Here at Virginia Wildlife Pros, we provide comprehensive beaver removal and control services in Richmond, Virginia, including beaver proofing, beaver damage repair, wildlife cleanup, and management. Like all living organisms in our surrounding Eco-systems, beavers have an ecological role to some extent. Their dams often benefit other species of wildlife, such as shorebirds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and waterfowl like ducks and geese. Although a keystone species, when their nuisance activities create conflicts within our territories, intervention is necessary.

Our Richmond VA beaver trappers can deliver safe and humane solutions for problematic beavers using a combination of proven methods, quality materials, and cutting edge technologies. Whether you want to get rid of beavers entirely or better manage them so that they do not disturb your property, we can help. Contact us at 804-292-0156 to request a free phone quote or advice, or to schedule an assessment with a licensed and insured wildlife control operator in Richmond. We serve all of Henrico County, as well as the Charlottesville, Midlothian, and Mechanicsville, Virginia areas.

Beaver Damages and Threats

Here in Virginia, we have North American beavers (Castor Canadensis). They are a semi-aquatic species which means they are land and water animals. Beavers are part of the Rodentia order, so they are actually rodents; the second largest extant rodent behind the Capybaras. They are notorious for building dams and lodges (dens) to create their own custom wetlands around ponds, rivers, lakes, and deep creeks. As herbivores, beavers primarily dine on tree bark, river plants, sedges, and grasses, but routinely sharpen their long incisors by gnawing on tree trunks and any other available woody material. There is often more than one beaver to a single lodge since males and females pair up for life and reproduce up to 4 baby beavers (called kits) per year. In fact, beavers prefer to live cooperatively in larger groups and will eagerly build multiple lodges to accommodate their growing clan.

All of these attributes and natural instincts can be bad news for anyone dealing with a nuisance beaver problem in Richmond. Beavers are one of the most destructive species of wildlife in the Virginia region. From dam building and bank burrowing to incessant chewing, tree gridling, tree felling, and more, beaver activity and tampering can generate thousands of dollars in damages in a very short amount of time. Even in smaller numbers, beavers can wreak havoc on the structural integrity and safety of a property. Beaver dams can obstruct or create blockages in culverts, sewers, road ditches, and drainpipes. They can also flood roadways, train tracks, waterways, bridges, croplands, tree farms, urban and suburban lots, commercial lots, and more. Such flooding can damage edifices, foundations, water banks, reservoir levees, and overpasses, even causing them to collapse.

Nuisance beaver threats do not stop at structural and environmental damage. Beavers are also known to carry and transmit diseases such as Tularemia, Giardiasis, and even the Rabies virus. In fact, there have been several cases of rabies in beavers at Lake Anna in Louisa County, Virginia. Not only do beavers contaminate local water sources with Giardia lamblia, but they also carry other types of internal parasites and ectoparasites, including nematodes, trematodes, and coccidia. If you have curious outdoor pets or young children, these illnesses and parasitic infections could threaten their safety. This also applies to homes that source their water from an underground well.

Beaver Trapping and Beaver Proofing

As you can see, beavers are worthy of control and abatement. If you live near marshy waters or wetlands, your property could be a target for nuisance beaver activity. If you already know you have a beaver population nearby, beaver proofing and beaver trapper are your two best courses of action. Here at Virginia Wildlife Pros, we offer humane critter control programs for beavers, including environmental modifications and species-specific installations for beaver management, such as “Beaver Deceivers” and “Beaver Bafflers.” These beaver pond leveler devices can be installed in ponds and dams for those who do not want to get rid of beavers, but rather, control their scope of activity for the sake of property protection.

When beavers do need to be removed, our experienced wildlife control operators rely on scientifically proven strategies and state-of-the-art beaver traps to catch and transport them to a faraway habitat that is safe and secluded. We only use the best quality traps and cages for beaver removal that ensure the safe and humane handling of beavers, including body grip, foothold, and cable restraint traps. Furthermore, we are fully licensed and insured, and operate our business in accordance with industry best practices, and more importantly, all local, state, and EPA regulations that govern wildlife.

Contact us at 804-292-0156 to learn how to get started with beaver removal and control in Richmond, Virginia, today.

Adult beavers can weigh between 35 and 40 pounds. They have stocky bodies, a dense coat of brown fur, long incisor teeth, webbed feet, and a paddle-like tail covered in black scales. Many people often mistake muskrats for beavers, not just because they look alike, but also because muskrats are known to take over vacant beaver lodges. Beavers are found all across North America. Here in Virginia, beavers typically live in marshes, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, or deep creeks. However, they can also make their habitats in manmade structures like reservoir levees, dams, irrigation ditches, and culverts. Beavers are herbivorous, which means they eat herbaceous foods like mushrooms, sedges, leaves, grasses, roots, shrubs, aquatic plants, woody plants, and deciduous tree bark. They particularly like pond lilies, clovers, aquatic plants, and ferns. It is important that you never attempt to approach a beaver in any form or fashion. If you see one, keep your distance. Beavers are well-known to be extremely aggressive and will attack to defend their territory if they feel like it is being encroached upon. Not only do they have long, sharp teeth that will bite right through your flesh, but they can also transmit diseases through bite attacks, such as tularemia, parasites, and rabies. Beavers are chewing up your trees for multiple reasons. Not only do they eat the inner flesh of deciduous trees, known as the cambium, but they also eat the twigs, leaves, and any fruit that might be growing from them. Beavers will intentionally fell a tree just to get access to the canopy. Not only do they eat the twigs and leaves, but they use them to build their dams and lodges. A single beaver can cut down up to 200 trees in just one year. Additionally, they gnaw on tree trunks to sharpen their long, chisel-like incisor teeth. This is known as tree girdling, which poses several dangers because it can cause trees to fall over. As mentioned, they often do this deliberately, especially to young trees. Although beavers are not listed as a threatened or protected species under Federal law, you must have an active nuisance wildlife permit to trap beavers in Virginia. Licensed fur trappers may also trap beavers during trapping season. Those caught trapping or hunting beavers without a valid license or permit will be harshly penalized on a state level. Contact Virginia Wildlife Pros when you need to get rid of beavers in Richmond.

Request Beaver Control Service

Are you a timber company suffering losses due to beavers chewing up your lumber? Are you a homeowner who has a beaver lodge flooding the property? Perhaps you are a homeowners’ association that needs help controlling the beaver populations in your housing development? Regardless of size or scope, Virginia Wildlife Pros has the affordable and effective answer to professional beaver removal and management.

Contact us today at 804-292-0156 to speak with a wildlife control operator about getting rid of beavers in Richmond, Virginia. We serve residential and commercial customers throughout Central Richmond and its outer counties, including Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, and Albemarle County.