How to drive beavers away from the site

Not so long ago, beavers were listed in the Red Book, but now their population has increased significantly, the animals are in the minimum risk group. And many summer residents, owners of private houses realized that beavers can bring more than just benefits. Our tips site will show you how to get rid of them..

Beavers, by the way, the largest rodents of the Old World – only American capybaras are larger than them – have been exterminated for centuries. For the very warm fur and beaver jet, which was used in medicine and perfumery. In addition, the meat of beavers, which feed on vegetation, was eaten. Already in the middle of the 19th century, Europe began to take measures to protect beavers, of which there were less and less.

Thanks to strict laws, the ban on hunting and the inclusion in the Red Book, beavers are now quite common. Including next to human housing. In the natural environment, the enemies of beavers are only wolves and sometimes lynxes, so they usually feel very at ease next to summer cottages. Therefore, if your house is next to a reservoir, there is a risk of meeting beavers..

Beavers are good for nature. They are dams, blocking small rivers and streams with their dams. In such spills, its own ecological community appears, waterfowl, mollusks, desman, insects live. The water becomes cleaner as the dam traps silt. Trees felled by beavers are eaten by ungulates and hares, and muskrats often settle in beavers’ huts. Continuous benefit.

But for a person, not everything is so rosy. Beavers use hard wood to build their huts, and eat soft wood and actively store it for the winter. Therefore, they can gnaw, undermine and knock down not only wild trees, but also fruit trees, which summer residents, of course, are not happy with. In addition, due to the construction of a beaver dam, some nearby areas may be flooded..

It is about the flooding and destruction of trees that the owners of plots who find themselves in the neighborhood with beavers complain about. Animals can also climb into the vegetable garden to eat root vegetables. Or arrange a tunnel under a farm building. Also unpleasant. According to reviews of homeowners faced with beavers, animals are arrogant and are not particularly afraid of humans.

Let’s admit right away that getting rid of the neighborhood with beavers is very difficult. Especially if you act in exclusively humane ways, without harming animals.

Important! It is possible to hunt beavers only with one-time permits, using only “humane” traps of the passing type. Getting permission won’t be easy.

The easiest way to avoid problems with the appearance of beavers on the site is to build a reliable fence. Moreover, buried in the ground at least half a meter, and preferably a meter. The method, of course, is costly. In addition, the fence will protect the site and the trees on it, but flooding due to the beaver dam will not help to avoid.

Here are some methods of dealing with beavers, based on the feedback and advice of homeowners who have encountered this problem:

1. Dismantle the dam. It is best, of course, to do this in the summer, because no one wants to climb into cold water. Reviews of this method of struggle are twofold. In some cases, the beavers did indeed leave this place, moving away from people. In other cases, a new dam was built just overnight. Or left very close, settling again next to people.
2. Get dogs. Yes, they remind beavers of their natural enemies – wolves. But the dogs should be large, the beaver will definitely not be afraid of a small dog. Best of all, according to reviews, at least two large dogs, which are allowed to run around the site, and not kept in an aviary or on a chain.
3. Ultrasonic rodent repeller. Yes, a beaver is also a rodent, like mice with rats. But such scarers do not always work. Animals just get used to them and stop noticing them without feeling threatened..
4. Protect all tree trunks with metal mesh. Other materials are powerful teeth of beavers easily bite. The method is effective, but, again, it will not save you from flooding due to the beaver dam. And root crops in the garden will remain in danger.
5. Noise. Beavers don’t like him very much. There is a story on the network about how summer residents, tired of being next to beavers, stretched a wire, screwed speakers to the trees next to their huts and played loud music all day long. The people themselves were also, of course, not having fun, but after 10 days the beavers left on their own, tired of the noise. We can’t say for sure if this is true or not, but in any case, sound scarers will not interfere..
6. Beavers do not like to be in the light, they work at night. Therefore, installing powerful floodlights in the place of their dam helps. Motion-sensing floodlights can be used to target animals.

Together, the villagers can take more serious measures. For example, dig a ditch next to a beaver dam to release water and expose the entrance to the huts. Or insert a pipe to drain water into the bottom of the dam – this is how they approach in Canada, fighting flooding due to beavers. Yes, the construction of bypass canals will require efforts, and more than one person. But other reliable methods of rescue from the consequences of vigorous activity of beavers have not yet been invented.

It is more difficult to evict beavers away from your site than to get rid of moles, the portal has already written about methods of dealing with them.