Muskrats

Muskrats. Whats the problem. Here is the problem. Have cost me a lot of money in field tile repair through the years. Yes I have rat guards on the outlets, but guards can get tore off by ditch cleaners or they squeeze by. The only good muskrat is a dead muskrat.

Used to have muskrats here . But all the no-till did them in .Made my money with them when I was in high school.

Mark in Mi- I can probably hook you up with some 'trappers' in your area that will "gladly" trap them and rid your area of them.

If you are interested just let me know...Greg

I had a few in a pond that were undermining a smaller diameter corrugated steel culvert pipe. They don't seem to be nearly as numerous as woodchuck, so when they were a problem, might have been just a pair and that was it. Pipe was since changed out and the culvert improved they nor beaver are a concern. I had an opportune time to grab one of these muskrats, that was tunneling along the pipe. I kept running him in and out of the culvert pipe, he finally made a run for it, swimming against the current. I planted one foot and swiftly reached into the water and got him by the back. Clenched a little too good, I was really not so sure how strong they were, and that did not end well on his end. They make holes near the pond, not good for livestock or a persons leg, but since there are no livestock, I walk around the swiss cheese area, and watch them from my stand, they come right up the small stream and feed right in front of my stand.

In the adjacent large pond, there are beaver, and every so often, one will come all the way across and re-engineer the drainage, every so many feet, build retention ponds, and small dams in numerous places along the way to that culvert from the small pond. I cleared them all by hand when the water was really running. They usually don't come back when I do this, takes a long while at least when they do, might be 10 years since the last time.

had a similiar problem this spring. had 2 sinkholes in the same field, when i dog them up i found the tile had a 4" hole chewed into it. was right next to an old cement line in both cases. mushrat musthave come up the old tile and chewed into the new one

think the hides are bringing $8.00 apiece now.

I trapped about a dozen of them when I was a kid- made the hoops, stretched and dried the pelts. I also got one beaver- they're a real bugger to skin and flesh, and it ended up molding in our wet climate, and all the hair fell out. I always blamed my mother for not letting me dry it in the house- and usually, she was so reasonable. . .

Sent the muskrats to some fur outfit in New York, got about 15 bucks. I decided there were much easier ways to make 15 bucks.

You just need a predator.

When I was growing up they were worth $ .50 each.
Seems like that was yesterday LOL

Looks like it's time you bought some traps and start trapping.

Please explain how no-till did in the muskrats.

Metal discharge pipes and metal intake pipes help prevent that. Muskrats reproduce like rodents.

Poor Muskrats. Dont hurt em. Remember "Muskrat Suzie and Muskrat Sam"?? Doing the jitterbug in Mushkrat land??

I always felt like smacking those abundant dogooders upside the head with a muskrat everytime I heard that song. :twisted:

Gene

I never in all my years heard of an 8.00 rat

Around 1980 my younger brother was getting $4 to $8 for an unskined muskrat. That was about the market peak, prices crashed after than when fashions changed. From 1967 to 1972 my best prices were $2 for a muskrat and $8 for a mink, $3 for a cotton mink.