i would love if there was a way to increase the production in my muskrat ditches or simply make it a better place for them. anybody know how?

I think your wasting your time even thinking about It. But good luck.

I think Beav has good advice, but to me if you want better or more consistant rat numbers you need year round food and shelter. Make sure you have enough water depth so they don't freeze out in winter. Also if you can get more bulb type rooted plants like cattail, water lily etc. you will have better winter feed. If you don't have either you will almost always have a 3-season rat population and with changing water levels a more vulnerable population.
Ditches by nature are edge habitat and every predator walks, swims or flies over those edges.

Bryce

Alright, thanks for the advice

Surprizes me to see no one from Wisconsin recommends the Horicon Marsh studies on increasing muskrat population densities by mechanical excavation designs. They (managers) tried about every thought proposed and after a lot of trial and error, came up with designs that increased muskrat numbers in that vast "sea" of cattails to where they could actually pay for the construction costs in 2-3 year's harvest (depending on the fur price). Good return on your money. The key to increasing any wildlife numbers (populations) is having an EXPERIENCED person evaluate what habitat you currently have (Food, Cover, Water) and then increase the QUALITY, not necessarily just expand the area. Deer leases do it and have for years. Unfortunately there are only a few, if any biologists or individual river rat types, who can do that for muskrats now days. Too much water is about as restrictive as too little. Use fish production in a lake or pond as an example: it is recommended that you would need 75% of your surface water as shallow nursery areas and 20-25% as a deep water survival (summer & winter) area for warm water species (bass, bluegills etc.). Too much deep water and you only have fewer "cribs and food for the "babies". Savvy? The same ideas/goal (with different percentages) exists for muskrats. So you need to gather as much of the previous info as possible, evaluate (have someone who is qualified) the existing condition(s), and determine if you can construct/build the landscape to mirror previous proven methods, if you'er interested in increasing muskrat densities. You may be already there or not even close but w/o a Recon of the existing Food, Cover and H2O you are shooting in the dark. ............................ my experience ............. the mike

So your going to spend 1000s of dollars to raise $2.00 rats? And remember he's talking about ditches not 1000s of acres of marsh land.
And I'm betting cutting through government red tape to do anything with the land would be a major undertaking.

im not spending thousands and im looking for little things i can do. i think i want to try and create an artifical muskrat hut. might sound crazy but it sounds fun to try and create something like that.

Nothing ventured nothing gained. But I'm betting that most If not all your ditch rats are bank dwellers.

Hmm. This is interesting, well possibly you could look into native plants they eat a lot and grow well though the wonder and seed a bunch of those

Maybe drop $20 on some of that no till food plot mix and go putting it in the bank ? Extra forage could help.... But other then keeping down what eats them im not sure too much....o possibly trap snapping turtles that might be in the ditch I know they eat them a lot

I think your time and money is better spend scouting and knocking on doors to get more permission if your goal is to catch more rats.

For 25 years, I surveyed and designed WRP applications for USDA. It was Restoration, Enhancement of Existing, and Creating New Wetlands. I trained a few biologists, Fish and Wildlife folks and a slug of wildlife enthusiasts on what you could and can do with landscape hydrology. I dealt with previous converted "ditches" and had people from east of the Mississippi visit some of our sites on what can and cannot be done. Went toe to toe with the US Army Corps of Engineers several times so I am familiar with the regulatory process. In every site, muskrats were always in the back of my mind working in city limits and out in this vast Ag Land. So I got a good variety of water sources to work with and if anything I did (design and build) I was careful NOT to put Uncle Sam in jeopardy of a lawsuit. The question was "I want to make MY muskrat ditches better but how?", so my advice was to seek out someone who has done it. If you can't undo/improve the water manipulation that has been done to the surrounding hydrology, then you are pretty much stuck with what currently exists. Can't blame a person for not wanting to spend $ on physical manipulation but Ma nature has probably colonized the plants and water levels that will govern your 'rat population. My experience......................... the mike............... P.S. If its a "ditch", chances are the existing 'rats live in bank dens so huts/houses would be a waste of time and $. ....my tip.............. the mike again

wolfdog, there are snappers in there and i didnt set any turtle lines this year in there but i will in about a month when season opens.

Trap all the mink you can and the turtle trapping sounds like good fun with the bonus of the meat. Id plant lots of cattail also.

If your ditches are just that ditches that do not begin at a slough or marsh or drain into a waterway then all the rats either are permenent residents of low to high numbers all rats that travel have to go over land which is not a good thing for rats. If attached or drain into a stream that goes up and down with rainfall then rats will swim all the way up those ditches during higher water. I still feel having adequate winter survival habitat is needed to maintain higher populations. The whole idea about habitat is size and space. One of the reasons waterfowl people stress large square nesting areas is it is much less likely for predators to find nests as the edge area is a small percentage of the total area. Ditto with rats in marshed compared to narrow streams or ditches. Lots of rats get preyed upon in marshes but the habitat supports enough rats that they can multiply.

Bryce

Alright thanks for the help guys I am just looking for some little things to keep the rats healthy so trapping turtles is what ima do and then in the winter ima trap mink.

Id get a decent turtle trap or two bud, can get them out alot quicker and easier then lines. Just check out Eric spaces old posts

Hay so seriously asking this, could having some kinda lil feeder possibly help ? I know rars seem to breed more when they have const available food. Think a sack of deer corn would last about a month . Think you could probably make something like a coon feeder that could work?
I know I only spend $20 every two months or so when I run my coon feeders

X2
Shallow ponds are better than ditches

I have done a lot of ditch trapping rats over the years here in Iowa. My best ditches had a foot or two of water. Grassy overhanging banks and no trees for hawks or eagles to set in as they prey on rats. Turtles and mink get a few. If you have beaver dams that will support many more rats yet.

I like messing around with that kind of stuff also. My two things would be as mentioned above 1. If you have trees on the stretch, then you'll have very few rat's. I'f you can't cut the trees down then forget it. 2. Food ....In ditches where water celery has gotten thick - the rats will be thick. Cattails, Wapato, Arrowhead, Watercress are all good food choices that you can transplant.