Beaver Removal Services

Beavers play an important role in a forest ecosystem: their damming activities provide food and habitat for various animal and plant species, as well as help tree seeds to sprout. It all sounds great until a beaver dam breaks open and floods roads and buildings with thousands of gallons of water. A beaver dam close to a residential area could be a ticking time bomb, but Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control knows how to disarm it. When it comes to beaver removal in Maryland, we offer a complete range of solutions for our customers in Anne Arundel County, Howard County, Montgomery County and throughout the state.

How We Solve Your Beaver Problem

Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control offers the following beaver removal services in Maryland:

• Beaver removal and beaver control: we will remove all existing beavers from your property by live-trapping them.
• Beaver-proof exclusion barriers: we will install a culvert guard to prevent beavers from blocking culvert pipes that run under roads and railroad tracks.
• Beaver dam removal and dam prevention barriers: we will take care of any debris from the beaver dam and restore the normal flow of water.
• Damage control: we can also install beaver-proof guards around trees to prevent beavers from damaging expensive ornamental trees on your property.

Beavers Building a Dam

Beavers can cause extensive damage to trees in their territory by eating bark and gnawing on wood.

Beavers inhabit every state in the mid-Atlantic region. Beavers build their lodges with twigs and mud in streams, creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes. These lodges tend to be fairly large and able to block a stream causing the water to flow around it into the forest. This doesn’t turn forest into a marshland—by creating these ponds beavers actually help forests repopulate themselves, as well as support countless species of birds, snakes, turtles, frogs, and more. However, when such a dam that’s built close to populated areas breaks open, this can create floods that damage roads, businesses, farms and homes. Beavers can also cause extensive damage to trees in their territory by chewing off the bark around the base of a tree. Often the trees are chewed to the point that they break and fall.

Beavers in Road Culverts

Beavers are great at plugging holes, and a culvert is just a big hole underneath the road.

Sometimes, beavers can either build dams in or block the entrance of road culverts. Culverts are designed to direct water underneath the road to prevent flooding. A blocked culvert during a heavy rain can lead to dangerous road conditions. Fortunately, there are several types of barriers, from culvert guards to fences, that can be used to keep the beavers out of culverts. Mid-Atlantic Wildlife Control is experienced in evicting beavers from culverts—contact us if you are having this problem.

More About Beavers

Beavers are the largest rodents in North America with the body length of 34 – 43 inches and weighing between 25 and 100lbs. They have a chunky stout body with brownish-black fur and short, stocky legs. Their large webbed hind feet are great for swimming, and the two strong front feet can hold mud, twigs and debris they use to construct their dams. Beaver’s large flat leathery tail serves for propulsion during swimming. Similar to squirrels, beavers have large front teeth that constantly grow, which is why beavers have to gnaw on wood to keep them at manageable length. They don’t actually eat the wood, but they will feed on bark, pond lilies, twigs, shrubs and other land and aquatic vegetation.

Mating and Reproduction

Beavers are active year round and are mostly nocturnal, although they do occasionally come out during daytime. They mate for life and breed between January and March. From April to June, the female will give birth to 3 to 5 young called kits. Beavers are very family-oriented and will live in colonies that include up to 3 generations of kits. Young beavers will leave the colony at 2 years old to establish their own territories. Colonies will mark their territories with mud mounds sprayed with an oily secretion from their anal glands.

Feeding Habits

Beavers store food by submerging it next to their lodge in preparation of the harsh winter months. During winter they may travel outside of their territory to locate food and will feed on the bark of larger softwood and hardwood trees.

Whether you live in Bethesda, Rockville or Annapolis, we offer complete beaver control, beaver removal and cleanup services to our clients in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC. Click the button below to get help with your beaver problem.