Tips on Trapping Beavers

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The first thing you should do when you learning how to trap a beaver is get yourself a permit. That's right, in many places across the United States of America, you are not allowed to simply go out and trap various wild critters, and the humble beaver is just one of them. In fact, when it comes to beavers, there are a whole bunch of things that you will need to take into account. If you don’t, you could be faced with even more problems than you started with.



Let's take a look:
To start with, a beaver means a beaver dam. If the dam isn’t in a good place, excess rain fall or tidal swells could mean flooding in small, localized areas. Even if the dam is in a good place, this could still happen. If you decide to take down a beaver dam, YOU could cause flooding, and that's before we think about the chances of injury, which are higher than you'd think, for the record.

Beavers have a remarkable way of finding any patch of freshwater and making it fit for them. This could be a small pond or a large lake, but they get to work, usually many of them at once, working to build not only a beaver dam, but a beaver lodge. This is usually a covered area, accessible from underwater, but with a secret over-water spot under there for them to hide. Depending on the time of year and weather conditions, as well as location, the beavers could also have a nice little stash of food down there too.

These dams change the local environment dramatically, and in a very short space of time too. They cut trees to use as dam building material, as well as food, and they also cause areas of flooding. Any dam that has been spotted should be reported the local city or county services, because it has the potential to cause great damage to a wide range of property types. Properties can become structurally damaged with flooding, as well as physically and aesthetically destroyed. This applies to both residential and commercial properties. Higher water levels means higher concentrations of bugs too, and this can attract a wide range of other bugs and critters. Lots of mosquitos will generally mean lots of bats, for example, and those bats will think nothing of setting up a roost in your attic, their guano (bat droppings) like an acid rainfall, almost dissolving the materials it comes into contact with over time.

Moving away from the idea of beaver dams and flooding for a moment, and we come to the animals themselves. Different States will have different rules on the trapping and culling or releasing of beavers, but let’s just take Connecticut as our example here. The regulated trapping season falls between the beginning of December and the end of March. You don't need a permit to trap the creatures during this time.

If you’re trying to trap a beaver outside of this time, however, things take a different turn. You will require a specific permit to allow you to trap the little beasts, and these permits are only given in certain circumstances. That’s usually when the local services take a peek at the dam to work out whether or not it has the potential to threaten the local area.

Other States don’t follow the same regulations, and that’s why we would highly recommend checking out the specific trapping laws for beavers where you live.

There are many positives to be said for trapping beavers, such as ensuring that nuisance wildlife populations are kept to a minimum, as well as protecting the safety, welfare, and health of not just people, both pets and other wild animals too. Trapping, particularly regulated trapping, allows for disease control, the restoration of wildlife to it’s natural balance, protecting various endangered, critically endangered, or threatened species, protecting habitats for people and other animals alike, and even for research. North American heritage is filled with trapping too, but these benefits only apply when the trapping mission is done properly and successfully.

We highly recommend that you do plenty of research before choosing to trap beavers. At the very least, you should check out the law and regulations for where you live.

Read more about How to get rid of beavers.
For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.