Folks have a bad habit about this. They want me to come trap beaver but never call me until AFTER they tear out the dam. Or they'll get you out there and THEN tell you, "I shot a couple of them." Now you've got dead bodies bloating against the dam and the rest are gone. Not worth a didly dang when your charging per critter. And why do they not call you before or at least DURING the regular trapping season? No. They always wait until the season goes out and then the ones the last trapper left they want you to come get.

That is exactly why my rates are different depending on whether the season is in or not. Call me in December about your beaver problem and I'll handle it cheaper than if you wait until April.

Noises in the attic. "We've been hearing them for three months now." Then why didn't they call me two and a half months ago, BEFORE they had a bunch of babies?

Not that anything is going to change or that I'm looking advice to fix it... I just wanted to gripe a little.

Yup. Doing a coon job under a house and in the living part of a basement right now. They have known for 3 years that the coons were living there.
Not only living there, but have babies, making "piles", having funerals, playing/tearing up everything they can, etc.

They probably thought it was "cute" the 1st three years!

I'll give you a good one of these, while we get the typical, "I was feeding the squirrels in my yard along with the birds and they are so cute, but now the squirrel is inside my walls of my house and I need it gone."

The best one I've had to date has been this one.

I'll truncate it for sake of making it a bit shorter....

She had one packrat, fed that packrat outdoors until it had young, then called for help, wanted to see if I had a snake I could loan her or that she could buy, or where she might get one? I explained I don't keep snakes, that if I have calls for snakes they are not relocated unless they are rattlesnakes, to which she replied, why? Years ago I got a snake from animal control and released it and it did a great job scaring away the pack rats at the time. I asked her if she understood that the snake would have tried to and likely would have succeeded in killing and eating the pack rats. No she replied, they just left and then the snake did too!

I said, I can exclude the pack rats but will have to lethally remove them first. To which she replies, that is inhumane.

So to be clear:

Snake = humane

Quick Trapping = inhumane?

She ultimately asked me if I'd trap them alive and move them out into the desert and seal it up. I responded that I don't relocate unless mandated
by state law and that there are packrats (wood rats) on every square mile of NM countryside.

She responded that she had relocated a number of them in the past and that it always worked great and they survived.......

You of course know the next question from me was "How do you know they survived?"

Silence...........

****

I love folks who feed the problem and then holler or get upset with the options to remove or mitigate it when the time comes....

See, now here is where I have a problem. Since it wasn't illegal for you to relocate those rats, why didn't you just do it? You know that they are probably going to be eaten by predators anyway. And if a couple manage to join the rest that are all over the countryside, who cares?

In the grand scheme of things, we puny humans don't decide the health and welfare of our native species. Illinois kills everything and Wisconsin doesn't. There's no difference in populations between the two states because of us ADC guys. I'm a relocator but I sure wouldn't have any problem with putting animals to sleep if that's what the customer wanted.

Paul,

To me as a wildlife biologist it has more than been proven to be worthless, the fact that most states don't back this up with policy is driven by kind hearted folks who don't want mandatory euthanasia. The states that ban relocation are mostly banning due to rabies threat and since WI is the land of magic fairy dust where rabies other than bat, doesn't seem to be a bother, you are free to continue to do this, till some knucklehead from a rabies positive state brings you some critters and drops them off!



I don't relocate, I'm proud of that, it is biologically unsound, though anyone who does it as a business model within their states laws I have no quarrel with, but please don't anyone start telling me that this is good science or practice it isn't.

To the element of we puny humans, I think you need to realize that hunters and trappers like to stand on the ground that we do modify populations of animals around us, so saying we don't would be stating trapping and hunting are unnecessary as they don't truly modify the world around us?

I'm betting as a lifelong member of trapping outfits you wouldn't want that type of statement being touted as factual.... lol!

Anyway, I could have relocated the rat and yes been paid, sensible? Not in the least. I don't need every dollar out there, I choose what I want to do and how I do it that fits within good biology and science the best I can.

Love your posts though as always! Entertaining!

I'm sure you probably know the context of the puny human thing. I realize that the people who love animals the most are usually the ones who bring about their downfall. Teddy Roosevelt comes immediately to mind.

I was only referring to ADC guys. There are not enough of us to change populations unless we do something illegal. I have no problem with killing; I've certainly done enough of it. I just don't see relocation in our area being any sort of a problem. Even the vast majority of our raccoons are not removed from houses. And even a lot of the squirrels we catch are caught to keep them from making homes in houses.

I guess I need to walk in someone else's shoes to get the whole picture.

I think most people think, if given enough time, the problem will go away and most times it probably will.

If the problem doesn't go away they try to resolve it themselves. Thus the existence of mothballs.

When that doesn't work they try to get a friend, family member or friendly neighbor to help them out.

If all of the above fails, we get the call.

No, we don't kill everything Paul. The only species that must be euthanized are coons and skunks. We have regs requiring any species that are translocated be taken at least 10 miles and no farther than 40. Our regs are listed here if you have time to read them:

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/wildlife/files/17_IAC_1_525_nwc_permits.pdf

Other GREAT info here:

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/wildlife/

Many guys use lethal traps for squirrels. I don't. I move groundhogs, chipmunks, squirrels, snakes, opossums, and more. 95% of people with wildlife problems are not too keen on lethal techniques. My pricing reflects the extra time and cost (fuel, etc) and it works great. Once in a while I'll have a critter that requires a lethal trap and have no problem using them, but it's not often that it is needed. Of course beaver and muskrat jobs are always done using conibears.

And we CAN NOT trap coons or squirrels for population reduction. They MUST be in a structure, causing damage, or pose a safety/health issue. Seems MANY Illinois WCO's are not familiar (or ignore) that reg!

Ron, your state might just as well let you trap for population reduction because as we've clearly proved in Wisconsin, we've reduced nothing. As I look back on some of the things I've said, some of my comments clearly reflect that I've spent my entire life in an obviously unique state.

I really need to consider that if I lived in another state where disease was more prevalent, my methods of operation would almost certainly be different. The over 10 miles and under 40 is the exact relocation rules that we have self-imposed. The one thing that crosses my mind is, are there any states that require every animal to b euthanized? Anyone out there?

I honestly don't think disease is more prevalent here. Heck, looking at fur harvest reports from the past 20 years explains the high numbers. I think the IDNR may be trying to knock down numbers through nuisance regs to make up for poor winter fur harvests. Just an idea I've often kicked around. I agree..... if we could trap for population reduction to reduce damages/complaints in some areas, I don't think we would make a difference. Exactly why the argument/complaint from many fur trappers about WCO's "taking all the fur" is a ridiculous claim.

BTW..... I am also a fur trapper... and I don't complain to myself about all the animals I catch during spring, summer and fall through my nuisance permit. NONE of those animals would ever be caught during winter fur season.

Here, in North Carolina, our regs state that anything in the order carnavora I must euthanize. That means by state law I cannot relocate fox, coyote, bobcat, coon, otter excetra. Basically, if it's a predator, I gotta take it out.

They will allow us to release opossum, squirrel, ground hogs and such as that as long as we have written permission from the landowner where we are releasing. But I don't normally release. I just don't believe in just moving a problem.

I will release snakes in an instant. I bring them home and turn them loose at my house. The non venomous varieties, that is. Yeah, I got snakes under my house but I don't have MICE... What's the difference?... The snakes don't leave me presents in my sock drawer!