Nutria Explosion Could Reach South Carolina

[Lawdog]

COLUMBIA, SC--South Carolina wildlife officials say they're concerned nutria might soon be making their way into the state's Savannah and Pee Dee river basins.
The animals, which look like a mix between a beaver and a rat, can weigh up to 20 pounds and have become a nuisance in several Southern states because they eat marsh plants and dig through dams. They're enough of a problem in Louisiana that hunters and trappers there get a $4 bounty for each nutria tail they turn in.
Nutria have been documented in almost every Southern state since first being brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s. But as of yet they haven't been documented in South Carolina, according to the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
DNR officials, however, say some nutria might have already entered South Carolina, but there have been no confirmed reports.
Either way, the DNR says it's not sure whether there's anything it can do to prevent the animals from coming into South Carolina since nutria are currently found both to the north and south.

A new varmint for the SC hunters to enjoy or a real pest coming?  Lawdog
 

[Glanceblamm]

Lawdog
I didn't know much about these until just last week. A contractor who is from out of state on my job site was saying he had one cooking on his grill. Said it smelled real bad. Guess he called his friend who came up with the suggestion to come and get it. The friend did do this and reportedly ate all of it.
Sounded pretty bad to me but then again I guess you can always eat a opposum or a dillo. :roll:

[oso45-70]

Glanceblamm,

 They do taste like chicken don't they......Joe.......

[Glanceblamm]

Purdy close Joe
Maybe add a potato or two to soak up the grease not that I am admiting to anything. You would have to come up here & catch me to find out!.

[ironglow]

SC hunters;

   Get yourself an Airedale dog, grab your rifle and enjoy !

[JohnClif]

When I lived in south Louisiana, we'd hunt these critters with everything from a .22 LR to a .30-'06 to a 1911 in .45 ACP.

The .22 LR really isn't big enough, but you're shooting nutrias mostly on marshland and they can't hide. They usually give a good jump with the first round out of a .22 but come down in the same place. You know you've shot them enough times when they stop jumping (two or three shots). This is a game for the .22 autoloader.

The .30-'06 (with Accelerators) is sure death on them. My closest shot was just across a canal, maybe 40'. I was walking to a vantage point when a sudden movement startled me, and I slowly brought the rifle to bear on the previously-hidden nutria. It was so close that all I could see was blurry yellow teeth, so I held on them and squeezed. It rained nutria meat, and when I got the rifle out of recoil I could see scraps of bloody fur hanging in the undergrowth but no nutria. I figure the bullet opened up on its skull and just shredded it.

The .45 ACP with 185gr hollow-points will anchor them, and shooting running nutria with a 1911 is just about one of the finest sports around. It's right up there with hunting armadillos with a .45 auto. In fact, nutria and armadillo are great targets for defensive handguns with defensive ammo. I can tell you that ball won't anchor them.

Re eating them, I've heard from reliable sources that they are pretty good eating... but I have never worked up the nerve to enjoy a nutria barbeque myself. What they say about Cajuns, that they'll eat anything, is pretty much the truth. I've had gar balls (not testicles, balls of gar meat coated in batter and deep-fried) and they're very tasty. I've had alligator tail and it's very tasty. We all know about boudin, and it's good... just don't try and find out what's in it. One of my Cajun girlfriends tried to get me to eat ponce (cow stomach) and the mere sight of a swollen cooked stomach almost made me heave all over her family's kitchen. No thanks... I'll stick to the turkey and ham and leave the stuff you're supposed to throw out when you clean an animal alone.

[lama]

I shoot nutria constantly during duck season.  La. regs are pretty stupid regarding this pest.  Yes, there is a bounty but it's not worth the hoops you have to jump through to collect.  Furthermore, there is a five per day limit during nutria season and you must remove the carcass.  This makes no sense.  If they want to get rid of the darn things they should let us shoot year round with no limits.  They are voracious eaters.  They ate all the brush off one of our duck blinds in less than a week.  I did kill two of that guilty party.  A .223 works wonders.

[Doc RD]

I read in one of the gun-rag magazines a few years ago about these critters coming from So. Am.  The people down there eat them all the time.  In fact they had asked the Catholic Church to declare them a "fish" so that they could eat them on Fridays.   :grin:  So the church granted their request.

I just hope that they don't make it up here (AK).  They'd eat off all of the tundra and leave the caribou to starve. :-D   Of course, they would be great wolf bait too.  :roll:  They would be easier to skin than a porcupine I'd guess.

Later, Doc RD

[Dogshooter]

from your title I thought you were talking about hunting nutrias like we did when I was a kid. Dynamite.

[S.S.]

I'm glad you posted this!
I have been seeing something swimming in
my favorite fishing creek the last few times I was there.
I didn't know what the heck they were!
Not Beaver, Not Muskrats either. I am going to have to research
Nutria now and see what they look like.

[S.S.]

Thats the Very CRITTER!
Looks like a Beaver with a hairy Opossum tail.
They are in West Central Georgia, I can assure you.
What do you do with them when you shoot them?
Fur worth anything?

[Lawdog]

S.Sumner,

What do you do with them when you shoot them?
Fur worth anything?

Excellent questions and I hope someone here can answer them.  All I know is back when I was a kid some fool planted a mated pair in an attempt to get rid of tules around his docks in Clear Lake, Ca.(this was back in the 1960”s).  Someone told him that Nutria ate tules(I don’t know if they do or not) but they sure are prolific.  The Sheriff’s Department in conjunction with Fish & Game and with the help of some of the local Lions Club members killed over 50 of them in an attempt to rid them from the lake.  I don’t remember how successful they were but at least I haven’t seen any recently(although I wasn’t really looking).  Lawdog
 

[PeterF.]

When I was a kid (early/mid-50s), magazines like Boys' Life used to have ads, "Raise Nutria!" (also flying squirrels, giant frogs, etc.).  Suggestion was that you'd raise them (the nutria, anyway) for fur ... like muskrat.  I think that's where the first batch came into the U.S.  Then they just kind of got loose and took over ... like kudzu.  As far as eating ... well, some folks will eat darn-near anything; think about the first guy who thought a lobster (or a clam) looked edible.

[SAWgunner]

Heh heh...I love telling all these Westerners stories from back home.  I don't know how many times I have had to explain what Nutrias, Kudzu, Boudan, and so on and so forth, are.  I remember having to kill those things in duck blinds before we could go in down in Louisiana.  My Auto 5 make a quick mess of them.


SAWgunner

[cal sibley]

My understanding is that they were originally imported from S. America to hold down the weedy grass in the Florida canals which were being choked out by unwanted growth.  However, the nutria doesn't seem to have any natural enemies to speak of, and they've flourished, quite common now in adjoining states.  A guy in Oregon imported them for the fur, had thousands of them.  However, the fur didn't sell well, and he let them loose and closed up his operations.  Oooooh, now they're all over the state.  Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal