Muskrat trapping problems

Hi all. I have several frustrating muskrat jobs going right now.

Job 1: 2 acre retention pond, homeowner sees the general areas where the rats are coming and going. The pond banks have many, many holes and much of the bank is undercut. Lots of large fish and turtles also using the holes. 3-5ft of algae muck making it difficult to see runs.

Set two 110s on a point where the owner has seen them. Also put a floating trap w/apple and lure in the same area -- nothing. Across the pond I've fenced off a 12ft area w/chicken wire and colony traps under a willow tree where a muskrat has been seeing going in and out of. Again, nothing.

I'm at a loss, not sure what else to do.

Job 2: This one really sucks. 1/4 acre pond filled w/arrowhead plants and 2' of anti-erosion fabric all the way around. One side has a block wall now choked with trees and vegetation so no way to it from the bank. The bank drops off to 8-10' just past the fabric out so pretty much impossible to walk in the water. Didn't see any dens along the open side, but the arrowheads are thick. Short of trying to set traps from a kayak on the wall side, not sure how to approach this. I've trapped here before successfully, but it's very overgrown now.

Job 3: Also really sucks. Rats are denning under an old willow tree stump that creates a point right next to a 3' culvert. No easy way to set traps as the bank drops off making the water too deep and the den is in the tree roots. No obvious runs to and from the water, and 3-4' of algae bloom. I have no clue what do to here.

Again, I've never had luck with any sort of floating trap in the summer, no matter what I put in it or where I set it.

With an abundance of natural food right now, is there anything that will entice them into/onto a trap?

I'm just losing money every day on these jobs..........thanks for any ideas!

Job 1 set the many many bank holes and the undercut bank
Job 2 you said you trapped here successfully in the past just use the same tactics
Job 3 set the culvert with colony traps

set the slides

Blind set slides and make mock slides. Can use a gland lure
Definitely set the culvert.
I use hagz brackets and spring clips on fiberglass fencepoles as well.

I would also suggest not doing a per critter type fee on summer time small pond type trapping. I have learned it doesn't pan out most times. I flat rate muskrats myself

What kind of damage do muskrats cause?
We have so few of them around here it is tough to imagine someone paying for trapping them.

they eat vegetation, ruin pond liners, pump wires and collapse shoreline

I would suggest making a trip or two over to the pond at dusk to do a watch to determine the population and where the den site and preferred feed areas are located.

This will be time well spent under low population conditions and sometimes poor water conditions. We encounter this situation on many golf courses and private ponds it seems. Algae and duck weed can obstruct location of den sites and other sign that is helpful in selecting your set up areas.

If ducks and waterfowl aren't an issue I have been using the fiberglass rods with trap supports pushed into the bottom in various areas of the pond. Using a white visual slice of parsnip or turnip as the bait and add some rat gland lure or food call lure to some fiber fill. Set the trap below the water about 2 inches.

Determining the rats swimming wakes where they begin just after leaving the den and their preferred swimming lanes when they first come out in the evening will be good information to help you speed up the job.

Scent use is your best option with visuals when you cant find den sites, feed beds and toilet stations Never had much if any success with float sets.

Good post

One question I have:
If ducks are present then you wouldn't use a hagz bracket(or similiar) setup? I ask because I have found that setup to be one of the best for NOT catching waterfowl. The trap is tight to the pole and the ducks have longer necks as well.
Anyway, just interested in hearing if I'm missing something or not
Thanks

Water fowl can always present an interference problem. You can minimize the incidental catches but they can occur if you have considerable activity. Some of these types of jobs can be challenging due to the many variables that must be deal with.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Waterfowl are present all the time so no Hagz (although I like them).

The property is 25 miles away so not going there at dusk to watch. The homeowners tell me where they're swimming and I've set traps there with no luck. I've set anything that looks like a slide and caught nothing.

Yesterday I took a shovel to every hole and collapsed and packed each one down. Tomorrow I'll go back and see where they're coming and going, THEN set traps.

As for the other job with the dense bank, I told my customer I couldn't get in there to set traps until it's been thinned down and the poison ivy so they're having the landscaping company tackle it. :-)

Oh yeah and did use lure on a slice of apple, they never went near it.