How to bid a beaver job?

I just got an email in regard to what I think is a small beaver job. I will need a non resident trapping license @ $133 and round trip mileage is 90 miles. So far, I've made it clear that I would probably charge $25/beaver. I am not trying to make money, just make expenses, which I probably will not do at my present bidding rate. So how do you guys do it? I am not locked in so I can make changes or walk away.

You might want to put in a clause for potential trap theft. Also, for a 90 mile drive I'd charge more than $25. Probably charge mileage at the Federal rate.

I'd charge a set up fee than a per beaver rate.

Can you give me more info on how to charge base on a set up fee? Is a set up fee based on number of traps, number of days, distance traveled, or what?

You need to get paid for your time. I would charge $100.00 set up fee and $25.00 per beaver.
The other thing Is are you a accomplished beaver trapper. Can you go In there and get the job done In a few days.

I've been trapping beavers for years, probably not the best on this site but I can get the job done. I am not set up for large scale beaver trapping but have a couple dozen conibear, couple dozen #4 footholds and 50 snares. I dont know how big the job is as I havent seen the site yet. I am dealing with a semi daffy lady on email so this may get to the point that I just tell her to find someone else.

And has anyone else tried to trap these beaver previously? Beaver are pretty easy to trap if you know much about it, UNLESS they are trap wise. I used to love to catch trapwise beaver for the challenge, but it can be a real pain and isn't usually a paying proposition.

I would make sure and ask if anyone else has tried to trap them.

She says someone used to trap them for her and I am pretty sure I know the trapper. He is presently in a nursing home in very bad shape. The worst ones I have tried to trap are the ones that get shot at all the time, they are very shy.

A nuisance permit from the DNR with your name listed as the trapper, should be your trapping license. At least it is in Michigan. Here if you trapped all the beaver out today, more will soon move in.

If your going to charge and you should you better get some set up money before you get to trapping.
And look Into a depredation permit before buying that non resident tag.

Yep, already lined it out to the landowner they have to have depredation permit before I purchase the license.

Even if you are able to get them all in one night you will have the $133.00 license, plus gas for 180 miles so at 18 mpg @$2.00 a gallon that is about $20.00 for gas. so $153.00 so far. You also have wear and tear on your vehicle plus clean up costs afterwards maybe. Then you have your time to consider also. If there is only a pair of two year olds and you get them the first night you are out $103.00 plus your time spent.
Most likely you will have to make several trips and hopefully there are plenty of beaver to get some cash going in your favor. You will need at least the $100.00 set up fee to even hope to break even. I see where she has had a beaver trapper in there before. Plan on educated beaver and set accordingly right off the get go and pray that they are not.

$100/beaver
$.50/km (5 trips max).
$100 to lower water to natural flow.

I basically broke this down for her but she has balked to the point I told her to find someone else. I've learned from this so the next time it comes up I will be much better prepared to furnish a solid bid. Thanks to everyone that responded as you helped to educate me for the future, that is always a good thing. Thanks again, Owen

Lots of good advice from trappers that have been there done that.
Consider others might ask for insurance too.
Get your numbers together and stick to your guns.
The best advertising you can create is to get the job done...word gets out.
Jobs that are very close you can alter your prices to get the experience and to put the word out about your services.

With the formula we use for 2 beaver and 3 trips,with lowering the water you would get $517.50.
5 trips and 6 beaver would pay $1,062.50.

I wouldn't even look at that job for less than 750.00 starting point and go up when I get there. You are 2 hours a day just travel. plus time on the job. yes, your travel to and from has to be paid for. I would think you are going to be 2 hours a day on the job setting and checking. you are now 4 plus hours each day on time. even if that is a setup and pull the next day job you are 8 hours total time. Phone time, estimating and planning. A small beaver job is what? 4 ,5 or 2 beavers? even at 5 x25 that is 125.00 you make as profit? all the other costs are operating expenses!!! you are providing a service for someone you are not asking them for trapping permission. I wouldn't operate without insurance, as soon as you take money for providing a service you are now liable for your actions and anything unforeseen that can happen out of your control. you can not think what you get for your day job mindset. you must think what is your employer charging the customer for your time and theirs. For example, if you are making 20 dollars an hour on a day job your employer is at least charging 50 to 60 and most likely more just for you. (I am assuming you work for someone, not self-employed) I started wildlife /ADC work back in 1979 doing just what you are thinking, believe me, you need to charge what you are worth, not fur prices. I would bet minimum hourly service company rates around your area are 50 to 75 an hour at a low rate and if in a populated area 75 to 100. around DC even more. Please I am just adding food for thought, nothing more.

If I charge for beaver, I charge $50 a head, but I think I’m going to start charging $175 upfront that covers 2 beavers, then $50 a head.

I charge an inspection fee to show up and flat rate. others in my area that charge a head fee, that are full-time business anyway, will most of the time charge an inspection, set up and head fee. this is not fun trapping it is a business.

Two things to remember when doing nuisance beaver work-One -and most important- you have to remove ALL the beaver.If you dont you will not last in the business.Two-dont be greedy and overcharge.Charge a reasonable rate for your professional services and you will get happy customers that will use you all the time.Repeat steady customers,especially corporate customers like local roads boards,Municipalities,logging companys,Highway departments,etc is where the money is.And get the equipment necessary to lower the water.You dont need machinery there are plenty of hand tools available to get the job done in any situation.

Smart move!

When I do work outside my current contracts, it's 250 dollar set-up fee and 100 dollars per beaver. If that's too expensive, then there's not really a big problem needing solved.

I agree Paul. My rate is under 15 miles from home ($75 set up, $60 per beaver) over 15 miles/under 40 miles from home ($125 set up and $60 per beaver). A person needs to understand expenses and wear and tear on their vehicle and value of time. I have had a couple people balk at the price and then called back after they lost two trees in their yard and had to pay a tree service 600 bucks for removing them. I then became a very low cost alternative.

I was doing $50/beaver and set up fee within 10 miles was $125, within 25 was $225. That sometimes was thought to be too expensive when I tell them I sometimes pull 10 beavers, most often 4 or 5, and rarely 2.

I went to a flat rate a few years ago, and put it pretty high as I was busy with life + day job + other beaver jobs; $500. To my surprise nobody turned it down and I made much more than usual. Since then I bid most at $500.

If I find they have been shooting at them or had another trapper in there in the last 3-4 months, I have always added $100.

I give a 30 day guarantee between June 1 and Sept 1. 15 day on the other ends due to those re-homing or dispersed.

If it is a entity like DNR, or a highway dept where it is multiple places and a probability of 50+ beaver, I offer a straight per beaver rate.

Boco is correct, but remember, every area has its own rates that are common. Where someone in an area may only get 500 for 2 beavers and water level drop I can get 750 for just the control and no water level drop and the customers are repeat. homeowners are not going to pay what towns or counties will. Do some research, dig into public records and see what your town and counties are paying for the jobs. Find out what your area service company's rates are these would be Pest control, heating, and AC, appliance repair for example. companies that go to the customer not the customer going to the company. out of season beaver work is a business and has to be treated as such or the person can end up with problems like the customer thinking they have 10 beavers and you know they have 2, the customer will want the other 8 unless you can show what is really there. this is where business sense comes in to play. your customers will always have higher unrealistic perceptions. charge to cover or protect you with the unforeseen. These are not greed they are business sense to stay in the game. Just some of what I have learned doing beaver control for over 30 years. not the bible just things to think about.

$1500 for 10 days trapping. Will keep at it free of charge for another week of trapping if beavers still there after 10 days.

Better be sure of your skills if you price like I do. Or word will spread that you ain't worth a crap.

Very few trappers down here that can remove nuisance beaver. Most landowners dont even blink when I tell them the price. The ones that do can keep their beavers.

I charged set up fees, mileage, and a per beaver charge for years. Careful with that concept or you will lose money, especially where they have been trapped b4, shot, etc.

For a local large timber company I charge $75 per beaver but they keep me going from job to job throughout the year....so they're treated differently. Been trapping for them for more than 15 years...

Its amazing that people with beaver problems would balk at paying a reasonable price to have them removed. When you have an electrical problem and call an electrician you don't expect him to work for free, same with a plumber, or a lawn service. We as trappers have very unique skills, the work is hard and can be in the worst of conditions, traps are expensive and they work 24/7. We have expenses just like any other profession, and trapping is a profession whether full time or part time.

I've worked beaver jobs where people ignore the beavers until fields and pastures become flooded then want them removed. As you know these are well established beaver ponds, deep, with runs that can drown a trapper. I always point out how much easier it would have been in the first year of the beavers showing up. I looked at a job a year ago and the landowner admitted the beavers had been there for 40 years and were now flooding his pasture. The initial main dam was on an adjacent land and they would not allow me access. His flooding was caused by upstream buffer dams which would be built back as fast as you break them by the beavers on the non accessable property. I explained the situation and told him when I was granted access to the other land we could work out a price but as of yet havent heard back,,,,and I am glad,,,,this is a job from a boat.

I am 68 and would rather not deal with the muck and mire of nuisance beavers, especially summer beavers. My days of trapping free beavers has come to a screeching halt except for friends and family. Last summer I trapped yotes and coons for my cousin during the summer because of the crop damage to cantalopes and watermelons. I bartered and have never eaten so many good Ridgeway cantalopes and watermelons, so it was worth it, plus spending time with my cousin.

$25 per beaver for a job 90 miles away would be paying to work. Good thing you passed on it.

You should do it to make money. Why else would you do it?

As someone said to me “a lot of people don’t think you should get paid to catch animals.” Problems begin right there with that type of thinking.

90 miles, you would need $100 PER trip just to cover your mileage ($0.55/mile)

I'd go broke if I was only getting 150 a day.The only time I ever took 10 days to finish a nuisance beaver job was about 3 years ago when I cleaned out around 10 colonys and took over 30 beaver and broke over 20 dams on a 12 km stretch of logging road.I brought my son along on dam breaking day and I think I made about 8 trips.
Almost all nuisance beaver calls I get are repeat calls and mostly pairs of beaver and done in 3 trips.

I remember trapping some nuisance beaver when I was in high school. I was catching 40-50 beaver a year after school and thought I was hot stuff. Beaver prices were up and it was only about 10 miles from the house, I figured I would just trap them for the fur. Good thing I wasn't charging, I would have had an unhappy landowner. Took me a month to catch those beavers, most trapwise beavers I ever trapped. The landowner gave me about a hundred traps that were in an old shed grown over with briars he bulldozed over. Come to find out the previous owner was a trapper and he had those beaver really wised up. I caught one little beaver and it was like they packed up and moved. If you pounded a stake they wouldn't stir for a week. Ended up pulling my traps and leaving it set for about two weeks and then slipping back in there with a couple of 330s and setting them in deep runs, no dive sticks or anything, and finally catching the other beavers, two that were peg legged.
Landowner was happy, but he didn't have to pay me, and I was proud of catching beaver somebody had seriously wised up. If it would have been a paying job I would have lost my butt, though.

There are only 3 or 4 beaver per colony up there? I've seen 36 beaver removed in about 3 weeks in a dammed up creek swamp that was about 150 yards wide by 600 yards long. A quagmire of gators and cotton-mouths, too. There were 3 main dams here and never found a lodge.

3 checks wont even get you started good down here in these swamps. Wish I could get them all in that amount of time. I wouldnt have to sharpen my machete but once or worry as much about getting cottonmouth bit.

Impossible to lower water by hand to natural flow here in most places. Most dams are years old and takes a large excavator to breach them after clearing a makeshift road to them.

An effective dam breach is all on the landowner and most dont do it....and in a year or so here we go again...more beavers.

That sounds about right, I know of trappers in high rent districts (yuppie-ville) who get $200 setup and $200 a beaver.

That sounds about right, I know of trappers in high rent districts (yuppie-ville) who get $200 setup and $200 a beaver.[/quote ]
Yep and if I’m checking the traps it’s a $75 service call if they check them and call or text me every day then it complies with the law we’re good

Yes,when you remove the beaver from the same spots each year you are mainly dealing with pairs.leave it go for two or 3 years if there is no fur trapping and you will have 8-12 per colony.
Most I ever took out of one colony here fur trapping was 21.You will never have to deal with a colony that large in a nuisance situation here-the road would be long gone if you left it that long untrapped.
Nuisance beaver control,and happy repeat clients here means staying on top of it year in and year out.I rip the dams by hand right down to natural flow with a good beaver dam rake.Let the water do the work.
Some places with old clay dams with grass growing on them take a backhoe.Used to get the odd one of those down south in the claybelt when I was full time beaver control for the RR.Up north here the dams are sticks grass and black muck.Crawled in a lot of culverts to remove dams too.Those are fairly easy with a come along and a clam clamp as long as they are looked after before they get too thick.


Wreck a few years ago from a beaver dam washout.Not long after that they implemented a full time beaver control program.

Owen - you received some excellent advice from some real experts at business, life, and trapping.. There is much more to nuisance work than trapping. I have some experience and have helped a few guys to get started. I have also helped a couple guys when things became problematic. So I will throw in a few tips to hopefully get you off to a good start.

Hello to the other guys in this topic. I have not visited here since i think around Thanksgiving or Christmas. I hope that you are all doing well and are safely isolated from any germ carriers.

Each pricing method is good in its own way. But, I like Boco’s method the best because the trapper and the customer are clear about the cost. And the size, distance, and complexity of the job are reflected in the price.

As you see there are many ways to price a job. The expert guys here helped you with that. I will offer one point about a beaver job. Sometimes after telling a prospective customer my fee and explaining it, the customer will backpedal and say that they might look for someone else cheaper or the classic - a brother in law owes him a favor so he will ask him to trap the beavers. I say that is absolutely fine and my quote is good for one month. However, if you get someone else in to trap the beavers and they fail so you then call me, my price will be double because then the job will be twice as hard to catch the trap-shy beavers. After that, the customer says”ok, when can you start?”

You got that right. Lol

Man this is one of the best threads ever. Lots of spot-on information that varies and gives you a lot to think about. I think someone said lots of ways to price the job and that is right so my way isn't necessarily gonna work for you. I see it as strictly business of course so I charge what my time, overhead, and profit demands. I avoid per animal pricing on all jobs whether I need to catch 1 or 10 of whatever it is. I also do as someone else suggested and add a buffer in case I need to extend my time a bit. It happens at times and is not always predictable.

I think your market has a lot to do with it as well. A friend of mine is able to price raccoon/squirrel jobs higher than me several states away but I can charge more for beaver control than he can. Overall, I know what I need to make per hour to make expenses and profit so then it's just doing the math. Am I always right? No. Lol One more thing. I had a hard time charging early on because it seemed strange to do it when I love catching critters but I finally got over that- it's a skill and service that is valuable just like electricians, grave diggers, counselors, you name it and is worth getting paid for. In the end, they're calling me because they can't/won't/don't know how to handle it. $

Hourly rates and mileage work well if you charge enough, because there is more to beaver work than just catching beavers. It has to be enough to cover non-trapping work, all time, expenses and still turn a profit.
You can also charge a flat rate per day, job, or however you want to break it down. When dealing with a single customer, pricing is a breeze. When dealing with multiple customers, each being different locations and complexities, it gets a little trickier. This is where detailed records come in. Write down everything you can about jobs, such as time/date, traps set, traps pulled, catches, time in/time out, comments.... you’re going to be glad you have this when it comes to invoice time.


Non-trapping time that needs to be taken into account: Driving time, scouting time, land research time, office related time.

Expenses include but are not limited to: flat tires, stolen traps, shattered back glasses, worn tires, fuel, food, insurance, office supplies, replacing waders, atvs, maintenance, boats, attorney fees, business taxes, traps, tools, paint, education, and more that all have to be paid for JUST TO BREAK EVEN not counting actually turning a profit.

You can not forget these things. I have to drop a significant amount of money in the next few days renewing my insurance. Of all the expenses, that’s the one that hurts the most to me, but it’s absolutely necessary. Most customers with serious beaver work won’t even consider you without it.


If you find yourself saying “well, I don’t see myself looking for many more like this one” when you cash the check, you didn’t charge enough. When you charge enough, you get the feeling that you did a good job, and you’ll gladly work for them again.