Northwest Mountain Beavers ! ?

[herongrrrl]

Jack, I haven’t heard of mountain beavers living in WS (but I have heard of them before–friends living on acreage in Chimacum have a lot of them there). I wonder if you have nutria living in your yard? They are larger than moles and rats and make large, visible holes for their burrows. Especially if you live near water (including creeks or ponds), that’s what I would suspect. They aren’t native, but were introduced here a while back.

Of course they could be mountain beavers too…maybe WDFW has some ideas?

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[Kristina]

Ok, this is really weird! We live in the Top Hat neighborhood and have the same GIGANTIC holes in our yard. We don’t live near water and we live on a big hill. We’ve tried every “mole” rememdy on the market. And I mean EVERY mole gimic made. We’ve also tried flooding the holes, plugging the holes, etc. Nothing works. After almost 3-years of this, our yard/lawn is destroyed and we’ve had enough. A pest removal company came to our home yesterday and told us we have MOUNTAIN BEAVERS. Apparently, they love Rhododendrons and fruit trees which we have plenty of both. The company also said it would cost us $815 for 2-weeks of trap and release. However, they can’t gaurentee it will work in 2-weeks. We are in shock…Mountain Beavers in West Seattle? We’re going to shop around and see if anyone else has a better aka less expensive and more reliable solution. This critter is going to cost us a fortune!!

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[HunterG]

Well, we got marmots in West Seattle, why not mountain beavers?!? LOL (sorry, I have all kinds of dirty jokes running through my head).

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[Jack]

OK! Great! So, I have a huge rhody in my yard and I am sure I am feeding a colony of Mt. Beavers. So, I looked up Mountain Beaver PESTS, WA State. Washington State authorizes the POISONING of the mountain beaver because of their destructive nature. There is a poison that is available in pellets that you send down the holes. Supposedly they take the pellets down to their burrow and gnaw on the tasty pellets. THEN, they go to Mountain Beaver heaven. Yes, they are dead underground, but may they rest in peace. They are considered endangered in some states but NOT the sub-species found in WASHINGTON. If they were endangered I would definitely catch and release them. BUT, no, there are plenty of these critters in Seattle and unless they start paying rent they are going to meet their maker.

We have always had this weird line of dead grass on our lawn that starts at the biggest hole in the yard. It is all making sense to me now…

For those who want to learn more about the most primitive rodent alive…dating back 40,000 years…here is a link to a Times article written last February…

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2008706268_pacificpbeaver08.html

–Jack

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[Jack]

Cockroaches and Mountain Beavers. Will they inherit the earth?

It said in that article that there may be as many as 2 per acre in Washington. I think the pest removal company has the release address as MINE!

$815– Really!?

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[B-squared]

Cool! Send them to my yard! can’t get enough beaver!

http://depts.washington.edu/natmap/maps/wa/mammals/WA_mountain_beaver.html

can’t believe i’ve lived here my whole life and have never seen these. or marmots at this altitude.

maybe you can set up a webcam at the hole we could all get a look at it.

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[Author]

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