Beavers are well-known as troublemakers in remote rural areas for damming up waterways and affecting farming, waterway navigation, and flood control. They are becoming more prevalent near cities as people move to our area, and construction and development cause conflict with their populations. Beavers regularly move around when weather patterns and water availability changes.

Beavers are social animals and normally build out their nests, known as lodges, near ponds, lakes, and running waterways. Some lodges are rather large, and they dig tunnels for underwater access to the inside of their nests. In many suburban areas, however, they do not build the large lodges we normally associate with them. They do still dig burrows in the banks along the waters they use and establish trails to and from their preferred feeding areas, and they can travel longer distances when their preferred foods are harder to find. Training and experience allow us to inspect the areas around waterways and ponds or lakes to find evidence of beaver trails and “runs.”

Beavers can quickly cause significant damage to mature trees in suburban locations. While they may not immediately cause trees to fall, their gnawing causes structural injury that can either impair a tree’s growth or cause disease that eventually kills the tree. They are herbivores and prefer softwood trees such as willows, pine, fruit, and nuts. They also regularly harm shrubs and ornamental landscaping plants by feeding on them. In addition to tree and plant damage, they cause damage to levees and ponds through their burrowing and weakening of earthen structures containing water.

Our team of wildlife control experts can inspect your property to determine where beavers are lodging or entering. Based on our knowledge of their behaviors and habits, we trap them on your property without harming them. Effective trapping depends on our expertise and knowledge of their movements and their preferred foods during different seasons. Our experience reading the physical clues they leave behind gives us the information to properly place and bait the live traps we select for specific conditions. We regularly check the traps at the proper times, and when we have secured them, humanely remove them from your property.

After we have removed them, we will consult with you about the proper methods and structural changes needed to prevent future intrusion. Depending on your particular circumstances, we can recommend the best exclusionary techniques and conduct follow-up inspections to ensure that they are working correctly to keep beavers away.

Gold Coast Wildlife Control is a locally owned and operated family business dedicated to providing top customer service to the Northern California area. Owner Dalton Stephenson operates Gold Coast with a professional and active approach to detecting and preventing wildlife intrusion and damage. We handle many nuisance species carefully and humanely and take the proper steps to clean and remediate your property and exclude unwanted animals in the future. We are the area’s nuisance wildlife control specialists. Contact us today for an estimate and more information about our services.