Muskrats resemble large rats. They also look similar to beavers, but with a long rat tail, but they are not related to the beaver. Muskrats are brownish gray and can grow to be up to 25-inches in length. These are semi-aquatic animals, and they set up their homes in rivers, streams, and ponds. Muskrats typcially feed on vegetation such as weeds and cattails. They also eat frogs and small fish. Muskrats may seem harmless, but they can wreak havoc on your property. If you suspect that a muskrat or muskrats have built a home on your property, it is essential that you call an expert in muskrat removal.
What Type Of Damage Can Muskrats Cause?
Just because muskrats won’t try to enter your home, it doesn’t mean that they can’t cause problems on your property. If a muskrat or a family of muskrats set up their home at the edge of your pond, it will cause the walls of the pond to cave in, slide, and erode. This type of damage is permanent. If you allow the problem to persist, your pond, stream or other body of water can be permanently transformed and destroyed.
Also, muskrats can destroy the vegetation in the pond. This can have an effect on the fish population in the pond.
Finally, if you have a man-made koi pond in your yard, it won’t take long for a muskrat to destroy it. After the animals eats the fish, they will move on and destroy the pumps and the heaters. These are all very expensive problems to repair.
Because muskrats can wreak havoc on your property in not time at all, it is essential that you call a professional in muskrat removal immediately.
Why Muskrat Removal Should Not Be a DIY Project
Animal trapping is not as easy as it sounds. There are plenty of aspects involved in muskrat removal, and most homeowners don’t have the knowledge or experience to handle it.
A professional in muskrat trapping understands how muskrats behave, which will help them to locate the animals. Also, this knowledge of their behavior will help the expert protect themselves against an attack.
There are several steps involved in capturing and relocating muskrats. Experts in muskrat removal will make sure to complete each step properly to eradicate the problem permanently.
What Is Involved In Muskrat Removal?
There are a few ways that an expert in muskrat removal can get rid of the problem.
- Remove the source of food: If the muskrats are attacking a mad-made pond, the expert will do their best to remove the muskrats source of food. They live on a number of things such as willow, rushes, water lilies, ferns, cattail, arrowhead and pond weeds. These things are easy to remove from a mad-made pond, which will solve the problem. If the muskrats have set up their home near a natural body of water, it is impossible to remove all of their food sources. In this case, the muskrat removal expert will need to take further steps.
- Identify where the muskrats are living: The first thing that the muskrat removal expert will do is determine the area where the muskrats are living. Fortunately, the expert has the knowledge to identify these areas. Muskrats will burrow in the bank of the water, in the retaining wall or in the dam. When the expert has identified the area where the muskrats live, they can start making plans to trap and remove them.
- Trapping the muskrats: Most muskrat removal experts will use humane traps to capture the animal. They don’t want to kill the creatures, they just want to capture them and bring them to a safe, more appropriate home far away from your property. To capture the muskrat, the expert will set up the humane trap. This is a metal trap with just one entrance. They will put bait in the trap. Muskrats love bird seed and apples, so they will put these things inside the trap. When the muskrat smells the bait, it will enter the trap. The weight of the muskrat will trigger the trap door, closing it behind the muskrat. This will keep the animals confined so that the muskrat removal expert can load it up and take it to another area far away. Many muskrat removal specialist will use a colony trap, which is humane and allows them to capture multiple muskrats at once. This type of cage saves a lot of time, especially if there is a large family of muskrats living on your property.
- Fencing: If you are worried that another muskrat or another muskrat family will move onto your property, an expert in muskrat removal can help with this. They will set up fencing, which is designed to keep the muskrats from burrowing on the edge of the pond or other body of water. This is an in depth approach, and because it is a lot of work and can be complicated, it should only be handled by a professional. The muskrat removal specialist will use a one inch hardware cloth and they will dig down at least three feet to install it. This will prevent the muskrats from burrowing under the ground, and it is one of the best methods to prevent another muskrat issue.
Final Thoughts
Just because muskrats don’t get into your home it doesn’t mean that they cannot create havoc on your property. Whether you have a natural body of water or a man-made one, it is essential that you have the muskrats removed from the property. Fortunately, experts in muskrat removal have the knowledge and experience to remove the muskrats in a safe and humane way. Once the muskrats have been removed, the expert will be sure to take it to a place where it can create a home and thrive, far away from anyone’s property.
To schedule an appointment for an assessment and removal, give us a call today.
