If you own a pond or land with waterways, you may never see a beaver yourself until you begin to notice trees felled on your property. During the warmer months, beaver feed on aquatic and shoreline plants, but every winter beaver families must subsist off of the pulpy material under tree bark. To stockpile enough for winter and build lodges and dams, they fell trees in increasing number as the year grows late. This can affect older and younger trees on your property, causing alarm and frustration for landowners as trees are gnawed down around the water’s edge. Here at Trapstar, we understand how beavers operate and turn it against them! New beaver families will sometimes migrate to a pond if the previous beavers living there have been removed, so we offer recurring management programs and monitoring services as well!

Another common pest for private pond owners are muskrat and nutria. These large rodents will devour aquatic and shoreline flora and eat fish and small animals as well. Muskrat sometimes lodge with beaver for the winter and will be allowed to feed on their stores of branches. Muskrat families also dig relatively large burrows into shorelines and steep embankments, posing potential safety hazards to children, outdoorsmen, and pets. Families of muskrat proliferate quickly and will spread to nearby ponds and waterways if not controlled.
Similarly, nutria or coypu are an invasive species of giant South American rodent that often inhabit the same types of waterways as muskrat, and are often mistaken for them. Nutria are larger than muskrats and eradicate aquatic vegetation in kind. It can be important to address an infestation quickly, as native ponds may not be able to support growing families of nutria.

Many landowners in the southeast may not even be aware of the presence of river otters living in their ponds due to their secretive habits. Otters often move into healthy ponds and waterways where prey is abundant and banks present sufficient denning opportunities. Otters will often live alongside beaver and muskrat in the same places, and may even den with them on occasion. Otherwise, otters can dig extensive burrows with multiple openings into banks, posing safety hazards and weakening the support of nearby root structures.
Without proper control, these sleek predators can devastate stocked and wild ponds alike. They can quickly deplete a pond of fish if left unchecked and will prey upon other small wildlife as well, including turtles, amphibians, waterfowl, and crayfish.
At Trapstar, otters often are trapped alongside beaver, but we offer services specifically for them if needed.

We offer a variety of trapping and management services for landowners. Explore our other services to learn more about large carnivore trapping, turtle removal, water snake removal and more!