|
|
Post by coonboy on Oct 2, 2012 16:40:14 GMT -6
When do rat start building houses for the winter?
|
|
|
|
Post by thorsmightyhammer on Oct 2, 2012 17:00:12 GMT -6
Anytime after the fourth of July
|
|
|
|
Post by coonboy on Oct 2, 2012 20:27:49 GMT -6
So would now be a good time to look for places to trap this winter?
|
|
|
|
Post by cdanneman on Oct 2, 2012 20:50:52 GMT -6
i have been scouting for the last few month now and did some more today after work I'm really getting the itch to start trapping glad the season is right around the corner.
|
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Oct 3, 2012 6:30:16 GMT -6
steven- this of course only applies to the upper mississippi area, but during the couple sept/octs I did the otter trapping, I was actually shocked to see how late they were building their huts. ealry and mid sept there seemed to be almost no houses, then the last few weeks of sept early oct they were springing up all over.
water/temps were "normal' for those years (2001 & 2002)
when do you think the majority of your areas houses are built?
|
|
|
|
Post by thorsmightyhammer on Oct 3, 2012 6:37:56 GMT -6
October fifteenth give or take in earnest it seems to me.
I was being a little bit of a smart alec when i said after the 4th.
Evry year is different and a first frost really seems to get them going. Maybe its only that it gets me going and I pay attention more.
Rats are building houses in the southern half right now. I havent been looking at home. You wont find many if any rat houses within fifteen miles of my house. I'll start looking about the twentieth due to time constraints.
|
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Oct 3, 2012 6:50:37 GMT -6
thanks
that matches what I see as well.
we were lucky to have some early big rains, so aren't sitting too bad waterwise, but the rivers are down some
|
|
|
|
Post by blackhammer on Oct 3, 2012 7:18:33 GMT -6
October fifteenth give or take in earnest it seems to me. I was being a little bit of a smart alec when i said after the 4th. Evry year is different and a first frost really seems to get them going. Maybe its only that it gets me going and I pay attention more. Rats are building houses in the southern half right now. I havent been looking at home. You wont find many if any rat houses within fifteen miles of my house. I'll start looking about the twentieth due to time constraints. No one likes a smart alec.  |
|
|
|
Post by cflann on Oct 3, 2012 8:20:42 GMT -6
In our neck 'o the woods (or prairie, as the case may be) I've noticed the rats just this last week starting up in earnest with the house building.
|
|
|
|
Post by cflann on Oct 3, 2012 8:22:48 GMT -6
Hope they know about the housing bubble with the western ND oil industry.
Get it...housing bubble....muskrats build houses.....I need some coffee
|
|
|
|
Post by thebeav2 on Oct 3, 2012 8:39:36 GMT -6
Cflann
So your telling me you have water In your neck of the woods. Looks pretty dry In my area of ND.
Aound here In WI the rats seem to start after a real heavy killing frost. Which would probably be around the middle of Oct.
|
|
|
|
Post by cflann on Oct 3, 2012 8:57:19 GMT -6
Not alot of water, but some. Pretty much all of our seasonal or temporary ponds are dry, but most semipermanents still have some water in them. Our only saving grace was how wet we were going into this dry spell.
But, to be sure, quite a few of the spots I trapped rats last year are dry as a bone now.
I'm kind of in the central part of the state, by Jamestown.
|
|
|
|
Post by motrapperjohn on Oct 3, 2012 15:41:39 GMT -6
Set up a slough opening day last fall and had 2 huts, 3 days later there was 12 on probly 4 acres. This year its planted in winter wheat.
|
|
|
|
Post by thorsmightyhammer on Oct 3, 2012 16:55:57 GMT -6
Not last year but the year before the rats didnt start really building houses hard at home until the end of october, maybe even the first week of november seen some construction.
Chris, it might be a rat housing bubble if we dont get some moisture soon. They'll build the houses in that 18 inch two foot of water and come first of January it'll be high and dry.
|
|
|
|
Post by calvin on Oct 4, 2012 2:43:39 GMT -6
Year to year is different as posted. Yes, two years ago they build most after opener. Last year wasn't much better here. This year far far ahead of the last two years....they building now as I see new huts daily in the last week.
I am wondering if it has something to do with when the leaves fall. I don't think it's temp related.
|
|
|
|
Post by seldom on Oct 4, 2012 5:48:15 GMT -6
Talk about ironic! One of my property owners called me just last weekend to tell me what great a job I did last winter cleaning the rats out of his pit. He told me that last year there were 31 huts and now there isn't a single one. ;D ;D ;D. Told him to keep watching because there will be. With how dry this summer was and his pit the only real water in miles, there'll be rat huts. He was not quite as happy when he hung up, ;D. His pit is a good example how cattails will get pushed out by phragmities..
|
|
|
|
Post by cflann on Oct 4, 2012 7:00:23 GMT -6
If need be, do those muskrats build huts and feed on phragmites or do they just move on?
|
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Oct 4, 2012 7:08:21 GMT -6
|
|
|
|
Post by seldom on Oct 4, 2012 14:05:51 GMT -6
Yup, I've never caught a skinny one there! It is really amazing how their roots send out these long red stringers across dry ground for 10-15 yds, maybe further as a casual observation.
|
|
|
|
Post by northof50 on Oct 18, 2012 12:47:05 GMT -6
Where there is water is Sask, it looks like a war zone, each 10 acre pothole has 20 huts built.
My rats got flooded out and washed out last week with a early wind storm..
|
|
