Well today I was asked if I wanted to remove a beaver dam that is daming up a creek up upstream from where I'm working. I was told the dam is about 5' tall, 5' wide, and is backing up about 3 acres of water which is killing all the trees and making a flipping mess. We need the water to fill up a lake up we just finished up working on. Seems like a good way to do so. I was pondering on how to bust the dam though. It's a long way through the woods and I would have to go stump jumping with the mini excavator to get back there and would absolutly hate to get bogged down and stuck in the middle of the swamp. My next option is letting one of the neighbors blow it up with the little beaver dam bombs he makes. The fellow I'm working for would reather me go in and break it with the mini, But I sure would like to see it get blown up! The fellow works for the rock quarry and is very good with blowing things up from what I'm told. any other suggestions besides getting down and dirt by removing it by hand?
those beaver dams are a lot stronger then you might think...with a lot larger logs/trees then you might imagine are in there....your mini-ex might take a good while to get it done...i vote for dynamite
Oh I know, beavers will amaze you with their abilities to dam up water as good as they do. I'm looking towards this. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7gkBrmIOs&feature=related http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=-iM5Q7zX6Ho I'll ge more info tomorrow.
Dynamite the Beaver Dams The bad thing about digging out beaver dams is you pile all the mud and brush right where they want to rebuild the dam. It makes it ALOT eaiser on them rebuilding the thing. That's why I like Dynamite, it scatters the dam everywhere. Don't kid yourself, they are going to rebuild it. The Dynamite just makes it harder on them. If it is a good size dam get a pry bar about 5 feet long and punch a hole down as far as you can drive it. This will get your Dynamite down in the mud and you can blow the hxll out of it this way. Make sure about EVERY 6 INCHES to wallow the hole out before going any deeper with the bar. This is so your bar don't get stuck in the mud and you have to leave it.
ahh beaver problem eh, well like he said, you can rip it out, but it will be built up in a day or so depending on how many beavers! Heres the illegal way to handle it: take some of the damn out, just enough to let some water through, then sit up stream of it and wait for the beavers to feel the water level go down, then they will swim out to fix it, then thats when mr. winchester comes into play. Be patient, and more will keep coming! As for the legel way, look into a trapper, but just removing the damn will onley let water flow for a couple days!
He said over the last few years he's shot 20 of them. Dern things just keep comming back. Mr pipe bomb needs to be dropped down in their little hut. Man they are killing acres and acres of good timbers. The mostqitos are horrible too! They've looked into trapping them too, $100 for the fellow to come out and $80.00 fot every one removed.
Killing the Little Bxstxrds He's right about shooting them when you dig the dam out. The water level protects the entrance to their house, when it starts dropping someone is going to come investigate. If you keep shooting them I don't Know if more will come or not. I always trap them out before I dig the dam out. That way, Problems Solved.:usa
Wow i guess fur prices really are down. It used to be that they would be pounding on doors for you to give them permission to trap. Yeah tearing it out with an excavator, be carefull. Get the excavator stuck in the muck tearing it out and go home for the evening with the machine stuck... watch out. Them little buggers might use the minni as part of the new dam, or build the new dam just bellow the stuck mini.... That would be funny....
i vote for homemade explosives
we tried using our Tak TB175 to take out a damn smaller than the one you are describing...and they had it rebuilt in about 3 days...the next time we blew it sky high...and they rebuilt it in about a month...either way you do it chris....someone has to kill them...all of them...they MUST ALLLLL DIIEEEEEEEE!!!! okay...okay...im good.....just a little jumpy about the beavers....kinda like bill murray with the ground hogs in Caddy Shack.....
Old Timer down the street always said you had to get rid of beavers before you get rid of the dam. He had two methods Trapping - less effective or the other method. This was years ago before pollution laws & thoughts. He would take a few empty gallon bleach bottles and put roughly a cup of high detergent oil in each. He would then dist. upstream. By tossing out in water with no cap on the bottles would bob up and down and gradually release oil until they sank. He said beavers are not hurt , but it bothers there skin and will move out within a week or two. He also said it does not take many, one or two in a small pond
Like has been said the only way to get rid of the dam, is to first get rid of the beaver. Once the beaver are gone it is just a simple matter of getting the water to flow, once flowing, the hydrualics of the water will take care of the rest. One thing about beaver dams is they are not water tight they take alot of work to keep them working. So get rid of the beaver first. But remember next spring when upstreams young move out to find new homes that spot just might appel to them.
if you want me to take a trip down there i can....up here i have pretty good luck scaring the beaver away from me...i'm sure it would be the same down south
please enlighten us on your methods:cool2
We might not want to know! LOL Here's what we have. I'll have to clear a path in with the mini excavator to get back there. Probably 200' back in the woods, all good ground until I get to the dam then it gets ify. The beaver dam is bigger than I thought, looks to be atleast 100+' long, 3'-4' wide and 5' tall. mostly bulit out of stick ranging from 1-2" in diameter. Did not want to venture out there too far as I had already had the **** scared out of me with all the snakes that were everywhere Then I heard somthing rather large moving around in the tall weeds so I snapped three pictures a got the hell out of the swamp! Here is the lower pond, there are 2 more upstream. I'm thinking that busting one end with the mini would be the best bet. then when the water darins down he should be able to see the beavers and knock them off one at the time. Maybe I can get him to make one pipe bomb to blow up the other end, sound like too much fun not too!
I bet that it involves offering to buy 'em a beer, then a cool line like "Your eyes are like a pool of 30wt, shining in the moonlight after it leaked out of the final drive of my.... wait, where ya going!? OK, I'll wait here for ya... " Side story: a friend of mine works at Natural Resources and had the same type of beaver dam problems. After a bunch of emails between some guys on what to do, the Big Brother software kicked in on the email system and they got reprimands for "improper use of the email system". Took a few phone calls to explain that they were really talking about beavers, the animals.
haha yea something like that...seems the girls i get attracted to know nothing about getting your hands dirty
I find this thread quite interesting, because obviously we don't have beavers and I know nothing about what they do, but here in South Australia at the moment we would kill to have a dam full of water like that. If you have not heard, the River Murray, which is Australia's largest river, has been over allocated with irrigation for years and because of a run of dry seasons, a fair part of the country, including our state, is running out of water, so if you have some to spare, send it down here, but you can keep the snakes! Rn'R.
Chris: I like the idea of just blowing up the beaver dam--critters and all, if need be. Just get it out of there.
i am taking a hydrology class i have here we are studying this exact thing of irrigation...nobody thinks about this...but 35% of the fresh water on earth (which only makes up 2.5% of the total water) is in ground water...then other 63% is in glaciers(the last 2% is rivers, lakes, etc...)...the constant pumping of ground water is affecting the rain that you get, so it is an evil cycle...you pump more because you have no rain but at the same time you are pumping the ground water which is inhibiting you from getting more rain.....so eventually you will have no more to pump, no more rain, and no more rivers....its actually kind of scary sorry Chris for taking this thread in a different direction.... back on track...
Simple math. Assasinate the beavers and blow the dam apart. Nature will restore itself directly afterwards. Might tick a few environmentalists off in the process, but that's half the fun of the whole project in itself!!! Word to the wise: Don't get close enough to a beaver to get bit. They have a tendency to really chomp down. I was in a canoe with a buddy fishing one time when a rambunctious beaver came and started ramming us, swimming underneath us and slapping his tail for some reason. I guess we was in his turf. Once I caught a good glimpse of his teeth, I grabbed that paddle and was leaving a wake like a PT boat to get the heck away.
Not a problem, I actually saw a show in the discovery channel about that. Somewhere out in the mid west they have these enourmus underground lakes that the tap into for irrigation of crops. Think the were called aqifers (sp?) but anyways they were pumping them down way faster than the ground water could fill them up. It could take 100+ years for them to refill once dry without any pumping. Very interesting show.
Must have fun or it's not worth doing right. No kidding about staying away from them, If they can chop down a 12" in diameter tree, I don't want that trying to bit my leg off! I was not planning on going in the water anyways, I work in ponds for a living, I know what's swimming around in them. So much that you will never catch me swimming in another pond again But I'll brave it to watch it get blown up if we decide to do so!:drinkup
Hey chris - dont forget to cheak down stream of the damn for a secondary! They will have one 50% of the time. I wouldent blow em up, just quietly loosten a few longs and sticks by hand, then sit close to the lodge with a loaded 12 gauge with buck shot! Works best just before sunset! It wont take a whole lot, just need to get some water moving! Let me know how it goes! And yes dirt digger, beaver is a good thing most of the time!
I like the "oil" idea, hadn't thought of that. EPA and the neighbors might frown on the practice though. Tried a .44 Magnum and explosives, but the beaver came back. They always eventually come back if there is a damable site available with Aspen or Poplar trees and Tag Alders or other smaller brush to use to build a dam or a house. But 2x4's and plywood work just as well. Beaver are adaptable…….. Trapping works well -- for a while, then a new Beaver shows up and before you know it, he has a family. Good thing they are not polygamous. Yep, if you tear out the dam, you do have to remove all building materials and debris from the site. If you do not, the Beaver go into unpaid overtime and will have a new dam in place overnight. They get mighty spooky after being shot at a few times and become very hard to see. They like working at night mostly anyway so staying out of the daylight is not a big problem to them. Don't tangle with a mad Beaver in hand to hand combat. They are faster than they look and have exceptionally sharp (and long) teeth. You and your dog can not out-swim them and it's damned hard to outrun them in a swamp. Speaking strictly from experience of course. Good Luck!
in Las Vegas it takes the ground water 20,000 years to replenish itself so it is technically considered a non-renewable resource...we are lucky here on the east coast and especially in the northeast that as for now we are safe...but if you ever get some downtime take a look at the rainfall charts for the nation and the globe...its really interesting to see that trends for rainfall in general...its funny...there will always be the same amount of water on earth but where it lays is a huge issue
Interesting thread and an almost overwhelming situation to deal with. I can't imagine what it will be like to do this with equipment, or how bad it will be to get it out of the mud when it gets stuck. Explosives seem like the only option that won't ruin or cause long term damage to your equipment. I have a beaver problem too, they are debarking the trees around my pond. They have taken out some of the smaller trees that I was hoping would grow into nice big shade trees, but the worse part is how they will remove the bark all the way around an 18 to 24 inch hardwood. They do this from the ground on up to as high as they can get!!! I've killed one that was in the 60 pound range, which seems to have stoped it for now, but I'm on the lookout for more. We've also see several beaver road kill on the highway driving to town. Never before in my life have I ever seen beaver road kill before, but here, it's happened several times. Good luck and keep us updated. I'm very curious to see what you use and how effective it is at getting rid of them. Eddie
Bucky aint stupid ! but he is tough and persistent. Just cause you blow the dam does not mean you killed him. There was a beaver dam in town here that was about 1500 ft long. Fish & game okayed to be blown , and blown - every other week by the following year the dam was 2000 ft.. You need some way of discouraging them . trapping works good on new small groups, but a larger older colony you will never get them all. I have heard where they extend V shape fence or grating in ft of culverts to beaver proof them
We just used a ax to bust up the dam as little and my buddy and I would start drinking until they came out. A case of beer and a box of .308s is all we charged, and no a .308 is not overkill. X2 with blasting it doesn't really remove the problem
Blowing up Beaver Dams If you are going to blow up a Beaver Dam you need to get A LONG WAY from it. I know this sounds stupid but I'm serious. If you use Dynamite with a fuse this isn't a problem. If you use electric it's hard to get enough cable to get far enough away from it. I usually roll under my truck with a spare battery and set it off. I don't drive a very nice truck either.:drinkup I haven't totaled out a truck yet but I've blown enough sticks and chunks on it that I would hate to have been standing there.
I've been told to clear a path back in the woods with the mini excavator and remove one end of the dam to allow water to flow downstrean and fill our pond back up. They are just concerned about getting more water into the pond and don't care if the build the dam back later as it will happen anyways. While the water is down they fellow does plan on spending many hours down in the woods with his rifle and or shotgun. I'll be sure to post pictures when we do it next week or so.
kill em anyway
$80.00? holy crap!!! he will make almost that much once he sells the pelt depending on the size... Those prices are ridiculous! I still think you should blow it up!!
Im with dozerboy! Ill join ya for that one, a few brews and some hunting sounds good! And no blowing em up aint gonna work, and no you wont blow up beavers in a damn! mabey if you blew the lodg up, mabey!
I'll have to be careful here or I will be telling my age, but about 60 years out west, in the timber country, they were building a new road and had to cross a 20' stream several times, and had to bkuild small bridges to get the logging trucks across. There was a couple of places they had to blow up a dam, and they built a bridge just below where the dam was. We came back to work on Mon. morning and the littld devils had just built a dam below the bridge and floated it out like a giant raft. Several times they would build a dam overnight and put the road close to the creek under 3' of water. They are hard to eradcate.
Beavers Here in the coastal area there are alot of beavers, their are rules to follow, first look for the food sticks, trap and or hunt untill there are no more signs of eating (fresh sticks). then only start to remove the dams, if you remove the dam first they will build it back or move and this makes alot of extra work. Must like snakes an other critters because you will find all sorts of things that live in the water with them, be carefull setting traps under water, aswell as walking around with your hip boots on, lots of sharp sticks if you fall, carry a pea rake to help you stand, gets creepy at nite also sitting on the bank with a nitescope 22 mag !!!! this words well too. We pull most dams by hand, machines work only if you can get to it before you get stuck, last is the blast depending on roads, water,sewer,homes,down stream issues and so on. Alway's let your 911 center no when you blast, some PD/SD/FD get realy ill.
Well, that's one way to put it... :laugh And when they get ill... you don't feel good... :lmao OCR...
We have found this works. First we did like every one else here has suggested except kill them. It was for a forest service project. dig a hole in the dam then lay a culvert in the hole that extends about 10 feet above and below the dam. The little critters will rebuild but don't know about the culvert you put in so water will not back up and they leave on there own.
Yup, works every time... :thumbsup OCR
Your beaver must be dumber than the ones around here, becuase around here they just follow the flow of water and block it.
Must be a state thing or maybe its all the New England colleges- LOL
I do contract work for the county here & they gave me several work orders tp tear out dams all over the county. I know the trappers that they hire as well & the other day my buddy pulls a 75 pound beaver from a trap. One luxury I have is that they are all along corn fields so mud is not an issue but a homeowner has been going everyday & tearing parts of the dam out & it takes about a week of this & the beavers get fed up & started on a new one. We are planning on removeing several this weekend so hopefully I can get a few pics
I am by no means an expert, but after fighting beavers for 7 years on the farm I have learned some important lessons. Number one-caliber size, after trying .22 long rifle, .22 magnum, .357 magnum, .45 acp, 12 gauge double 00 buckshot, the best is at least .270 Remington or 30-30. My brother uses the .270 to wound them and I finish them off with 30-30. I know it seems like overkill but one evening the beaver took 2 shots of the .270 then a headshot with the 30-30 finished him off. The cool thing was the women watched my ever so lucky headshot and were impressed. Second, the beaver dam is fifty foot long and three foot high across the valley floor before the creek feeds my three acre pond, I had a problem with the dingy brown water in the pond, after the dam was built and the beaver turned the valley into a wetlands the water quality picked up in the pond. It acts as a buffer on runoff,etc. It took us five years to kill them off and after looking at the construction of the dam and the constant cleaning of the spillway of the pond I am impressed with their engineering skills. I left the dam in the valley because as stated before they do leak and require constant maintenance. The wetlands have dried up some but the good news is they attract ducks into the valley. Third lesson learned, the beavers come out around 5:00pm and will swim around the area first to make sure everything is ok, they work at night, so the best chance is to kill them in the evenings, and also they can see and sense extremely well. I let our beavers get used to seeing me for a couple of weeks before I nailed them. Not sure how that last statement can be taken
Thanks for the Info. I busted it the otherday with the mini excavator. The homeowner was going to go hunting that night for them. I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow when I finish letting the water out. Hey where in NC are you?
Must be some tough beaver were you are red! Our 12 gauge beretta a303 with 00 buck does just fine up here, but gotta hit em in the head! Let us know how he does on the beavers chris!
Hey Chris, I am in Germanton,NC, it is a small community about 10 miles north of Winston-Salem.
One more thing I forgot, I have this huge birch tree(?) that the beaver started chewing on one night, looked like JAWS had taken a bite, don't tell the EPA, but took a bucket of used motor oil(out of a diesel) and a paint brush and painted around the tree with the oil. Was so frustrated I was hoping it would get cancer and die, but finally got a shot on him. And also as stated above the beaver keep young ones for no more than two years and send him up or down the creek to strike out on his own, this will be a continuing problem for awhile. I haven't seen any more signs for about a year, but you have to remain vigilant.
Today I took the mini excavator back up the creek today to RE- bust the dams those damn beavers put back. Thoses are some quick little buggers. two days ago I busted them and the already built two small dams back So I busted them again, not much else I can do until they get rid of them. I just needed to let the water loose to help fill the pond back up that I had to drain. here's a few pictures
I've done my share of trapping beaver and blowing up beaver dams. I would think today it would be difficult to get a blasting permit. An old trapper told me "The trick to getting rid of them is to wound them. Don't kill them quick. When a beaver gets injured, they will go back to the hut. If they die in the hut the other beavers will move out." Twenty years ago, I know it was illegal to molest a beaver hut. I have seen a few that we blew off the face of the earth. We were blasting drainage ditches and had one mile stretch that had about 12 dams. We started on the down stream end and blasted a ditch about 10 feet wide and straightened out the water way. The dams were totally removed and we increased the water velocity enough to get the beaver to look for better digs...
Beaver Dams Guaranteed getting rid of beaver and muskrat -go to health food store-buy black dried halopeno peppers-go to grocery store-buy salad dressing oil -put in blender -blend it up-put it in beaver pond or stream in afternoon Next morning beaver and muskrat will be everyware but in water p.s. do not approch beaver or rats on land,you wont beleave how fast they can run or you can run
been busting beaver dams for 2 days now On this job I have over 1/2 mile of creek channel to cleanup and bust all the bever dams. Here's a pretty good video of me busting a huge dam/ lake the beavers had created. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfVKY8ZGXXM
Beaver dams I've taken them apart by hand, the engineering is amazing. Had mother nature take some out with storms (before & during storm pics that wiped out dams): And used a .22lr to get rid of some critters. They dammed up my creek 7 years in a row, disappeared for 2 years and there back this year.
Beaver Fever One thing to avoid is drinking water, washing your hands , or swimming in beaver ponds or their waters. Contracting Beaver Fever, as the name is commonly called, for , "Giardiasis " from the contaminated water, results in an intestinal infection, that can be painful and last several days, weeks , or even longer. Here's a link for those interested. http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF14/1410.html
Ther are very few problems, personal or otherwise, that can't be cured with the proper application of high exsplosives!!:drinkup Bob
My My experience is you halve to get rid of the matirial or get rid of the beaver.Explosives dont work well,If you just break the dam and leave the matirial beside the creek ,the dam will be back the next morning,beaver's work 24/7 and are good enginier's.
A very intresting and educational thread :notworthy I had no idea these little furry creatures were such a menace. Bloody good builders but a menace non the less. Dirtman, great vid as always. Tell me you play those back and think to yourself sometimes mmmmmmmmmmm, was on the edge a bit there :notworthy
Rob, I agree with you about Dirtman's videos. I always end up watching a few extra when he adds a link. Another half hour well spent. I know a few duck hunters who have had fun and frustration dealing with beavers in the food plots they flood. When they were draining the plots a beaver would plug the culvert in nothing flat. They went to placing cattle gates in an arc around the drains so the beaver will have to work double overtime to slow down the water. Doing that would give the plot time to drain before the dam could be built. On a few occasions the gates were watched overnight. A roll of toilet paper soaked in kerosene and stuck on stick makes a good (cheap) torch. Just line the cattle gates with as many torches needed to provide a little visibility. The beaver will be wary but his instinct to stop the flowing water will overcome his fear. They would not mind the beavers being there if they did not dig into the dams and ruin them. The plots are close to a river so they know they will never be free of this problem but they seem to have come up with a workable plan for dealing with them.
Beaver Here's a picture of a beaver, and a stretched beaver pelt. Nice rich thick fur. Makes for nice fur hats and fur coats. The Guards at Buckingham Palace still have Beaver Hats , I'm sure. Can't see how they are fake .
I swear if we keep watching all these dirtman videos its gonna make us all better operators.
I do like to go back and watch them every now and then just to see all the stuff I do. To tell the truth after watching that last video of me breaking the dam, I did not realize just how high the rear of the machine was up in the air as I was pulling the dam over. I did not want to get closer as I was going to be limited on the time I had to get out once I turned the water free, as you can tell it was right much! There should be a update in my thread later, "pictures of my work" lots of mud pics lol
I'm still on here to learn and become better, I've learned some good stuff over the year or so I've been on here. The videos are just for fun and to show all the crazy stuff we get to do.
I am impressed with Chris's skills on the excavator, but I am really impressed with his videos, would love to see him on Discovery Channel:notworthy, or may be some "how to operate" mail order videos:drinkup. Just kidding with you Chris, seriously every time I watch one of your clips I learn something new. Thanks for the time and trouble you go to with the pictures and the videos, does the Boss ever tell you to put the camera down?
On my sites....thats why we Don't have video cameras
Thanks man, I dont think I'm too bad for a 21 year old kid It does take some time to get all the pictures and videos. My boss, who is also my uncle likes to watch them on youtube and see what I do on his time! lol He just laughs at me and shakes his head. He really does like all the pictures I take as it helps him keep track of all the work we do and it's good to show potential customers what we can do... or I can do
oh you don't see it all Some is just better if it is not shown. :cool2
Here is another good video of busting some more beaver dams, sorry for some reason the quality of the video did not come out the best in the world when I uploaded it. The song fits the video just perfect! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTSkbqKCvlI
busting up beaver dams bet the little critters are surprised when they come home at night and find out you've busted up their home. oh well, tough luck, I guess. Did you ever catch any beavers in the dam when you put the bucket through the dam? That would be pretty funny to see. Make yourself a nice beaver coat, I guess.
I'm pretty sure they are bear skin, but I stand to be corrected
Cowboy hats are still made with beaver pelt
Palace Guards Hats ? Hello Atlasrob, Maybe you can stroll over and find out, or pick up the telly ?? LOL Your closer than me . So where do they get their fur Hats from ?? :beatsme
I am informed that they are Bear skin. Some people wanted that stopped as it was deemed cruel to the bears, but I believe they are already dead before being made into those fancy hats
I saw a beaver dam the other year when out hunting/ quading. It had to be 10 high and the same wide at the bottom! It had a great big hole in it and was just a small stream. WoW! It was alot taller the me.
Hey a tip: U better not leave ur equipment by the swamp or them bever will run it and rebuild it over night! That ll be hilirous LOL
Taking out beaver dams was always a good job you get paid to make a path to get to them and paid to take them out. :waving and you get to come back every year and do it again.
Removing Beaver Dams: How right you are 30... and sometimes it's even less than a year... OCR...
And our learned "experts" here in Britain are positively delighted at the prospect of Beaver Dams having just re-introduced 2 beavers from Germany!!! It's beggars belief that these idiots can be quite so stupid!!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2008/06/16/escot_beavers_feature.shtml
Beaver Dams 101 I've read every post in this thread looking for tips on beaver dams. The main conclusion, get rid of the beavers, then the dam. Easier said than done. I have a series of smallish BD on a small stream at a surface road crossing. The pond has lately been getting 2' deep, 30' across, not a big problem in summer, impassable in winter when it freezes. I've been crossing the same creek for twelve years, this is the first time the beavers have dammed so close to and flooded the crossing. I used a pick and removed all the dams in two-hours the other day, three days later they were all rebuilt, perhaps overnight? When the flow goes down in Sept-Oct, I will rent a backhoe to widen and clear the stream. In the meantime, need some advice to get rid of the beavers. Someone suggested removing the BD repeatedly and that would get rid of the beavers. Will it? Another suggestion was pepper and salad oil mixed, will that do anything? I don't own a gun, and I'm not fond of motor oil in a bottle in the pond. I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks
trap and relocate
Relocate them to here
Use a culvert pipe under the beaver dam. BUT it must be modified. Extend it upstream 20 feet or so and drill holes along its length. The water flows into the small holes and they never figure it out. Not drilling the holes , and they just plug the big hole at the front end. A 4 inch or 6 inch pipe will work for most dams.
I was at the grocery store today and picked up some hot Hatch chili peppers, $0.99/#, so a cheap experiment. According to this post peppers and salad oil will do the trick. I'll chop up the peppers and put some of the mix around the ponds. Then I'll use the pick and break down all the dams again. I need to dry out the pond so the backhoe doesn't get stuck. It would take a bulldozer to get it out if I stick it. The creek is at ~2CFS, so a small drain pipe is a waste of time, as is live trapping. I need to dry out the area so the willow die and the beaver go elsewhere.
Removing Beaver Dams: Yeah... that one of your biggest problems... willows. Sometimes, if you're lucky, they'll eat every thing in the area, and move on. Doesn't sound like that's the situation in your case.... OCR
****en Beavers. They have to be the most persistent animal out their. I have been fighting with them in our pasture land for several years. The biggest problem we have is that the neighbors that are a mile down stream who have beavers and they don't want to get rid of them. So the migrate up stream to our place. We have tried the blasting, I like the blasting. It really cleans things out quick. and its pretty cool to watch. And its not nearly as much work as doing it by hand. I tried using the put several chunks of big O drainage tile in. About 20 foot either side of the dam. The beaver plugged that solid. So i went and put two pieces in went up about 75 foot either side of the dam, put some old cultivator shovels on it to hold it down, and the next morning the beaver had built a new dam around the end of the pipe. So for pulling the dam and hut out I found that a boat anchor works good. I tie it onto a long rope or cable and toss it in and pull away with the truck or tractor. This way you can be on solid ground (most of the time) and away from the chunks of trees and stumps that can cut up your tires. And it is so much quicker and easier than using a shovel and pick. I find that clearing the dam out is best done in the fall when their is little water flowing. Maybe even when the ground and water is frozen. Then I go in with the loader and clear the whole thing out. We do have guys around hear who shoot them as well. I think they are around $100 to come out and then $20 a beaver. The guy we have used comes out two nights. the second night to is generally just to clean up what ever beaver are left. best of luck to all you out there fighting with the beaver.
Stretch a beaver. Now there is a guy who can really stretch a beaver:tong
Garlon in diesel fuel applied to the base of the tree will take care of the willows. You need a pesticide license to buy the stuff or hire somebody who has one. Anybody who does vegetation management for the utilities should have access to it.
FAarmer leach Didja drill holes in the pipe and block the end so they can not get inside? A pipe without the holes will not work.
davidd, Yes the pipe we used was specifically designed for drainage. Its about 6 inch ribbed plastic with slits pre-cut all around it. Its the same as the drainage tile that we use around the houses up here.
Electric Fence I read in another forum using an electric fence over the breached dam. The wire(s) dangle down just above the water. My dad had electric fence back when we lived on a farm, looong time ago. Talk about a perfect ground, just imagine those wet noses touching that wire. :naughty I only have two major dams to control, both ~5' across so it would be relatively easy to build. Once the area drains for a week, I can get a backhoe to permanently fix the area to keep the beaver out. Where do I buy the electric fence pieces?
I have been able to get rid of beavers three times. Same creek- about 3 years apart each time. The first two times my son-in-law shot just one beaver. In the upper pool. We made sure the dead beaver stayed there a couple of days. They left the area both times. Never did know where they went ! The third time I dug out the dam as far as you can reach with my backhoe. After I removed the dam I dug down at least 5 feet into the bottom of the creekbed. I guess that the 5 feet of missing creekbed really discourages them. After I did that they went upstream a couple hundred feet and started another dam. I again whacked out a piece of the dam and dug another hole in the creekbed and they were gone for good the next day.