Many years ago, The Captain and Tennille
singing duo, had a hit song called ‘Muskrat Love’. They sang about a pair of muskrats twirling
and doing a tango and jitterbugging in muskrat land. I hated that song then and even more so today!
One of our customers called because they
were experiencing drastic water lose in their pond and the water was very
muddy. After some rock moving and poking
around, we found very large holes in the thick rubber liner of the pond. Muskrats!
A muskrat had decided the pond was a perfect place to call home and proceeded
to dig through the liner and create a burrow with several entrances. This is a disaster, and I thought groundhogs
were bad.
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| One big hole |
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| A second hole |
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| A third hole... there are more but I got tired of posting them |
I am getting quite the education about
muskrats. They are the largest member of
the microtine rodent family and spends its life in aquatic habitats. Adult muskrats are usually 18”- 24” in length
with large males reaching 30” long. The
average weight is around 2 ½ pounds and those big males can reach 4 pounds. Females can produce 3 to 6 litters per year
and 5 to 6 kits per litter are not uncommon.
They are capable of remaining under water for 20 minutes. They are known for their damage; chewing boat
motor wires, burrowing into floating boat docks, burrowing into earthen dams,
which can lead to collapse, and of course the above mentioned atrocity to our customer’s pond.
It is trapping season so the homeowners can
set out some traps and try and catch this aquatic devil. I have seen several recipes online for ways
to grill, roast and sauté muskrat, which I may pass on to them.
I am with you, never liked that Muskrat Love song, mousey bubbles. ugh.
ReplyDeleteWe have them in the lake, have to keep our boat up high so they don't crawl into the boat and chew through who knows what. Those holes in the pond liner are pretty amazing.