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Prairie Dog Removal

Prairie dogs are a species of rodent that are native to the grasslands of North America. They live primarily underground where they dig their tunnels and dens and can often be seen with their heads poking up from mounds to scout an area for danger or predators. Prairie dogs are medium sized subterranean rodents that will reach up to a foot in length and weigh a few pounds when they reach adulthood. They have a variety of coat colors, small facial features and can stand on two legs as well as on all fours. Most people see them as harmless critters, but they can be quite aggressive when defending their territory.

Prairie dogs can cause you a lot of frustration and money if you are a farmer, gardener or landscaper living near a plains area. Prairie dogs are incessant diggers and eat a diet comprised mainly of plants and vegetable roots. For those who are proud of their landscaping work in their yard, prairie dogs will ruin the look of your yard in no time. Their tunnels will kill your grass, mounds will dot your lawn and the weakened surface of the ground can even collapse. Prairie dogs will also eat any plants roots that they come into contact with which can devastate your vegetable gardens and valuable food crops. Prairie dogs can also carry diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to you or your pets through their droppings, bites and scratches. If you have prairie dogs that you want to get rid of, try some of these do it yourself tips to get rid of them.

You can always try to trap the prairie dogs but this is very hard, if not impossible, to do. It is extremely hard to trap prairie dogs as a way to get rid of them because there is just too many of them. They reproduce quickly and are wary of anything that seems out of place to them, so if they even catch the slightest scent of human on the trap they will not go anywhere near it. Furthermore, it is illegal to trap animals in most states, so make sure to check on this before you set any traps.

Many people will turn to poisons to get rid of prairie dogs, but you should never do this as a first line of defense. Poisons are messy and they are dangerous to the rest of the wildlife, including the pets, in your area. The last thing you want is to poison an innocent animal instead of the prairie dogs. Poisons are not guaranteed to work either, and it could cause the prairie dog to go to an unreachable place to die which can poison the water supply as well as stink really bad.

There are fumigants that are available to you, but this is a really inhumane way to deal with the problem as is suffocates them and burns them badly. Fumigants work by blocking the entrances to their tunnels except one and then you drop the fumigant in the remaining open entrance. After this is done you need to fill in the mounds and tunnels to discourage any other subterranean rodents from moving into the abandoned tunnels.

There are some repellents that are available in chemical sprays or in predator urine scents which includes foxes, coyotes and king snake scents. However, these repellents do not work as well as they say they do and you could be wasting your money in the long run. They wear off quickly and have to be applied on a weekly basis and if you live in an area that gets a lot of rain it is almost useless. The best way to get rid of prairie dogs is to call in professionals who have the equipment and the knowledge of how to get rid of them.

Read my How to Kill Prairie Dogs page for more information.
How To Get Rid of Prairie Dog - Tips and steps for getting rid of prairie dogs.