Q: How do I get rid of muskrats? They keep creating tunnels in the sides of our pond.
- Several Customers
A: Muskrats can be a huge annoyance when it comes to having a farm pond. A muskrat can lower the water level by building a tunnel from the side of the pond to a nearby ditch or by opening up veins underneath a clay base. Also, attached to this tunnel is a den for the family of muskrats which can cause unstable ground in those areas. So how do you get rid of these things? Well, there are a couple of different techniques.
1) Disrupt Their Diet: A muskrat eats aquatic vegetation like cattails, sedges, rushes, water lilies and pond weeds. In some areas it may also eat clams, mussels, snails, crayfish, small fish and frogs. Keeping your pond clear of excess vegetation such as cattails, grasses, rushes, etc will disrupt a muskrat’s diet. The best way to rid your pond of these emergent plants is to use Avocet & Cide Kick. Simply mix the two products together in a pond sprayer and spray directly on the target plants. Allow 1-2 weeks for complete control. When the plants are dead (they will turn brown) remove them with the Weed Rake & Cutter.
Dead vegetation makes a great nesting area, so be sure to remove it!
2) Disrupt Their Environment: Muskrats prefer ponds with four to six feet of still or slow-moving water. Although adding depth to pond may not be a simple option, adding an Aeration System is. An Aeration System will not only provide the circulation needed to deter muskrats but will help to disrupt their diet by reducing weed growth as well.
Muskrat Facts: The muskrat is a very good swimmer. Muskrats can stay underwater for as long as 15 minutes. In the southern states they may breed year-round. In the northern states the mating season runs from March through August. Muskrats have up to five litters a year, giving birth to up to nine young each time! The average lifespan of a muskrat in the wild is three or four years.
Filed under: Cattails, Muskrats, Phragmites, Pond & Lake Tagged: | Cattails, muskrat, muskrat control, muskrat facts, tunnels
We have muskrat problems in out pond wall. Are there electronic tools that will show where those muskrat tunnels go. Seems like I plug a water leak from one tunnel and a week later there is another leak from another tunnel a couple feet over from the first. Be nice to get rid of all the tunnels at one time.
Any thoughts. Thanks. The pond wall holds back 15 feet of water from flooding a corn field.
Joe Foster,
Muskrats can be a problem no doubt. Off hand I don’t know of any electronic device that would help you locate where the tunnels of the muskrats go. Another thing you can do besides the above post is to annoy the heck out of them by locating their tunnel and collapsing them starting from the pond’s edge and moving inland. By continuously collapsing their tunnels, they will get annoyed and move on. Another thing you can do is pick up a muskrat trap to catch them and get them out of there. Hopefully this helps!
I can tell you that so far in the last week I have caught 5 Muskrats, They have tunneled out of my pond liner up on the bank. We have been trapping them in our backyard near our pond. They keep digging under our wooden fence. So slowly we have been concreting under the inside and outside of the fence to make it harder for them.
Hi Michelle, I to have a problem with muskrats. What kind of trap did you use and what bait??
Thanks
John,
North Carolina
John,
I bought a raccoon trap at Home Depot. I baited it with sliced apples. They love apples. Last year I caught over 9 Muskrats. They dug under my wooden fence to get to my pond. Good luck. If you need anything else let me know.
Michelle
Michelle, can you tell the brand and serial number of the trap you bought? Thank you, Bob
Bob,
I went to Home Depot and just bought the trap that says it is for a raccoon. It was plenty big enough, I wouldn’t go any smaller.
Michelle
We have muskrats too in our pond. They have slowly been burrowing holes all around it. It is so bad that if you are not careful you could get your foot caught due to cave ins. We have tried trapping them, and were successful one year, but they keep coming back. Someone needs to come up with a better idea to get rid of them. I’m wondering if there is anything they hate the smell of or taste of that I could put around the perimeter of my pond.
I can tell you they aren’t scared of raccoons or cats.
[...] on ridding your pond of muskrats and a couple extra cool facts read back to our previous Blog on the [...]
I take a little harsher approach. I set on the bank as the sun is going down to dusk, for it seems this is the time of day they like to come out, with a 12 gauge shotgun and as they swim by KA BOOM. And don’t think your done with one, wait a little bit and alot of times another will come by to see what all the rukus is about and KA BOOM you got two. Works for me.
John F I like your approach, but my HOA wouldn’t like it. Tomorrow I go to Bass Pro Shops for a bow and arrows ….
I found that we had a muskrat problem when our I noticed 7 to 8 tunnels on the edge of our pond. I found that my .22 works perfect to resolve the problem.
I have a musksrat on the side of a lake where I just brought property. He is distroying my propeerty. How do I get rid of him?
Mary,
Muskrats in a pond can be very damaging. They can potentially have 4 litters per year with 6-7 young per litter. The burrow into the sides of the pond and create tunnels and dens. There are a couple of suggestions that I can give you.
Disrupting their diet of aquatic vegetation like cattails, sedges, rushes, water lilies and pond weeds, will help to eliminate a food source for them. This would involve cutting down grasses and cattails and eliminating weeds in the pond.
Muskrats also prefer calm or slow moving water and deeper water. You can increase the movement in the water by adding an aeration system, however increasing the depth would be a little more challenging or trapping them using Muskrat Traps placing them in the runs that are active.
There is also another Pond Guy Blog Question & Answer that discusses Muskrats.
do you have suggestions on how the holes and tunnels that have been created by these muskrats can be filled or blocked? i am looking at a huge expense to re-line the entire downstream size of my pond but i think i only have 5 or 6 tunnels that need to be filled. Also, are the tunnels mostly near the surface of the pond?
Hi Dave,
Unfortunetly I’m not sure of any quick and easy fixes. You would need to push back down the dirt that has been raised to make the tunnel first. Then you may need to bring in so additional dirt in order to even out any ruts that may be left. You should be able to see the majority of the tunnels at ground level around the pond. Generally the tunnels would not be dug deep into the pond however I still have a lot to learn about muskrats. Let’s ask our other viewers if they may have any other suggestions for you.
Muskrats can tunnel for a long way underground. currently I have one den I just found and it’s about six to seven feet from the water. If you can leave the den there for a while and set conibear traps in front of the openings. That way you know where they are. I have one from last year that still produces dead muskrats. They keep coming back. I take a driveway marker and poke the ground until you find the back of the den and mark it so no one steps on it. Remember there are almost always two openings for a den.
I actually collapsed and filled the muskrat tunnels with gravel. As for my pond liner I had to repair the holes where they had tore through it with pond liner and the two sided pond tape. I have tried the black sealant for ponds with the pond liner and it hasn’t worked so good for me. Stick with the two sided tape for repairs.
Ok so we put in a fountain ( to circulate the air) and they loved it! You would have thought they were at a water park or some dang thing. I will go back to the 22 I guess unless someone has a better idea.
Watch out for .22 s, they can deflect off the water and hit unintended targets. A buddy of mine hit his house and went through the wall. I switched to a 20 gauge.
Most of you people are absolutely nuts. Why is it that humans are so selfish & greedy that they think this earth is all theirs instead of living in harmony with nature. I have a beautiful pond in front of my house with many creatures residing including muskrats & I enjoy watching their antics in the evening & early morning. And I also work at a wildlife rehab center for the last 10 years. Why don’t you try being for the environment instead of against it
I never knew that. I guess if you had several muskrats it would add to the problem. Will setting traps be just as effective?
While setting traps may be effective for the muskrat that is currently visiting keep in mind future prevention to discourage them will be more enjoyable in the long run rather than always having traps out for the next one.
We recently moved into our new lake house, we worked very hard to build (GC). Financially, emotionally & physically…exhausted! Now the Tax bill has arrived, I wondered are we being penalized for building a nice house in the neighborhood? (no, not mcmansion & we even gave special consideration to how the house will fit / blend into the neighborhood) Now muskrats are taking a shot at us! At first I felt as Laurie (post); asked my husband “have you lost your mind” (just mention of traps/chipmunks). Yes, I, too, enjoyed the antics, ‘ahh’ the cute chipmunk, ‘ahh’ the swans, quickly turned into ‘eww’ the geese droppings & ‘ewww’ musk-RATS! (a water rat). The beautiful Swan & Duck eggs died, tho of course the geese population increased! I open the window to let a bug out, don’t kill spiders, etc however, there is a limit (disease). Laurie, you must not have a garden or children. How do you feel about the geese feces? Though this has helped me to realize, no, we’re not “nuts”. It doesn’t necessarily mean one is “against” the enviornment bcause one wants to preserve their own little corner .. (enviornment) Can we bring the chipmunks or muskrats we catch (trap) to your house or wildlife rehab please? I have to consider the well being of the children as I now worry may fall on unstable ground the muskrats create, and/or the feces they may pick up, etc.etc. I want to live in harmony, disease free!
I do like all animals. Until this season we enjoyed watching a muskrat or two swim by on the lake. We have a small frog pond. We love that too. Had lots of green frogs last year. This year we have seen a muskrat near the pond and the population of frogs is way down. We would now like to trap and relocate the muskrat(s). Thanks for tips, ya’ll! Love the shot gun story. Whew!
I live on a small lake and I’ve noticed alot more muskrat activity at my beach. I’ve found tunneling on my beach and thought it was from moles. Since then I ve had problems with a muskrat or two coming on shore and deficating on my rocks and waterline. I clean the rocks off daily and the muskrat comes back several times during the night and deficates on the rock that seperates my property line from next door. I’ve used critter ridder and mole ridder, etc on the rocks and the muskrat deficates right on top of it. The amount of poop on the beach waterline and the rocks continues to grow quickly. How can I get rid of this thing? Any Ideas? Thanks for your feedback.
Muskrats can be a huge annoyance when it comes to having a farm pond. A muskrat can lower the water level by building a tunnel from the side of the pond to a nearby ditch or by opening up veins underneath a clay base. Also, attached to this tunnel is a den for the family of muskrats which can cause unstable ground in those areas. So how do you get rid of these things? Well, there are a couple of different techniques.
1) Disrupt Their Diet: A muskrat eats aquatic vegetation like cattails, sedges, rushes, water lilies and pond weeds. In some areas it may also eat clams, mussels, snails, crayfish, small fish and frogs. Keeping your pond clear of excess vegetation such as cattails, grasses, rushes, etc will disrupt a muskrat’s diet. The best way to rid your pond of these emergent plants is to use Avocet & Cide Kick. Simply mix the two products together in a pond sprayer and spray directly on the target plants. Allow 1-2 weeks for complete control. When the plants are dead (they will turn brown) remove them with the Weed Rake & Cutter.
Dead vegetation makes a great nesting area, so be sure to remove it!
2) Disrupt Their Environment: Muskrats prefer ponds with four to six feet of still or slow-moving water. Although adding depth to pond may not be a simple option, adding an Aeration System is. An Aeration System will not only provide the circulation needed to deter muskrats but will help to disrupt their diet by reducing weed growth as well.
If your resident muskrats are not to keen on picking up subtle hints, then it’s time to get physical. Purchase a Muskrat Trap or two, place them near their tunnels with some bait (apples work well) and wait for them to investigate. Once you have them under lock and key it is time to take them for a long trip to relocate them to a distant pond or lake.
Muskrat Facts: The muskrat is a very good swimmer. Muskrats can stay underwater for as long as 15 minutes. In the southern states they may breed year-round. In the northern states the mating season runs from March through August. Muskrats have up to five litters a year, giving birth to up to nine young each time! The average lifespan of a muskrat in the wild is three or four years.
-Missy