Beaver and beaver dams

Creatures of habit, like most wildlife, beaver are quite predictable.  If you are breaching dams with the intent in placing traps of any type, it is best to keep the holes "small but noisy."  Beaver respond well to the sound of running water, but large holes require a big response, large branches, logs etc.  Traps are much more apt to get sprung and or buried into the dam itself if the hole is a gusher.  A smaller hole will produce a more a surgical response by a beaver, commensurate to the size of the hole in the form of a clump of grass or a little mud.

When dams are breached with large openings by a landowner or have large leaks due to heavy rains or water merely overflows a dam, beaver will leave the dam alone and simply not work on it.  Where there has been a major leak, a beaver will wait for the water to drop and stabilize before rebuilding the dam.  Beaver will quickly patch a small hole.

If you can find a location where the leaking water will drop several inches, splash onto a flat rock or gurgle around a stick, all the better.   Noisy is good.

Holes in a dam will repaired with new material.  If you remove sticks from a dam and place them behind or beside the dam, they will not be used by the beaver.  Beaver will pick up new brush from the pond and pack it back into the dam if you put those sticks in the water in front of the dam.  At times beaver may rearrange a few sticks, but they will do little to disturb the actual structure.  Once the dam is built, the material in the dam will remain there forever.  Beaver inherently know that a leaking dam will need more material.  They don't want to weaken or disturb sticks that are already in place, just add to it and strengthen what is there.

 

Comstock  traps designed for beaver work equally well for otter and muskrats.  Pictured is a 12x12x36 double door swim through trap.  We are also finding that even the smaller 9x11x36 double door traps will take otter too.  Either of the 12x18x39 or 12x12x36 beaver traps work great for otter and even the smaller less expensive 9x11 trap never designed for otter but primarily used for raccoons is a winner for otter.

Double set and double catch for Beaver in a culvert setting.

Double Setting for Beaver, Double Catching

When trapping a new colony, where beaver have just recently moved in, there are quite often a pair of beaver.  This is not always true by any means, but common.  These beaver are usually matched in size, typically in the 25 to 50 pound range.

With new colonies I will often place two traps side by side, leaving a few inches between them if possible.  The Comstock Cage traps are stabile and will not fire accidentally unless the trigger wires are moved several inches.  When one beaver is captured usually the second adjacent trap will remain set, allowing for both beaver in the new colony to be taken together, side by side.  One application of castor lure on the bank is all that is necessary to take both beaver, a single set location, double set with two traps.   The traps may be completely submerged or partially out of water.  Where the beaver will remain alive in the cages it is best to keep a little distance between them or perhaps place a barrier between them so that one beaver will not reach into the other cage and fire the other trap before the second beaver is captured.

Beaver do wise up and catch on to other beaver being captured and may learn to avoid any type of trap, even if they have not sprung the trap themselves, including snares, body grippers or even cages.   Having at least a couple of cages set the first night is a plus.

Traps can also be set in channels in blind sets on the bottom.   For instance, yesterday I checked two traps set the night before on the bottom of a culvert.  The dam was in the middle of a half full 4-5 foot tube.  I simply dropped two cages into the culvert, side by side on the bottom and had the pair of beaver, both nearly 50 pounds.

Catching side by side doubles in these cages, in many different ways, solves beaver problems quickly.  

Perspective on Swim Through Comstock Beaver Cage Traps, Comparing them to Other Devices

Yes, we do make and sell beaver cage traps, but most important, we use the same traps we sell year round in our ADC business, not because we have to, but because they are superior.  In ADC work it's not about making a point, but about getting the job done quickly and efficiently.

There are 5 "cage trap only" states and other states that do not allow either foot holds, conibears or snares in various disallowed combinations.  Cages are the only way in some states, so the new traps have been a big asset.  In NY, where we operate our ADC business, we are allowed to use virtually all trapping devices available, footholds, conibears(body grippers), snares under permit, both Hancock and Bailey live traps and even shooting to control problem beaver.  I own and have used all of these devices for many years and will of course continue to use them when necessary.  However, now that we have the new swim through, wire triggered, swing bar, cage traps, all of the other devices are merely used as fill ins for the odd occasion when something other than our cages are required.  Due to the nature of these traps, they exhibit more versatility and instill more confidence than any other device we have used, while offering methods and ease in setting never scene before.

In just under 3 years the take is now at 351 beaver taken in our cages by us with a small percentage taken in other devices, the cages accounting for in excess of 90% of our catch.  A few were shot, a few were taken in footholds, while a handful were either snared or taken in body grippers.  All of the rest were caged in Comstock Cages.

The biggest enemy of the ADC trapper is a sprung trap, the creation of an "educated" beaver.  These cages are sensitive, yet the most stable cage traps available, running an extremely high success rate, rarely fired without a catch inside.  Once captured there are no escapes or damage to the traps.  Repeated catches will not damage a trap, even hundreds!

Other wire trigger cage traps using body gripping triggers taken from existing body gripping traps do not compare to the swing bar trigger we specifically developed for our swim through beaver traps.  Not only do our traps hold up as well as or better than any others, they are more stable, function better, more user friendly, lighter in weight and cost less when comparing similar models.  We know what our competition makes because we also created the powered door traps and triggers they make.  We call them a generation 1 trap as we have now moved on to the swing bar generation 2 trap we now have.

How Power Hinged Swing Door Cage Traps Compare to Guillotine Door Cage Traps

You may see guillotine door beaver traps offered which are heavier, but not stronger, fast but without follow through lock up, more expensive, but not better, that have many limitations when compared to the Swing Door Traps that we use every day in our ADC work and market.

What to look for in choosing the very best beaver traps:

Cage traps should be fully self contained, no external trigger components extending beyond the frame of the trap to catch on other traps in transit in the vehicle or catch on brush while carrying.  The best traps will not have a frame or parts that extends beyond the box itself.

Most obvious is that a swing door trap can be set in shallow water and completely hidden.  A guillotine door trap extends a foot or two above the outline of the trap making it all but impossible to camouflage.

To hide a guillotine door trap in open water as a swing door trap requires twice the depth of the box.

The power swing door traps can be set in any position, even sideways or upside down.  What this means is that a trap that measures 12x18 inches is basically a trap of "two sizes."  Not only will it accommodate a wide 2 foot run as it was designed, but can also be set on its side to fit a narrower 12 inch run, thus the "two sizes in one trap."

Set upside down these swing door traps have little chance of catching debris that you can see when you place the trap.

In the cool months when freezing is likely, these swing door traps can be set in shallow water, just over a foot.  When an inch or two of ice forms the traps are good to go, unlike the guillotine door trap that will freeze in solid.  The guillotine requires exactly twice the depth to set as a swing door to accommodate the height of the box and the equal height of the doors above the box.  

Guillotine door traps can not be slid into culverts like the sleek powered hinged swing door traps.

Guillotine door traps can jam when the trap is on an angle.  A powered swing door trap will work at any angle or position as there is no wrong way to set them.

Guillotine door traps run the risk of picking up brush and sticks that will snag, slow or also jam them, and they do.

Note:  Any wire trigger cage trap fitted with a conibear type trigger designed in the late 1950's for killing body grip traps is far less stable and reliable when compared to the modern swing bar trigger developed specifically for the powered swing door traps.  The reason I "seem" to know so much about this trigger is because these triggers were used in my first inventions, "gen one if you will."  We moved on and beyond to develop the all new superior trigger we now have, "gen two in 2010." 

Upside Sets with Comstock Beaver Cage Traps

Upside down setting with Comstock beaver cages might seem gimmicky, but it now appears there is even more science to it than previously thought.  Not only can a cage be dropped into a brushy sunken dams, feed piles or where ever there is debris and sticks without risk of the doors getting jammed because the doors fire upward, these cages can be made even shorter than anyone thought possible.  On the first two outings with the newest experimental unheard of 32 inch short beaver cages, the result was 2 for 2, both beaver large blanket beavers.  The first beaver weighed in at 45 pounds, while the second was a pound larger at 46 pounds.  The body length at 30 inches was almost exactly the length of the inside of the trap door to door.  With the tail, the beaver was nearly a foot longer than the entire trap, proving that if most of the beaver is in the trap when it fires, the beaver will be ushered in by the power doors that contact his back feet and then simply pull himself in the rest of the way.  Taking into account, beaver sizes,  trigger travel, forward inertia of the beaver, distance to center, along with the distance the door protrudes beyond the confines of the catch compartment, it could be that 32 to 36 inch traps may become more the norm than the exception.  It just takes some time to move from hypothetical to experiment to the accepted method.  It's not always easy for new concepts to gain approval and people to get their head around using a shorter device.  I'm still amazed.  

A few Beaver Cage Statistics-Weight

Size and weight definately play a role in the selection of a beaver cage trap.  Engineered and configured for strength and durability, the traps are built from the lightest materials that will hold up.  The standard 12x18x39 beaver cages weigh a bit over 23 lbs., well within the range of acceptability.

Always experimenting with shorter and smaller cages, the last two beaver cages we made to try out were even more user friendly.  The 12x18x32 "shorty" weighs under 20 pounds, 19-13!  A second trap  measuring 12x15x36 came in at an amazing 17-10, both incredibly light for their capabilities.  Both traps produced large beaver on the first set, the first a 45 pound beaver and the second a 50 pound beaver.

FYI, Lexington, Kentucky

Judy and I will be attending the WCT, Wildlife Control Technology, conference in Lexington, Kentucky, on November 7 and 8.  We will have a booth to show and demo Comstock and Tomahawk cage traps and accessories.  I will do a power point on Beaver Trapping November 8 at 3:30 p.m.   Hope to see you there.

The past two days, using a couple of odd sized one of a kind traps, just because, proved rewarding.  Yesterday the 12x18x32 double powered door trap produced a 45# beaver and today a 12x15x36 inch trap produced a beaver just a shade under 50#.   These are the first to be taken in the new traps and both pretty good sized in relation to the size of the trap.  We did take a 42# in a 12x12x36 last year also.  I would bet that larger beaver can and will be taken in each of these traps without issue.  They just need some more time in the water.

Pictured is the long stick that must have been in the 45# beaver's mouth when he was captured in the 32 inch trap.  There was also a 1 inch diameter stick in the door, but the gap between door and frame was large enough not to jam the action.  The door fired and locked as it should, even with the second stick wedged in between the door and frame.

We have done a lot of experimenting with shorter space saving double door cage traps, pushing the envelope to the limit.  Though some double door traps for armadillo have been made as long as 48", we found that double door cage traps as short as 24 inches would accomplish the same goal without issue.  Likewise, we found that double door cage traps as short as 18 inches were more than adequate for skunks and chucks, misses pretty much non-existant.

With beaver we began with a 36 inch double door trap, taking beaver up to 66 pounds.  The 36 inch traps never let us down.  From there we began using 40, 39 and 38 inch long traps to err on the side of caution.  After hundreds of catches, studying and running the numbers it seemed likely that shorter just might work, 34 inch for sure, but maybe even shorter, a really short 32 inch?

This is a picture of a 45 pound beaver taken today in 32 inch long 12x18 double powered door cage trap on the first attempt and in all likelihood a first for a double door trap this short.   The trap was set upside down in 30 inches of water on the bottom in a stream channel with the powered doors lifting the beaver up and into the trap.  Time will tell if this was a fluke or the norm and just how short double door traps can be made.

Superior Trigger in Comstock Panless Traps

All of the panless traps we produce have one common characteristic, simply the most stable, consistent, sensitive trigger system available in cage traps, a big plus for setting, placing,  and firing to take animals large or small without issue.

With standard pan type trigger systems or wire triggered traps that use conibear type triggers, triggers that have moved even slightly after setting in what is often an undetectably small amount of travel,  triggers become very "touchy."  If one of these cage traps is jarred by the user or an animal, the trap may fire prematurely, even before the animal has entered the trap.  Pan type triggers have a range of sensitivity dictated by where the door catch contacts the door itself, very light to heavy, difficult to see or understand if the trigger is heavy or light.

With the swing bar and swing panel triggers on the Comstock traps there is no accidental light or heavy setting.  All of these traps have wide, easily seen contact points.  The trap is set no heavier or lighter by the position of the contacts between the trip rod and swing bar.  It is always the same every time, no guess work.  Though the amount of trigger travel may be more or less if the trigger contact is off center, the amount of pressure required to fire the trap remains exactly the same.   Also, the trap will fire exactly in the same prescribed position each time, no surprises.

On the larger heavy duty traps trigger pressure can be varied by positioning the door hook either close to or farther from the trip rod.  You are in command with the ability to regulate the pressure needed to fire the trap since the door hook position can be easily seen.  No other traps afford this option or reliability.  Even the small squirrel traps have the same stability as the larger raccoon and beaver traps.

Because of the features incorporated into the triggers, traps that are rolled over or even tossed into the water remain set and stabile and at the same time, sensitive enough to catch a small muskrat in the beaver traps and sensitive enough to capture a mouse in the squirrel traps.      

Luke sent in this picture of a very small mouse in a 5 x 5 x 24 Comstock Swing panel chipmunk/squirrel cage trap, proving that the trigger is incredibly sensitive and the cage mesh is tight.