Solar Turtle Trap - for my Pond

[SPIKER]

Yep around here the Red Ears are nice and rather common in most areas with a mild population in wild along lakes rivers and farm ponds. half dozen or more per acre is ok but much more then can dent the small fish population. They love goldfish ponds as the gold fish are slow and tasty I'm guessing full of oil like other carp species. Jones gets a pretty penny for them and same for ADULT BULL FROGS they want LOTS for them it seems. Back in 98 or so my boss put in a big pond 4+ acres mostly all dug but was swampy too. Jones delivered channel cats (red-ear, green shell crackers & standard blue gills) large mouth bass... They had 4 pairs of bullfrogs in the truck for a 2nd delivery few hundred bucks worth guy said.


Mark

 

[Redbug]

I have seen people tack a cage without a top below water level on logs the turtles bask on. When you approach by boat, the turtles slide off the log and into the cage. The turtles don't think of swimming upward to get out. You can then pull alongside and harvest the turtles. I think there was a large market for turtles to be eaten overseas, (Asia, China, etc.), and it has gotten out of hand since there were no regs on turtle harvesting. That has changed in the past year or so.

 

[Bdavis]

I don't think I have a turtle over population, but would guess there are about a dozen of them in my 4 acre pond. From what I can tell, they are all red ear turtles about the size of an outstretched hand. What is the problem with them? I kind of like them, but then I also like seeing egrets and herons at my pond, even though they eat my fish.

I used to have a snake problem, but my brother stayed here for a summer and shot several of them a week and I haven't seen any in there for three years now.

Eddie

If you only have about a dozen red ears in a 4 acre pond you are in great shape. My pond is only 1 acre. I would like to keep the number at about 2 dozen or less. I think having a few in a pond is a really good idea. They will help keep your pond clean by eating tadpoles and all the fish guts and fish heads that you throw back in. However, as was noted by Ranchero50 when they overpopulate they can destroy the pond.
Your water will stay constantly muddy and your fish population will go down. I think it is pretty easy to tell if you have a turtle over population problem are it is about to be a problem. During the summer just look across your pond. If you see lots of little heads poking up and every log or piece of wood that floats has a turtle on it then it is time trap or shoot and reduce the numbers