Mike Hotard, of Hotard Wildlife Control has a nice little thing going on. He's apparently charging the Bayou St. John Neighborhood Association in Louisiana a $1,000 for three hunts to get rid of nutria in their levee.
The problem is that, due the flatness of the land, the nutria cannot be shot with a bullet for fear a bullet will travel into a home, while regular kill traps present a danger to pets and pedestrians. And so, Mr. Hotard decided to call up the Neighborhood Association and offer his services and those of his patterdale terriers -- for a fee, of course.
I have to say I am a bit amused. You see, there's a very simple way to kill Nurtia that involves neither wild shooting, nor land traps, nor poison. As a professional wildlife control man, surely Mr. Hotard knows this. But why tell anyone when you can can get someone to subsidize your terrier work? Got it!
For those who want to get it done quickly and on the cheap, however, see this USDA handout on how to construct a simple bait raft which can be used to concentrate nutria for shooting (the bullets or shot goes into the water) or for trapping or snaring (drown traps and drown snare sets can be placed in holes in the middle of the raft). In addition, floating log drown traps (with or without an exclusion cage) work very well.
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4 comments:
I keep trying to find a way to get people to pay to fly the hawks - but no luck so far.
I didn't know nutria burrowed so extensively.
D.
Mr. Burns,
I think you have to visit Louisianna to get a better idea of the nutria problem firsthand. The levees and bayous nutria are burrowing into surround residential areas. The use of firearms in these areas is not a good idea at all. Likely not even legal and probably not acceptablee to the residents if it were. While the residents of that neighborhood may not be getting their money's worth by hiring this guy, firing guns into and across the levees is probably not practical or safe. Personally I am jealous of the fellow, myself. Anyway, these are just my opinions and by no means am I an experienced terrierman. My jagds are too big to do much digging, but they have managed to send a few nutria we have found on the bayou behind my house to the promised land.
Sean Kotch
Spring TX
machine73@msn.com
Go to the links Sean, and you will see that floating traps and floating bait boards are not a problem with the setups as shown. We have a lot of nutria at Blackwater in MD (about 50,000) and they are trapping them out and shooting them some as well. A .22 gun into the water is not a bullet going anywhere.
P.
Hey Mr Burns,
thank you for taking the time to reply. I guess what I failed to relay was how urbanized some of the areas are the nutria are infesting. Blackwater is a refuge. Indeed, in many areas of LA and South TX, nutria are trapped and shot. Inside of large cities, like New Orleans and Houston, any firearms usage is just not feasible. The bayous run right smack dab through the middle of neighborhoods. But you are absolutely correct, in sparsely populated areas trapping and so forth would likely result in more nutria despatched. A mixed bag approach of trapping, shooting, and dogging would probably yield the best results. Again, thanks for replying to me and posting the article originally. Any attention brought to our nutria problem is a good thing.
Sean Kotch
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