Damages also occur to irrigation canals and farm ponds. Muskrats can cause damage to property when they burrow into ditch banks as they make their den and by eating vegetation such as lawn grass, or garden and ornamental plants. 1985). Muskrats can easily spread diseases even to humans. They can stay submerged for up to 20 minutes and swim as fast as 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) per hour and can even swim backwards. Since muskrats are also very well known for their silky soft pelts for use with fur coats and other fur products, there are some regulations in place about removing them. Muskrats can be distinguished by their smaller size and their rudder-like tails that are flattened on the sides. Take advantage of this by making your own float set. To prevent water from getting in its mouth while chewing underwater, they have fur mouth flaps behind their teeth. 1982). I have not had a problem with muskrats for 2 years. The runs are distinct trails in the ground perpendicular to the shoreline. Life Expectancy 3 to 5 years. Muskrats are so prolific they can quickly overpopulate a marsh. Managing muskrat menace – how to get rid of muskrats: Muskrats menace can be controlled with several preventive measures: Here are some methods that help you get rid of muskrats: Plant your crops or garden at a distance of more than 200-yard away from the muskrat range. Muskrats can utterly devastate your gardens which can be a really big problem if you have a show garden or use your yard to grow food. Make sure to contact your local wildlife office to figure out trapping and relocation regulations and procedures. Below the next photos is a short video clip I took of muskrats. Then the starving animals turn on each other, fighting to the death and even eating their young. You can get fairly close to muskrats, say within 20 or 30 yards, before they take umbrage, and if they don't dive with a snap of the tail they usually glare at you as they hurry by swimming right below you on the way to their burrow. In what is dubbed an “eat-out,” muskrats consume all the cattails and bulrushes in an area. Then, relocate the muskrat(s) to a more natural wetland area or pond at least a few miles away from significant human habitation. Muskrats have been observed swimming underwater for up to 17 minutes, surfacing for three seconds, and then going back underwater for another 10 minutes. Muskrats are prolific breeders and can produce an entire generation in about 30 to 60 days under optimal conditions. Like most smaller mammals, muskrats are hard to track. Position your trap in one of two ways: Along a muskrat run: these are underwater paths muskrats use to travel back and forth to their dens or feeding platforms. 4). Food. can be set with 1 or 2 doors open; SHOP TRAPS » 2 Determine Trap Placement. In the case of the muskrat, numbers decrease drastically about every seven to 10 years. Young Kits. However, they bounce back quickly when conditions improve because they produce many young. Use fencing or protective enclosures to keep the muskrats away from food sources. Muskrats are part of a natural aquatic environment but their digging can cause damage to ponds. Aug 11, 2011 #5 lilwhispers Songster. The muskrat, scientific name Ondatra Zibethica, is a common critter that's widely distributed throughout North America. 4). Gestation period of 29 or 30 days. Management of Nuisances: Sometimes muskrats are considered a nuisance if they damage a garden or crops by their feeding activities or if they burrow into dams and dikes. They also want water that is generally quiet and undisturbed, so introducing an aeration system that will pump air through the water is also a good way of making the pond unwelcoming to muskrats. The other thing that muskrats can do is disrupt the water flow in an area if they build their home on the side of a dam. Are muskrats dangerous? Muskrats are abundant from the Chesapeake tidewaters of Virginia down to northeastern North Carolina (Webster et al. With plenty of natural repellents sprays for muskrats available in the market, you can buy one and spray it on the plants to avoid muskrats in your garden. The babies are born small and hairless, and weigh only about 22 g (0.78 oz). Muskrats depend on plants growing in the water for the majority of their food, so removing cattails and other plants can make the pond less attractive to muskrats. Muskrats sometimes live in groups, in which case you can purchase a larger colony trap to collect more of them at once. After breeding, gestation lasts about a month, and a litter of 5-10 young are born. In shal-low water areas with plentiful vegeta-tion, they use plant materials to construct houses, generally conical in shape (Fig. In marshes muskrats build domelike houses of vegetation up to 1.2 m high and 1.8 m across; in ponds and streams they dig bank burrows. How to Get Rid of Muskrats in the Yard - Muskrats are water rodents and live on dams that they build across ponds or lakes, effectively damming the water body. Females can have two or three litters a year of six to eight young each. Found throughout New York State, muskrats occupy a variety of aquatic habitats including ponds, lakes, marshes and streams, and can also occur in brackish habitats. If you live near water, muskrats can cause destruction and erosion with all of their burrowing and they often carry many parasites and diseases that can be harmful to humans and other animals. Mothers have between three and six young per litter, and have two or three litters annually. This gruesome behavior keeps their numbers in proportion to the food supply. Muskrats typically breed from early spring until late summer, with the lion’s share of young being born between April and June. The young are born blind and have little hair. They are omnivorous and mostly feed on crops and vegetation, but opt for a frog or snail every now and again. Muskrats can breed year round, but most breed in March-May. 12 Years. They can also leave strong odors in the area when one has died. In Kentucky, muskrats have three to four young per litter and may have three or more litters a year. By two weeks of age, the pups will be fully furred and will have open eyes. Habitat. An adult female can have two or three litters of up to 10 young each summer. Muskrats are most active at night, but they live and mingle year-round. Here's some suggestions from The Pond Guy. Muskrats can swim backwards. At such times, few or no muskrats can be found where two or three years earlier there had been thousands. Muskrats also can give a warning slap with the tail, similar to the beaver. Gestation lasts around 4 weeks, and babies are hairless and tiny, weighing less than an ounce at birth. That’s because muskrats can forage for food under the ice thanks to their ability to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes at a time. Muskrat house. They avoid humans and will generally flee from you if you encounter them. Feb 13, 2008 151 1 144 Idaho. Muskrats are non-aggressive and shy. The muskrats are often fund to invade human habitations such as suburban neighborhoods and yards. Common ingredients of the repellents include cayenne pepper, garlic pepper, water, coyote/fox urine. Muskrats chewed every wire that they could get to. Muskrats can swim up to three miles an hour. My lake neighbors warned me about muskrats. Muskrats produce many young. Their fur can vary in shades of brown and in some cases black and consists of a soft, dense undercoat with an interspersion of longer, coarse guard hairs. They climb very well, and can fit into spaces you's swear you couldn't fit your finger. Muskrats can be trapped or even shot depending on the local laws. Leptospirosis and rabies are other diseases carried by these rodents. Adults produce an average of 2 to 3 litters a year in North Carolina. Muskrats are incapable of hibernating or entering torpor. Most individuals in the mountains have been observed in valley areas at elevations below 2400ft (Linzey and Linzey 1971). In shallow water areas with plentiful vegetation, they use plant materials to construct houses, generally conical in shape (Fig. Kits are naked and blind at birth, weighing less than 1 ounce each. Figure 4. Muskrats eat the roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of a many water plants, such as cattail, wild rice, water lilies, and rushes. Muskrats breed year round in more southerly latitudes, but the breeding season in Kentucky usually runs from March through October, peaking in March through June. This includes streams, ponds, lakes, marshes, canals, roadside ditches, swamps, beaver ponds, mine pits, and other wetland areas. Muskrats, like most rodents, are prolific breeders. They are less common to rare in the mountains, piedmont and southern portions of the coastal plain (Lee et al. They can also weaken the sides of a water bank which can cause it to collapse on the muskrat or you if you put too much weight on it. Muskrats are excellent swimmers and can evade many predators by escaping into water or into their burrows and nests. Learn how to build a board set and how to use one. In southern environments, young muskrats mature in six months, while in colder northern environments, it takes about a year. Species, show large fluctuations in numbers that follow what appears to a... 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