The Ultimate Guide to Muskrat Control: Protecting Your Property

Posted on January 18, 2024 by modernwild

If your property has become a habitat for muskrats, it’s essential to understand their behavior, diet, and control techniques. These semi-aquatic rodents are known to burrow in marshlands and ponds, often causing significant damage to your property. They feed mostly on aquatic vegetation, fruits, and occasionally small aquatic creatures.

Controlling the muskrat population on your property involves several strategies from using muskrat repellents to setting up muskrat traps. However, it’s important to remember that these traps should only be handled by trained wildlife control operators to ensure safety and effectiveness. Stay tuned as we delve deeper into each of these aspects.

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Understanding Muskrat Habitat and Diet

Muskrats are found in wetlands, rivers, lakes, and streams. They are excellent swimmers and can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes underwater. These abilities make them well-adapted to their semi-aquatic lifestyle. They build lodges from vegetation near the water’s edge or dig burrows in the banks for shelter. Muskrats are most active at night and can be identified by their distinctive tracks, typically leading to the water’s edge.

As mentioned earlier, muskrats primarily feed on aquatic vegetation such as cattails, sedges, and water lilies. They also consume fruits like apples, berries, and grains if available. While they may occasionally eat small fish, insects, and crustaceans, these make up a small portion of their diet. This knowledge is crucial in understanding how to control muskrats effectively.

Muskrat Control Techniques:

Animal Repellents

Controlling nuisance muskrats on your property can be challenging due to their habitat and feeding preferences. Using animal repellents can be an effective way to deter them from your property. Muskrat repellents can come in the form of sprays, granules, or electronic devices that emit ultrasonic sounds. These methods are typically safe for the environment and non-toxic to other animals.

Muskrat Traps

If muskrats have already taken up residence on your property, trapping may be necessary. It’s essential to use live traps rather than lethal ones to minimize harm to the animal. Remember, muskrat traps should only be handled by trained wildlife control operators for safety and ethical reasons.

Environmental Modification

Another effective method is habitat modification. You can make your property less attractive to muskrats by removing their food sources and blocking or filling any burrows or lodges they may have built. This approach requires regular maintenance, but it can be a long-term solution.

Muskrat vs Beaver

Many people confuse muskrats for beavers and vice versa. While they both live in water and have similar physical features, there are some key differences between the two. Muskrats are much smaller than beavers, reaching up to two feet in length, while beavers can grow up to four feet. Beavers also have a flat paddle-like tail, whereas muskrats have a long, skinny tail that tapers towards the end. Additionally, beavers build large dams and lodges using trees and branches, while muskrats build smaller structures from vegetation.

If you are having trouble with beavers, it’s best to contact a wildlife control operator as they require specialized techniques and tools for removal.

Conclusion

Muskrats may seem like harmless creatures, but their burrowing and feeding habits can cause significant damage to your property. Understanding their behavior, habitat, and diet is the first step in controlling their population. Using repellents, live traps, or modifying their habitat are all viable options for muskrat control. However, it’s essential to seek professional help from trained wildlife control operators when using traps. By following these techniques, you can protect your property and maintain a balance with nature.

If you’re struggling with muskrats on your property, act now. Contact Modern Wildlife Control at 317-847-6409 for licensed and insured muskrat removal services in Indianapolis, Indiana. We serve residential and commercial clients.

What You Should Know about Muskrats Before Trying to Remove Them Yourself

Posted on March 14, 2023 by modernwild

Are you dealing with muskrats around your property? If so, it’s important to know the best way to get rid of them. Trying to remove muskrats yourself can be dangerous and ineffective if you don’t know what you’re doing. Here are four things you should consider before attempting muskrat removal on your own.

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4 Things About Muskrat Removal You Need to Know

1) Associated Risks

The risks associated with trapping or killing muskrats on your own can be very serious. Muskrats have sharp teeth and claws that can cause injury if you’re not careful. There’s also a risk of disease transmission from handling the animals, so it’s important to wear proper protective gear when attempting muskrat removal. Plus, most store-bought traps are ineffective because they don’t target the specific species of muskrat that may be causing your problems.

2) Legal Regulations

In addition to safety concerns, there are legal regulations surrounding muskrat control methods. Many states require a state wildlife permit in order to trap and kill muskrats, and some areas may even prohibit certain types of traps. Before attempting any kind of muskrat removal, it’s important to be familiar with the laws in your area.

3) Muskrat Identification

Before you can attempt muskrat removal, you must first identify a muskrat infestation. Look for burrows and signs of feeding near water sources or on your lawn. Muskrats also leave behind droppings that are similar to those of other rodents — they’re small and black with a white tip at one end. You should also check for damage caused by muskrats, like gnawed trees or damaged vegetation around bodies of water or irrigation ditches where they may find food.

4) Muskrat Damage

Finally, it’s important to know what kind of damage muskrats can cause. They have been known to wreak havoc on crops, destroy vegetation, and disrupt irrigation systems. They also carry parasites and diseases that may be dangerous to humans and other animals in your area.

Get Rid of Muskrats Safely and Humanely

Knowing these four things is important if you’re considering muskrat removal. Remember that it’s much safer and more effective to hire a professional for the job than try to handle it yourself. With the right knowledge and expertise, you can ensure that your muskrat problem will be taken care of safely and quickly.

If you think you have a muskrat infestation on your property, don’t wait! Contact Modern Wildlife Control at 317-847-6409 for safe and effective animal trapping and removal services for muskrats in Indianapolis, Indiana and its surrounding counties. We serve residential and commercial customers.

Important Facts About Muskrat Removal and Control

Posted on March 12, 2021 by modernwild

If you live near a pond or some other form of marshy land, you likely have a nearby muskrat population. For this reason, it is important to take certain precautions around your home to abate and control possible nuisance muskrat activity or animal damages. Continue below to learn what you need to know about muskrats, including important information about managing local muskrat populations.

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Muskrats Live Near Ponds and Marshy Bodies of Water

Is your house or property located near marshes or wetlands? How about a nearby pond or bumbling stream? If so, your location is a prime spot for muskrat living. This is due to the fact that muskrats are semi-aquatic mammals and common herbivores. Semi-aquatic refers to their dual land and water lifestyle, while herbivorous means they eat plant and vegetable matter; although some have been known to eat small fish, frogs, snails, and other invertebrates.

Muskrats tend to build lodges or huts on or very close by the banks of such bodies of water, constructing them out of vegetation, mud, and sticks, which is very similar to beaver dams. Other muskrats actually burrow into the banks and seawalls, which is a common source of serious property damages, like flooding. For these reasons, many proper owners mistake muskrats for beavers; although both are equally serious nuisance animal problems to have.

The Importance of Muskrat Control

Large muskrat populations reside here in Indiana, as well as bordering Ohio and Michigan. If you live near wetlands of any sort, you should take precautions around your property to protect yourself from nuisance animal exposure and damages. Muskrats are known to be destructive if not properly controlled through safe environmental modification sciences and exclusion methods.

Otherwise, unmitigated muskrat activity can cause massive landscape flooding, underground utility damages, poor soil composition, and even have a negative impact on the structural and biochemical integrity of the body of water they are inhabiting. This is usually accomplished by destroying banks and seawalls, which can eventually collapse and lead to further unnatural erosion. They also like to dig holes in dams and dikes, and tunnel through the ground of side banks, all of which causes massive destruction to the surrounding structures and environment.

For these reasons and more, local muskrat activity must be safely and humanely controlled. How do you get rid of muskrats? Well, the answer lies in environmental modification and professional wildlife abatement services. For starters, if you have an out-of-control muskrat population on your property, you will need muskrat trapping and removal services. From there, you will need to implement the proper strategies to thwart further muskrat activity on your premises, which your professional muskrat removal and control specialist can help you with.

Do you have too many muskrats on your property? Contact Modern Wildlife Control at 317-847-6409 to get rid of muskrats in Indianapolis, Indiana. We serve residential and commercial clients with safe and affordable wild animal trapping and animal damage cleanup services.

You Should Read:

How to Get Rid of Muskrats
How to Tell if You Have Nuisance Animal Problems
Fun Facts About Beavers in Indiana