Getting the Public to Subsidize Your Terrier Work

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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Darwin's Nightmare Makes it to France

Vincent Pfeiffer writes from France with the French version of the "Darwin's Nighmare" graphic (above), and a picture of his Jack Russell (with nutria) at right. For the American/English version, click here.

Excellent!!

Getting Rid of Nutria at Blackwater

Kill 'em (above) and Grill 'em (below).

Blackwater Wildlife Refuge is on Maryland's eastern shore.

For more on the history of the invasive water rodent know as the Nutria or Coypu, see "Nutria: The Tabasco Sauce Rat" -- an earlier post on this blog.

For information on releasing your dog from a trap, especially a conibear trap, see "Releasing Your Dog From a Trap" on the main Terrierman.com web site. Remember: It's trapping season right now in most areas!

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Nutria: The Tabasco Sauce Rat

The Nutria or Coypu (Myocastor coypus) was first brought to the United States from South America by the McIlheny family, of Tabasco Sauce fame. Their idea was to start a fur farm on Avery Island, Louisiana. Unfortunately, in 1941 a hurricane blew in and wrecked the cages, releasing about 150 nutria into the local marshes.

By 1959, these 150 nutria expanded to a population estimate of 20 million!

Nutria are considered a serious pest. Wherever they have gone, there has been a steep decline in muskrat populations, with whom they directly compete. In addition, nutria are voracious eaters of vegetation and are capable of cutting huge holes in marshes, leading to increased soil loss, shell-fish deaths, lost fish spawning grounds, and lost song and game bird habitat. Not for nothing are they sometimes called "that rat that ate Louisiana".

On the up side, there is little doubt that the introduction of the nutria has had a very beneficial impact on the American alligator, whose numbers were pushed perilously close to the edge in the 1960s, but which are now in superabundance thank to better game management laws and a steady supply of nutria (as well as cats, possums, small dogs, raccoons, turtles and fish).

Efforts are underway to wipe out the nutria in Maryland, where populations have been destroying the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. In the American South (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia) it is probably impossible to turn the tide, no matter how many conibear traps are set out.

Nutria were introduced to England sometime prior to 1944, when a few escaped from a Sussex fur farm, but they were exterminated by 1988 thanks to a concerted trapping campaign.

The nutria is not considered much of game animal by those that have worked other terrier quarry. Despite the fact that the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America is headquartered about 45 minutes away from very large and thriving nutria colonies where a very aggressive trapping regime is now underway, the JRTCA does not list them as a species they will give a working certification for. I am told that this is because the dens they inhabit are generally so shallow and large that working them is not really earth work. The American Working Terrier Association also does not give a working certification for nutria.

In The Working Terrier, Brian Plummer notes that nutria make a great deal of noise chattering their teeth, but that this largely bluff.

“Coypu are not particularly exciting animals to hunt. Their burrows are large and not especially deep, so there is little chance of a dog getting trapped while hunting them. Furthermore, the coypu is reluctant to fight and much prefers to bolt if it encounters a terrier. Bites from coypu are never really serious, though pieces of the incisor sometimes break off and remain in wounds, causing sepsis. Wounds are rarely more than skin deep, for, in spite of its rat-like appearance, the coypu is unable to mete out the savage wounds of which the brown rat is capable. . . . the coypu can scarcely be called a sporting animal.”

Others, of course, disagree. That's what makes the world go 'round. If they ever stop setting conibear traps at Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, maybe I could find out for myself. Until then, it strictly dry land for the dogs.

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