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Badgers | Badger Overview | Badger Damage Assessment | Badger Damage Management | Badger Resources | Badger Acknowledgements | ICWDM | Wildlife Species Information |
Contents |
Damage Prevention and Control Methods
Exclusion
Mesh fencing buried to a depth of 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) can exclude most badgers. The cost and effort to construct such fences, however, preclude their use for large areas.
Habitat Modification
Control of rodents, particularly burrowing rodents, offers the greatest potential for alleviating problems resulting from badger diggings. For example, controlling ground squirrels or pocket gophers in alfalfa fields will likely result in badgers hunting elsewhere.
Frightening
Badgers may be discouraged from a problem area by the use of bright lights at night. High-intensity lamps used to light up a farmyard may discourage badger predation on poultry.
Trapping
Badgers can be removed by using cage traps and/or leg-hold traps set like those for coyotes (see Coyotes). Snares have been used with mixed success (check your state regulations concerning the use of cable restraints). Badgers often return to old diggings. A good bait for badgers is a dead chicken placed within a recently dug burrow. Fur trapping may reduce badger populations locally, but badger pelts are generally of little value and most badgers are caught incidentally.
Leg-hold traps (No. 3 or 4) are adequate to hold a badger. Rather than staking the trap to the ground, it is better to attach it to a drag such as a strong limb or similar object that the badger cannot pull down into its burrow. Badgers will often dig in a circle around a stake, sometimes enough to loosen the stake and drag the trap away.
Shooting
Badgers can be controlled by shooting. Spotlighting, if legal, can be effective. Incidental shooting has contributed to reducing their numbers in some areas.
Summary of Damage Prevention and Control Methods
Exclusion
Generally not practical.
Habitat Modification
Controlling rodent populations may make habitats less suitable for badgers.
Frightening
Bright lights.
Repellents
None are registered.
Toxicants
None are registered.
Fumigants
None are registered.
Trapping
Steel leg hold traps. Live traps.
Shooting
Where permitted, shooting with a rifle, handgun, or shotgun is effective.
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Badgers | Badger Overview | Badger Damage Assessment | Badger Damage Management | Badger Resources | Badger Acknowledgements | ICWDM | Wildlife Species Information |
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