Beaver dam troubles..

[chain]

Looks like I'll have to bust beaver dams again this spring. Can't let up on them, they've stopped-up drainage pipes, built dams across water ways, and of course, are in to cutting some of my freshly planted cypress seedlings! >:(

I'm thinking about investing in a shallow draft outboard such as the 'Mud-Buddy' or 'Go-Devil' to power a craft to break the major dams. On the pipes that are stuffed with limbs, logs, and all sorts of debris, I have the option of raising the flap of the discharge side to allow flood water to push out the stoppage, maybe.

Anyone with experience in the shallow draft out board motor, I would appreciate your advice. Will be running in from 3' to to 6", brush, water weeds and mud to compete with.

[Magicman]

They run shallow draft boat motors in South Louisiana, but they are mostly (homemade) inboard jobs.

[drobertson]

air boat!? not sure, very beautiful creatures with  a very destructive nature,

[WDH]

Check out the section on a 3-log drain in this link.

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-202/420-202.html

[red oaks lumber]

bringing the builders in check will be easier than trying to undo their handy work

[curdog]

Not sure about the motor, but I've had real good luck with 330 conibears and buckshot. Beavers can be a real pain.

[gfadvm]

Snares are cheap and very effective for my beaver problems. My snares are $13 a dozen from The Snare Shop .com

[chain]

Somewhere down stream there has to be a good sized dam..or two. I saw two beaver swimming up stream the other morning scouting out new territory for a dam. A wet spring as such we have this year they just have to go up and stop every trickle drain they can find and keep backing water.

I regret  selling my old beaver dam-buster boat and motor; once the dams are broken the beaver kinda go nutty and stay out of their dens patching up and vulnerable to the means I use to control. I've tried about every type of water level control, even putting a pipe in middle of dam but turtles will soon get stuck and stop it up.

[PoginyHill]

An old thread, but a continuing problem. Beavers took up residence in a small pond adjacent to a main road in my woodlot. Here's an account of my short struggle with them.

Removing a beaver dam and watching them rebuild it. - YouTube

[Chuck White]

We have a road that has been flooded by beavers, now for the second time this year.

It'll be opened up again within the next few days, hunting season is just around the corner and this roadway is our only access.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Remember - they don't have wheelbarrows so all that mud and leaves used to build/seal those dams was carried in their 2 front paws against their chests. There can't be a harder worker anywhere!

   Where I grew up in N. Fla they built a dike along the low side to raise the height of the pond at least a foot. Their dike was at lest 1/4 mile long!

[SwampDonkey]

Last year they flooded the road here, but DOT finally removed them. One hung around last winter, but cut all its stems below the crossing and never blocked the bridge. That water level is 4' above natural flow. :D



Got'r plugged pretty solid. :D

[KEC]

Around here, at times the state DOT will send an operator with a gradall out to open up beaver dams, only to have to keep going back. They won't pay a trapper to remove the beavers and then remove the dam. I don't know what they currently do.

[Jim_Rogers]

In my hometown in MA they had a beaver problem and solved it with a device called a "beaver deceiver".
I believe it is a wire mess thing like a basket that they put in the water upstream from the culvert to prevent the beavers from damming up the actual opening.

I'm not sure if it ever worked but the newspaper did an article about it, showing the deceiver in a photo.

It's my understanding that beaver move upstream after they build a dam. And that they build it where they hear the babbling brook noise.

Jim Rogers

[Chuck White]

I can still recall one of my Uncles having trouble with beavers, way back in the 60's.

He tore the dam out several times, but they would rebuild within a couple of months each time.

I remember hearing him say "I know it's illegal and cruel, but I'm going to get rid of them"!

He waited until January or February when it was brutally cold, and tore out their dam, and doing it that way the beavers food stache was frozen in, also the beavers had no place to go, and they froze to death.

He did get rid of them, but the after thoughts remained for quite a few years!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Maybe we can try feeding them sugar and rot their teeth out? ;)