Author Topic: NUTRIAS? (Read 2939 times)

foto · « **on:** February 13, 2003, 02:59:26 PM »

Whats the deal with nutrias? Just got back from Louisianna and saw about 10 nutrias while fishing in the oil company canals for bass and redfish. Friend told me that they pay 4 bucks a tail for them but the paperwork from the state is a pain in *** so he didn't really go after em full bore. Said at night they are literally everywhere. From what he said it seems like nobody really goes after them with any real effort. Some of them were huge and their tunnels were everywhere. Anyone ever go after em in a serious manner. Seems very interesting. Never read any posts about them though. Anyone have any info on nutria hunting? Just curious.

Frog123 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2003, 08:25:04 PM »

I was watching a show the other day and it showed the SWAT team of the police dept culling nutrias. Seems they put a sniper and spotter in the bed of a pick up and go slowly alongside the canals that run through the town. The spotter illuminates the rodent and the sniper picks it off with a head shot with a suppressed bolt action .22 and a subsonic round. All this takes place in the wee hours of the morning so not that much attention is drawn to the officers. Looked like a lot of fun to me, better than some previous training exercises I've been involved with. As a matter of fact I wouldn't object to the local police officers on the midnight shift being armed with suppressed subsonic sniper rifles, maybe something in the line of a .300 whisper, and being authorized to kill whitetails inside the city limits where I live. Like most other places the suburban deer herd is growing at a tremendous pace. You can drive through the town between midnight and 5:00 am and see deer feeding in yards, vacant lots and alongside the road under street lights. I recently worked an accident where a deer came over the hood and through the windshield striking the driver in the head and chest nearly killing her. Suburban deer are not viewed as the same majestic animal of the woods, once they relocate to the city they are nothing more to me than a 150 lb rodent.

Frog :evil:

Lee D. · « **Reply #2 on:** February 26, 2003, 02:14:37 AM »

We used to hunt them on the edges of the rice fields in south Texas. Alot of fun and real good barbeque! Retrieving them was sometimes exciting (watermoccasins & alligators).

harley · « **Reply #3 on:** February 26, 2003, 06:40:38 AM »

Help a western boy understand. What the heck is a nutria?

Lee D. · « **Reply #4 on:** February 26, 2003, 06:55:04 AM »

Like a giant muskrat from south america. I shot some that I would guess at over 20#s.

jhm · « **Reply #5 on:** February 27, 2003, 03:37:59 PM »

Ken: Relax man get some decalf I cant completely agree with your complete post if we got rid of all of the stuff you wanted to get rid of we would not have anything to persue as our hunting interest goes, I cant see a complete extermanation of anything even like Rush said we need a couple liebrel just so we can study them and learn from their mistakes.

JIM

hntngirl · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2003, 08:55:40 AM »

:x We have alot of nutria in Oregon. They are not indigenous and do alot of damage to the banks of rivers, etc. This in turn hurts the ducks by destroying their nesting areas. Killing them is encouraged. When we see 'em we shoot 'em! And did somebody say they make good barbeque? Eeeeeeewwwwwww!!!! Don't think I could bring myself to eat one, but guess it's glad someone has a use for them! :lol:

Bim · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2003, 09:15:17 AM »

I heard they taste like chicken :-D

foto · « **Reply #8 on:** March 20, 2003, 06:37:27 PM »

Went back down for mardi gras and found out that they really are bureacrats about the whole thing. A ex of my sister in law was arrested and charged for shooting them at night. Seems he signed up for the bounty program but his paperwork was not entirely in order. They caught him shooting them at night with a .22 from a rowboat. He was open and not hiding or anything. Told them he was in the program but after careful evaluation they said the paperwork was not in order and properly filled out. He was charged with the "illegal shooting of a quadruped". Sounds like a heap of bull** from the sound of it. I mean a quadruped can be anything with four legs so it seems like they are using some generic law to get him for shooting animals that even the state wants killed, all because the paperwork was not properly filled out. Love going down there, but everything down there seems to revolve around who you know and who's campaign you contributed to. If I ever do go after them I will make sure I go with someone who is properly connected.

Mouskie · « **Reply #9 on:** March 23, 2003, 08:11:40 PM »

My wife's from Louisiana and one of her nephews lost a front tooth and had it replaced with a nutria tooth, implanted. I've always been skeptical of the story but all her relatives swear it's true.

Maybe they're all in cahoots, and enjoy stringing along the only Yankee that's dared take one of their kin away from the home fires.

williamlayton · « **Reply #10 on:** March 24, 2003, 12:48:55 AM »

they is jest very big rats--cajuns and others been eatin em fer years until food became easier ta get :wink: :wink:
i've hunted--hunted does'nt seem the right word as they don't hide--em forever cause they were summthin to shoot at.
blessings

myronman3 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2003, 02:19:23 PM »

mouskie: that "cousin had a tooth knocked out" story is the funniest thing i have heard in a long time.

:-D

willis5 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 31, 2003, 06:37:07 AM »

I am from maryland, but live in Ga now.

On the eastern shore of maryland there are a lot of marshes. those little buggers are everywhere and eating everytype of marsh vegetation. i shot one this past deer season with my 454 casull

teh best way that we have seen is to wait till it is BITTER cold and there is thick ice on the marsh, they huddle on the ice to keep warm and we destroy them with 22mags. a lot of fun, but you boys in LA don't get much ice. I hate them though.
Cheers,
willis5

detritus · « **Reply #13 on:** May 01, 2003, 07:20:53 PM »

Quote

had it replaced with a nutria tooth, implanted

If so it'd be ORANGE :eek:, real easy way to tell if they'are messing with you. which i think they are, don't you?? :grin:

Mouskie · « **Reply #14 on:** May 14, 2003, 08:44:07 PM »

Detritus, I believe you're right. But then again, my wife's nephew Jimmy doesnt smile but a little, and only then when he's eating ettouffe or sucking on crawfish heads. The nutria we see (and shoot) in the marshes around Swensen, OR on the lower Columbia River do have colored teeth, now that you mention it. How the big adults love to shred the ears of my friend's black lab retriever, Ebby! She goes after them while on a duck retrieve and getting her back into the blind takes half-a-day. Her ears look like the fringes on a buckskin shirt. She's never won a battle, except with the babies.

Hope they dont become as numerous as the sage rats we have out in the eastern part of the state. Just back from a shoot there. It's nothing to let fly a thousand rounds in a good day -- and they're all good days. Never saw such torn, dug up alfalfa fields in my life -- nor so much copper fouling in my rimfires.

JohnClif · « **Reply #15 on:** February 22, 2004, 12:37:57 AM »

I've shot them with .22s... in the marsh it's no problem to see them out hundreds of yards away.

I've shot them with a .30-'06 (with Accelerators and with 150gr PSPs). Boy, does that blow them up!

I've shot them with a .45 ACP, stalking along the edges of canals and trinosses.

I've shot one with a shotgun after it kept on trying to get into my pirogue in my duck blind and wouldn't take no for an answer.

They used to be trapped for their fur, but I guess no one wants to wear fur anymore... so they are becoming a problem.

Flash · « **Reply #16 on:** March 16, 2004, 06:36:59 AM »

Yep, I agree with Willis5, they are more harm to the Chesapeake than the commercial crabbers. They are eating the the shoreline marsh grasses and causing more erosion, which covers the oysters. I crab on the Wye and they're more abundant then the sea gulls in some spots.

HWooldridge · « **Reply #17 on:** March 16, 2004, 07:53:48 AM »

My uncle had a pecan orchard on the banks of the Perdenales River when I was a boy and the nutria would chew the young trees just like a beaver, so I was always employed to kill as many as possible. We always thought they were nasty and did not eat them but we did use the carcasses occasionally for coyote bait. We always used .22 rifles with great success since the low report didn't seem to spook them and 25-40 yds was the average shot. Sometimes, we would kill 10 or more in a day and then kill more that night by headlight. They are always active but especially during mating season. They cause a lot of damage to all kind of crops and also dig tunnels in the river banks, which then have a greater tendency to erode during floods.

Dogshooter · « **Reply #18 on:** March 16, 2004, 03:24:53 PM »

I lived in Louisiana a few years back and met a farmer down around Lake Charles. He was overrun with them and let me go out and shoot'em. A lot of fun if you get the chance.

Old Griz · « **Reply #19 on:** April 10, 2004, 04:51:40 PM »

:cb2: Don't know if it's true, but the story I was told was that Mr. McIlhenny, creator of that wonderful elixir called tabasco sauce, found the critters in South America and thought they could be bred for their fur like their cousin the beaver. He brought a bunch back to Louisiana all penned up, but a hurricane came through and destroyed the pens. The nutrias escaped and bred faster than bunnys. Now they're all over the place, but I ain't seen none down here in my neck of the woods. Yet.

Like I said, I don't know if that's true, but that's what you hear down on Avery Island where they make the pepper sauce.

TCAS · « **Reply #20 on:** May 02, 2004, 03:15:48 AM »

Nutria are just like city rats they serve no valueable purpose. See link for all you need to know. They destroy the fertile marshlands, see link below for all you need to know.

http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/nutria.html

Tom

Old Griz · « **Reply #21 on:** May 03, 2004, 06:36:48 PM »

:cb2: Do they let ya shoot those yellow fanged vermin in Maryland?

prairiedog555 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 14, 2006, 07:18:27 AM »

the story about McIlhenny is correct. Lived on the west bank of N.O. by Lafitte, La. before Katrina. In Jefferson parish the sherrif, Law and order Harry Lee innacted the order for his officers to shoot them in town in canals. He took a lot of flak for it, but the enviormentalists said they ruin the levys, so he did something about it. He is almost 80 and is sherriff for life. He is also a Chinese American, the coon ass's love him. It is a different city than N.O.
He also did something about the looters during Katrina. His guys kept them from crossing the Ms. river bridge into the West Bank. and shot and killed dozens that tried to loot and get drugs from the hospitals. The junkies did not evacuate. He is not politically correct, just right. Someday maybe the real story of what went on during Katrina will be told. The Sherriff told everybody not to come back till he said it was OK, and that your homes will be safe, and he ment it. Hardly any looting on the West Bank, and none of his cops desereted. When I did come back there were signs all over saying "Thanks Harry, we love you" I will miss the fishing, crawfish boils. and Harry.

alaskacajun · « **Reply #23 on:** November 15, 2006, 11:36:33 AM »

I have sat for a couple of hours heating the barrel up on a mini14 at my family's property South of Lake Charles..... And for the record dey call 'em Nutra's down dare, may.....

- Clint

prairiedog555 · « **Reply #24 on:** November 17, 2006, 04:12:05 AM »

The sheriff of Jeff parish wanted to get rid of the Nutras, so along with shooting them he got the local chefs together and had them put together recipes and had cookoffs. I went to one and tried a number of them. Pretty good. Of course any mammall meat probabally tastes good rubbed in cajun spice or smothered, or put in jumballya. Much better than that stinky Gator that everybody eats down there. It tastes good too, like tender pork, but I went alligator hunting and what they eat, pooeee, their favorite bait is rotton smelly chicken.
Actually the Nutra eats water plants and is clean, no reason not to eat it if you can eat a rabbit or squirril.
I have gone to many wild game dinners where they serve lion, elephant, hippo snake ect. With a few drinks I have tried it all. Now I draw the line on anything that eats meat.

alaskacajun · « **Reply #25 on:** November 17, 2006, 06:58:28 AM »

I caught one in my duck blind once it was the size of a small lab rat. I put it my pocket and said that if it didn't bite me I would take it home and keep it as a pet. When I got home Mom said that thing wasn't coming anywhere near the house. After a few days she bought a cage to keep it in the house then it was allowed to roam free in the house while we were up. When it had to "go" it would go by the door and I would let it out. It would run to the pond in the yard and "go!" It wouldn't potty in the house, something about having to be in the water I guess..... I kept him for about 3 years, then he eventually roamed further and further from the yard to the nearby ponds. Eventually he found a mate and started a new life about a mile from my house. For a about a year after he left I could go to that pond and call his name and he would swim to me but wouldn't let me pet him. I would sit on the bank and feed him apple's and sweet potatoes.... His name was Tooter!

- Clint

Ahab · « **Reply #26 on:** November 19, 2006, 07:42:03 AM »

I too came from the eastern shore of Maryland where the Nutria are overtaking the Muskrat. Yes, they are delicious. Hard to get except by trapping. If I remember correctly, you can't hunt them at night when they are active. (unless they changed the law)