Trapping a small farm pond for muskrats . Has about 6 bank dens that I can find. How many rats live in each den ? After getting all the rats out of a den do "new" rats move in ? Still kind of new to pond trapping rats, mostly done rivers with bottom edge sets and pocket sets. -Thanks

I think muskrats use more than one den. Many years ago my muskrat trapping was almost exclusively done in farm ponds. I would walk around the pond to look for what I thought were dens, Not sure all the holes I found were dens. In my experience if I found 6 dens I would expect to catch 10 to 15 muskrats. If there is a water source nearby the pond other muskrats will most likely migrate into the pond.

Here it depends on the density of rats in the entire home range overlapping area. For fall harvest 'rats, it will average 4-5 per bank den (similar to a cattail/bullrush house). My friend Pat in the early 70's holds the record for all us young guys back then with 1 BG set in a farm pond bank den --- he caught 19 rats in row and it went dead for 5 days and then caught 2 more , which we all assumed were migrants moving in. My best in a bank den is 12 in two checks of repeater traps in excellent habitat. I usually pull traps after 1 or 2 checks unless it is an ADC job and those jobs normally DO NOT have large quantities of 'rats, so I leave the trap for 4-5 days to make sure the rats are gone. I have harvested (by trapping) 102 rats off a 2 acre farm pond in three days to show the reproductive potential of rats in excellent habitat with little predation. I left 8 dens and a few good feedbeds un-trapped to boot so I am guessing there were 130-150 harvestable muskrats in that little 2 ac. puddle. This year I have a pond of 1 ac in size and it will yield 40 or more rats this December while a similar pond of 3 acres 5 miles away, has not yielded 1 rat. But have caught 5 coons and a mink in the beaver BG's in this 3 ac. puddle. Research from MICH. shows that coons were the # 1 predator of rats there and throw in a mink or two and our harvestable rat population shrinks from my observations so there may be some merit from that research out here.
.............................. the mike

In all seriousness if I get three from a den here, it's a good den. IMO, A lot of " dens" are actually feeding holes. We don't have a high rat population.

Set all the holes.
Ive caught several rats from a hole then it went dead...but leave the 110 and you will pick up mink.
Jim

Got 4 out of one den In one check with a colony trap.

In the past I would get 2 or 3 out of a den. This year just one per hole.

Sometimes the amount of cloudy or stirred up water can give you a clue. Multiple rats leave and enter the dens frequently. With the soil types and structures we have where I do most of my trapping finding bank dens is a very limiting option for me. Over the years the ones I have found typically would yield 2-3 rats. Many times there are lesser used runs to the bank near by and after a few catches the remaining rats may find other ways to reach their den or as stated above other rats move in. I am always amazed at how mobile wildlife species are. Rats don't always move far but they sure do move. I should have learned this at as a young pocket gopher trapper in the late 50s. You would get 3-6 mounds in a colony , catch a few and a new colony or moved colony would spring up several yards a way.

Bryce

Got seven one night in a colony trap set in a den entrance. There could have been more but the trap wouldn't have held any more than that.

I wonder if rats live with beaver in beaver dens.

On Many occasions, I’ve caught muskrats in active beaver lodges and bank dens.

If you have a whole lot of soil in a delta in front of the runs, then you know you have multiple animals using. I have set two colony traps sometimes, incoming and out going captures.
Those runs are always nice to mark with a dried willow when you have low water to return to them in the fall/ winter trapping

My experience when setting dens on small ponds one or two of multiple dens will produce the majority of m'rats when using colonies. These are the family dens. If using BG's they can come more evenly from all dens as trap can only take one at a time and they can go den to den till caught in next set trap. Very easy to catch all resident m'rats from small iced over ponds in just a couple checks with clear ice.

The old timer that taught me said the muskrat was the beaver’s housekeeper. You will catch rats in beaver dens and lodges if you trap beaver very much.

Trapping on the end of a point on the Wisconsin River I caught 15 total muskrats in one bank den from one 5x5x24 colony trap in 6 nights. In this case, I believe it was a destination for all the rats that moved up and down the river in that area.

Chris