers.

Jstpssng · Dec 8, 2022

oosik said:
Loooong ago the WA state game dept would dynamite beaver dams if they were doing property damage. Then it became obvious that dynamite was not the answer. They then employed trappers. The beavers would be trapped and relocated. This proved to be a far better solution.

Apparently that is no longer the case in WA. There are now private trappers who are licensed by the state and will provide that service.

Check with your state game dept - that should provide all the necessary answers.

We have so many beaver here that relocating them just moves the problem. Better to just kill them and be done with it.

A bit off topic but this Three Against the Wilderness is an interesting book from a century ago, about a couple who moved to the wilderness in BC and brought back the beaver population, which had been decimated by over trapping.

deserteagle71 · Dec 8, 2022

Jstpssng said:
We have so many beaver here that relocating them just moves the problem. Better to just kill them and be done with it.

I've often wondered if relocating is how the beavers we have in Nevada got to where they are today. I mean, it can be many, many miles of dry hot desert between mountains streams and yet I see their sign everywhere. Surely they didn't trek all those miles to the next stream?

And for sure Nevada doesn't have a surfeit of trees! So why are the beavers allowed to cut down the ones we do have? This is a shot of a pond beavers created at about 8000 feet elevation in northeast Nevada. You can see the beaver lodge at the far side:

Some of the trees they manage to cut down are amazing in size. Here I'm standing on one of the stumps...notice the teeth marks in the wood:

What was most amazing to me was when I found a whole area of aspen stumps that had been gnawed off about 5' above the ground. Surely beavers don't climb trees! But then I realized the trees were cut when there were several feet of snow on the ground so the beavers were working at "ground" level:

They flat devastated the trees in this area:

MossRoad · Dec 8, 2022

Devastated is an interesting word choice. Wonder how many critters benefit from that beaver pond, as well as how many types of plants grow in the opened area?