Badger in the barn!

[BobT]

I have a situation I’m hoping someone can help. We have a pole building that we use for a horse barn. It has a dirt floor. In one corner of the building I built an 8’ x 12’ room that we use for storing tack and grain. In one corner of this room we have a wood pallet on the floor that we use to stack our feed sacks. About 2 weeks ago it appears that badger has decided to make a home under that pallet. He hasn't bothered the feed but he does bother me.

Any ideas how we can get him to leave or otherwise get rid of him? I certainly don’t want to be caught inside a 8’ x 12’ room with a PO’d badger on my hands or worse, my children.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Bob

[Bobb-o]

not sure what the regs are for trapping badgers, but a 220 or 330 conibear would prob be your best bet

[fishinchicks]

Inside a tack shed, I would try trapping it first. Tack isn't cheap. You wouldn't want to run the risk of wrecking it by shooting the badger in there.

Those are mean little buggers! We wouldn't let our kids anywhere near the area when a badger made a hole in our yard. It was done in by a .22 eventually.

[Valv]

Trap first, otherwise put a water hose on the hole, 12 gauge with buckshot in your hands, chair.....sit and wait.

Be ready, he won't be happy, but be sure you are not too close or the spatter will be all over. If you can shoot well a .22 will work better.

Now that I think of beware of incoming frost season, all that water in the hole will freeze up and possibly bother the poles of your barn.

[Ryan_V]

I would definetly live trap it. a havahart trap in racoon size is pretty inexpensive at any farm store. not sure what you'd use to bait him in there. then you can safely carry him out of there and relocate or otherwise resolve the problem, I'd recommend killing it, chances are unless you bring him far enough away, he'll find his way back. another option you have is to buy giant destroyers. these look like small sticks of dynamite that when lit, throw off gas that will kill your unwanted guest. you light one and place it down the hole and it gasses the burrows out. if there is more than one hole, plug all but one and stick a destroyer in, let it get going good, then cover the holeup with a rock or something to make sure the gas stays in to do the job. these are also very inexpensive at any hardware store. can you tell I used to do pest control for a living??

[boxcar46]

Have you seen the badger. If not it might be a woodchuck. Just wondering.

boxcar46

[Papa Grump]

My guess is that it's a woodchuck also. I had a big problem with them this year around the farm and had a friend trap them out. we ended up with getting 5 of them this late summer/fall , finally getting the female last week after 4 weeks of setting up traps in the holes.Crazy thing is that when I use to have a dog around, we didn't have any woodchucks, now in the 4 years since the last one died, I bet I have trapped/shot 10 of the varmits. Ask around, I bet there is somebody willing to trap them out for you.

[BobT]

At first I thought possibly a woodchuck also except that we haven't had many of them around for over 10 years once we introduced our barn cats. They're about half wild and there's enough of them to keep the woodchucks at bay. Besides, the tack room has activity in it everyday and up till now, the woodchucks seem to stay clear of places that have too much activity.

The hole is approximatley 12" in diameter and from my experience very much resembles a badger den. I could still be wrong.

As far as using a shotgun or rifle. I don't think I want to be discharging a firearm inside a small room. I'd likely put myself at as much risk as the creature. Besides, when this thing comes out of there, I'm sure he's going to be looking for a fight and the risk of missing will be too great. I don't enjoy the thought of being trapped inside a 8 x 12 room with a badger looking to do damage. I might be a bit larger than he is but my understanding is they are nothing to fool around with.

If I use a live trap, what would be a good bait suggestion?

Bob

[Flatlander]

There is one really good idea for trap bait. You could drive to Madison and steal Paul Bunyan's Axe. You may have more than one angry badger on your hands though.

[zent]

BobT,

Badgers will make many dens and don't always stay in one for very long, however I don't think I would want to start a fight with one by reaching into the den with anything. Badgers eat birds, reptiles, squirrels, rats, mice, and road kill. I would think if you baited with just about anything dead it would come into the trap.

Good luck and let us know how it works out. Zent

[BobT]

Thanks.

It first appeared about 2 weeks ago. When I entered the tack room I could hear it growling from within. The next day, I couldn't hear it after doing my best to disturb it so I shoveled the dirt back into the hole to close it up. I wanted to see if it would return. A few days later the hole was reopened. I have now reclosed it again. I'm hoping that to some degree it would get tired of the disturbance and decide to move on.

As a last resort, I'll try to bait and trap it and then take care of the problem.

Bob

[Steve Foss]

If you haven't seen it and aren't sure it's a badger, I'd still say a 'chuck is more likely, although I must say I've never heard a woodchuck growl. Badgers are wary of humans, and if you have activity in that barn/room every day, it's not likely a badger would hang around. Regardless, the options on trapping/eliminating remain the same. Badgers are weasels, and all the weasels eat meat, so kill a few sparrows or mice or something like that for bait.

[The Grebe]

I didn't read every post, someone may have already reccommended this, but if you want the critter gone, hook a flex pipe hose from the exhaust pipe on the vehicle and run it into the hole and gas em out, or gas em dead! Either way, badgers gone. Woodchucks gone. Fill in hole and let em recycle over the winter.

If you can hear em growling, he must be close to the surface...stick the barrel of the .22 auto into the hole and when you feel him biting the barrel, open up on em.

Last, but not least, if you can get ahold of some C-4 plastique, say 8-9 pounds.....

[BobT]

Hey Grebe. I like my pole barn.

Bob

[MJBo]

Just let a wolverine go in there. Whip that badgers tail.....

[FISHINGFARMER]

BobT:

Are you still finding the hole opened up in your barn?

If so post a reply, I might be able to help you out.

[SCUMFROG]

Pet-co sells this stuff called "Get out of my garden". Works great and is safe to use..

[BobT]

All was quiet for a while so I was beginning to think it was getting tired of being disturbed. This past weekend however, it returned and dug two new holes in the middle of our polebarn floor area in two different locations. It hasn't returned now for a couple days again.

Bob

[gorrilla]

I've seen a lot of odd ideas here. From a formerly active trapper like myself, I can highly recommend a 220 conibear style trap. They sell them at Fleet Farm. Have someone show you how to set them since they can be tough if you don't know how. When you set it, put it in the hole so the badger has to pass through it and BLAM... The beauty of the trap is it almost always a humane quick kill. Just make sure to brace through the springs to make it very solid with no wiggle and when you get it the way you want it, the LAST THING YOU DO to the trap is unhook the safety catches on the springs.

Make sure you solidly stake or wire the trap to something and keep pets and kids away from it. I have trapped badgers with a sheet of plywood over the hole before.

[FISHINGFARMER]

Bob:

Sounds like what happened to us this summer. Turned out to be woodchucks. We started by finding a hole under a pallet we had in a machine shed where half was rock and the other half is cemented to work on equipment.Didn't give it to much thought until we noticed a week or so later other holes showing up close to the first. I believe an earlier post suggested gas, this is the quickest way of solving your problem as it did ours. Use the exhaust from a vehicle(truck, skidsteer or lawnmower that are small to get to the places or buy a sulfer bomb.

Close all holes, except one and insert sulfer bomb or flex pipe and gas them! Tried traping them and they started to undermine the cement before we could get them. Not saying it isn't a badger, but sounds just like what was going on to us this summer. Either way get a handle on it quick because there starting a home and soon you will have more than one to contend with!!!

Good luck in getting rid of them.

Farmer