Potential Muskrat Job

How would you bid it? Per day? Per rat? Rates?

Here is the weather for the foreseable future.



I would assume there are 20-30 rats. I would not be surprised to be wrong, I am not much of a rat trapper, but I have caught them in the past. I know the lake, and I know people that have trapped it in the past. Here is a screen shot to show its size. 1.4. miles all the way around.



I look at it like this. Summer trapping is not my most favorite thing to do. It's gonna be hot (90° and 50% humidity every day), there will be snakes, there will be chiggers, ticks and mosquitos and time away from my family. I don't think I would even touch it for less than $100 per day. But if they wanna wait until trapping season I would most likely do it for free. Any input is much appreciated, I have never done ADC before, any adivce from those of you who have I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks guys

I would suggest the latter..waiting until trapping season;but if they go for the price[100.00 per day] go for it now.

Might want to check with MO. ADC laws. Here in Illinois trapping rules and ADC rules are much different.

ADC work can be year 'round. Highly recommend talking to BOTH your Co's Agents, to make sure they're on board, and get instructions for disposal. NO KEEPING FUR, unless they say so, and you might check to see if anybody could use them for instructional; purposes, ie: Rondy demo's, Scouts etc.

I will for sure hammer things out with the Conservation Agents before any traps are set.

I was just curious what the ball park for a job like this would be, as I have NEVER done ADC work before. I do not want to do it for free, I also do not want to want to be unreasonable. Was just curious if I was close, wanted some input from guys who have done similar jobs. Thanks for the replies, feel free to add more

What do you want to make per hour? How many hours will you be there checking traps? How long of a drive each way? Gas costs? Wear and tear on your truck and equipment? Insurance?

If you wait until the fall trapping season you will be doing it for free.

Your price is ridiculously low if you want to do this for a real business. Do you need a license and certification? Equipment, fuel, bait, lure, overhead, and time are all expensive.

You say that you are not much of a rat trapper. Do you have the skill and equipment to do the job properly and give good results? If no, don’t take the job. If yes, what are your skills worth? What are the results worth to the customer? What do you need to charge to be in business? You can’t run a business to break even. Remember that your fees are taxable so you lose a big chunk.

Best wishes with this job. Keep us informed.

Do they want them eradicated or just managed?

oh the fur trapper mind set for nuisance work

That mindset does not work for long. Learn to resent the work and go broke.

We CAN'T keep ANYTHING from out of season ADC jobs, no glands or meat even.

What does your laws allow?

If you can keep the meat and glands you'd get a lil bonus from the $100/day fee.......which is THE LOWEST I'd go.

Appreciate all the feed back, I am the 1st to admit I need help, it's why I am here.

I believe I can do the job. I have the equipment to take care of the issue.

My understanding is they want them gone.

I'm still waiting on the phone call, having doubts it is coming. I wanted to be prepared. Again, thank you all, I am trying to compile information so I can make the best decision.

My mistake, I meant I didn't want to do it for free in the heat of summer.

I hope the job goes great for you and it is profitable. I get offers that I can have the summer fur in exchange for the trapping work. Same here, we cannot keep, use, or sell anything from nuisance work.

Keep us informed. Best wishes!

For those of you who have taken on similar jobs, do you find it more profitable to charge per day or by the critter? I would think by the day would be best, but agian, I have never done this before.

I have seen that many think $100 per day is too low, what would be the high side? $300 per day? $500 per day?

This would be a side job, I have a day job that I am not looking to replace, but I would welcome trapping on the side, if it was worth it. I came here to ask, because I have no experience, I am trying to find the place in between too cheap, and unrealistic.

This lake is 5 miles from my house. Again, any info on how you all would bid it would be greatly appreciated.




This is a great point. And it made me realize the error of that thought process. IF they won't pay me to trap it, then I won't trap it, no matter the time of year. Thanks Ole.

Please reread what guys have already suggested. You have been given excellent suggestions here.

Analyze the costs of doing business, time expenditure, expected profit margin, and risk factors. If you are serious about this after you truly analyze your skills, make a detailed list of equipment owned and needed, and develop accurate time estimates about every element of a trapping job, research the relevant licensing and nuisance trapping regulations of your state and local areas, then get specific advice from a lawyer and an accountant. Hire the best so you can rely on their advice.

Eventually you will be able to look at a potential job and plug in the variables in order to give an accurate price estimate so that you are fairly compensated and all expenses are covered and you are happy to do the work.

Best wishes.

Michael, sometimes dealing with strangers (the fine fellas on here) can be frustrating. No-one wants to give the detailed answer you're looking for, for several reasons. The biggest reason being that they haven't seen the place in person.

Some rat jobs are easy and don't even require putting more than boots on. Others you'd feel like you could use SCUBA gear.

If it were me. Just me. And if it were the 5 miles from home. I'd probably charge $200 to set it up and then I'd go to 80 or 100 per hour which includes a little for gas.

The problem with per animal is that you live by the sword and die by the sword. It can be rough toward the end when you're spending time on an empty trap....for days at a time. For free.

Here's also the best piece of advice I ever got. I think I was a teenager trapping rats out of a catfeesh pond. Guy told me "if you charge a good penny, and don't knock them rats out like Mike Tyson, the whole county will know your name."

$100 per day may not be good at first when you're setting up but it will get better as time goes on.

Also, the first question people will have is "We'll, how many hours or days will it take?" Remember, money doesn't grow on trees for the customer. If that's the case, you need to be prepared to know your strengths and weaknesses. K ow your limitations because they're directly tied to your reputation.

If faced with that question, be prepared to give one lump sum. Say...$1,200. That sounds a bit low to some and a bit high to others.

30 rats? If you're correct, $1,200 may be a bargain to a fast and efficient trapper and may get to the finish line in a week.

But if a trapper is dabbling in rat trapping, he could take 2 months to earn that $1,200.

Weigh your experience and self expectations and price it from there.

I'll close with this.

I know you personally. You're like a brother to me. You have a good day job and a great family. You're the type of guy who could say "I'll do it for $750 and you'll have a ball doing it with family. The experience and education you'll gain from it will be priceless.

If you pick up rat trapping like you habe canine and cats, you'll be rocking it in no time!

Aix, thank you for the phone call, was a huge help.

John, your response is also a wealth of knoweledge and much appreciated.

I needed some guidance, you have both provided that. Thanks to you both.

Will update as more information comes available.

Pictures or it didn't happen, Michael. If we don't get pictures, I'm posting a picture of the pink thongs you were wearing in Texas. Lol.

Dear lord, I'm gonna have to do the darn job for free just to keep that FAKE photo from reappearing lol

Don’t work for free.


Fight fire with Fire if he wants to post that picture.


Don’t let pride get in the way of profits!(<—— joking)

Lol.

In your first post you say you are not much of a rat trapper, but have caught them in the past. You don't have enough experience to evaluate or price the job. So where is the value to the prospective customer? Are you gaining experience at his expense? How is that a value to the customer? If you go in and trap rats and leave a breeding pair, they will be right back where they started in short order less the money they spent on you.

They are trusting you to handle a problem that they are willing to pay to solve. Would you feeling comfortable letting them read this thread before they make the decision to hire you? IMO you need to be very up front about your lack of experience. Maybe do the job at cost (meaning gas money) and let the experience be your compensation. Or waive off on this job and get more experience fur trapping before taking big ADC jobs. Or find a mentor to do this as a paid job and let you tag along through the whole process.

The first ones caught are the easy ones, but catching them doesn't really do the customer any good.

You make valid points PT and I appreciate the response. I will try to answer them as honestly and respectfully as I can:

So where is the value to the prospective customer? IF there was none, I would not take his money

Are you gaining experience at his expense? Hopefully not. IF it the customer was not happy, I would make it right.

How is that a value to the customer? If I could not complete the job to my customers satisfaction, I would not accept payment.

Would you feeling comfortable letting them read this thread before they make the decision to hire you? Yes. I believe seeking help is not a weakness, that is why I am here, I came here for help, I would have no issues in telling anyone that.

I am not trying to make a quick buck or take advantage of anyone, I am slowly becoming known in my community as "the trapper" so as people reach out, I have no issues trying to help them, but I have no experience with ADC, and very little with rats, that is why I made my comment about "Not being much of a rat trapper" because in my opinion, I am not. IF I get the call and look at the job and feel it is above my skill level, simple fix, I won't do it. BUT if I feel I can do it, I will give it the ole college try, if it is not a staifactory job, I won't accept payment. I hate to say "I will do it for free" then I knock it out of the park and the next time or the next guy wants the same price. Even though my skills may be minimal, I do believe they have some value, that is why I came here, I wanted to know the low end and the high end, so if I look at the job I can make an offer that is fair to everyone involved

I understand my reputation would be on the line, and I have done a lot in my life to have a good reputation in my community, I know a bad reputation can be built a lot quicker, I would make sure when I was done that my reputation was in tact. This job may lead to more jobs, so I would want everyone involved to be happy.

Again, thanks to eveyone for the responses, pms, phone calls, texts, yall are a great group

I believe that people should get their money's worth. If I don't produce promised results, I don't get paid. I don't want people to dread hiring me. I want them to know that when they have a problem, one call to me, and I'm going to take care of it. I am honest, I work hard, and I do my best to make people glad that they hired me. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to get more business in my opinion, because people talk. They talk about good experiences, and they dang sure talk about bad experiences.


Know how many beavers I’d caught before my first beaver job? One. I wanted to catch a beaver, so I set a beaver trap near my house on the bayou just to catch one. I caught one, a friend of mine saw a picture of my beaver, and he hired me to catch his beavers. I was upfront with him. I told him that this would be my first beaver job, and I would catch every beaver, or he wouldn't pay. I told him that I WOULD learn and I WOULD catch every beaver, and I did. He was thrilled, because he had been having beaver problems for over a year. Turns out, his landlord had a bunch of beaver work that needed to be done. He told my buddy that he wanted to talk to me about doing a lot more work, and that he wanted to meet with me.

When I showed up to this meeting, there were several other people there. They handed me a map, and asked if I was interested in getting serious catching beavers for them. I told them that I was interested, and we agreed on pricing. When I left that meeting, I went straight to one of their beaver colonies and got to work. They were pleased with the results, and they recommended me to others. Many doors have opened for me since then, and I couldn't be happier.


The point is, it would have taken years to get experience beaver trapping on my own. What motivation would I have had to become better?

Instead, I chose to set a goal and went after it. I studied and learned everything that I could about beaver trapping, put what I learned into practice, and here I am, many beaver jobs later--an experienced beaver trapper. I'd rather get paid to learn something, and work is no different. I'd rather be paid for my work, rather than solve someone else's problems for free. There's no two ways about it---beaver trapping is work. If I am going to solve someone else's problem, I am going to be paid for it, or I am going to spend my time doing something that I want to do. No, I didn't know that I would get as many beaver trapping opportunities as I have when I started. I just did my best, worked hard, made sure I delivered a service that was worth what I was asking to be paid and went after it. Glad I did.


Hog snaring: I'd shot a few hogs, but I'd never snared one before. A farmer told me he wanted me to get rid of his hogs, if I wanted the work. I told him that I'd never snared hogs before, but that I knew I could do it. I read what I could, ordered some cable, locks, and components, and I got started. I improved my methods and equipment as I went along, always trying to become better and better. After about 10,000 lbs of snared hogs, I figured I'd gotten the hog snaring thing down fairly well. I can guarantee you that if I wouldn't have been getting paid to solve hog problems, I wouldn't have been so interested in improving my methods and snares. I would have made a few basic non-swiveled snares, caught a few hogs, and then moved on to something else.

Knowing that success will bring a paycheck and failure will not is a heck of a motivator. You gain experience rather quickly in my opinion, as long as you’re taking steps to get there. If someone waits until they have “enough” experience then they may be waiting their entire life for something that may never happen. When opportunity knocks, jump right in, give them the honesty, work, and results that they would gladly pay for and strike while the iron is hot!

^^^^^^^^ great read

That is very well written, tells a great story, and tells anyone what they need to know to succeed in the nuisance trapping business.

I believe that many of us have answered the original questions in general and provided details, but not specifics. However, we cannot and should not answer the specific questions because we cannot. That is to be determined by the specific person.

Please keep us informed about this trapping job and your progress in the business.

best wishes.

Very well said Aix I appreciate you and your friendship

Again, thanks for all the replies, I have gathered what I came for, information, I aprreciate all of you who have shared here, or in other ways. I have yet to recieve a phone call, but if one comes I am prepared

Thanks again