badger

[larryz]

I believe that we have a badger or badgers living about 20 ft from our home. The builder dumped some broken up concrete and partially buried it near the house. I saw what looked to be a badger(white on face) yesterday and found hole with tunneling. We ran a water hose for a good half hour or more and never saw any water come out or any critters. Any ideas?

[bobbymalone]

have a kid? give em a flashlight and a 1911.

[K_Josh87]

you could pump water in there with a fire truck and they will dig faster than you can pump and block it off. Dynamite, excavator, some sort of poisonous gas... dozer... or a combination off all... we have some in a field and have yet to get them up rooted... it is supposed to be tiled this year, thinking of digging them out while the equipment is there... we have to watch for the holes as they can reak havoc with equipment...we've been contemplating devising an over sized gopher blaster... but that may be frowned upon, and not to mention a little iffy on the first pull... but a good story if it worked out! :-) The neighbor who traps on the land has also tried trapping the badgers with no success... so, not sure what the right answer is... but i know they are tough to get... if you've seen them out, I would set with something that makes big bang and wait for them... maybe a trail cam set if you have one and see if you can pattern them a bit... once again, just a couple ideas...

[jparrucci]

Maybe you can borrow my buddies German wirehair, that dog has a taste for badger blood. I've seen it kill two of them. We couldn't believe what we saw the second time, the dog actually tossed the badger high into the air, saw it tumbling head over heals over the tops of tall catails. Dog did not have a scratch either time. His nemesis is porcupines, been to the vet to get the quills pulled from his tongue and throat

[motley man]

Video of that dog and badger would be great!! They are one bad critter. They will move on in time. If it's in your yard, be careful. Don't screw with it if you don't know how. Find a friend or local trapper to take care of it. Contact local DNR and they will set you up with a trapper or someone to get the beast.

[Grayfox]

We end up trapping a couple every year with dirt hole sets over here but unfortunately have to let them go because they're protected.

Try burying the hole back up and see if it opens it up again.

From what I've seen over here they tend to travel a bit. They seem to always show up where there are a lot of pocket gophers in the area and then move on.

Rob

[slimngrizzly]

WHat the best way to trap them Grayfox? How big of a trap? and what do you use for a bait?

I have a ton of gophers and some big badger holes. I would love to get a nice badger!

Thanks

[Grayfox]

We caught this guy with a 1-3/4 Victor in front of a large dirt hole using a breasted goose for bait. Caught him right in the pad of his left paw and no damage done. You can't imagine the size of the crater that those things can dig with one paw. That hole is hard to see in the picture but it's about 2 feet deep.

We've also plugged up both runs at a gopher hole and put a dead gopher at the bottom(minus his tail) and then set the same 1-3/4 at the entrance to the hole and caught a few

Rob.

[K_Josh87]

looks to me like he dig his own grave.... sss....

[Dave S]

we used to have a few in my area but I think they've moved 10 miles east to Le Center

They were digging holes through the road and alongside the blacktop. There were no new mounds this year so I'm assuming someone else either got them, they died of natural causes or moved on.

[K_Josh87]

The field these have been in are up by the water tower in cleveland. we will find out here shortly if they are still out there or not... Bossman is thinking they may have moved on... I have no idea what there patterns are like... but the last three years they have been dug in out there, and have made a huge mess out of the field... and you have to watch for the holes so we don't end up busting an axle on something! Cool looking critters, but other than that, not much fun...

[slimngrizzly]

Im going to have to give it a try! Late in the year they sure get some nice looking fur! Thanks for the pointers!