Aplodontia wars (Mountain Beaver) have started over here again
(Bellevue-Eastgate) after a three year quiet period. Coming up from the ravine where
they've been all along (and others still are), they have been ravaging the
hostas (3 clumps and into a 4th, and 2 ferns, both somewhat exotic ones
that I planted). Hostas are pretty much done for the season anyway and I was
okay with losing the lower ones, but the ferns, neither of which had ever
been touched before, was too much and with each harvesting sortie, the
insurgency was growing worse, expanding in foraging range, and the little
buggers were just getting into the habit of foraging in the yard and gardens
which they hadn't done for a long time. After actually seeing one running
across the patio Sunday evening and right by me in my chair on the porch at
arm's reach, I figured it was time to try and catch that guy. After starting
in on the 4th patch of hostas the next day, it was as simple as following
the "cookie crumbs" (hosta leaves dropped along the way) for some 60 paces
to it's [not so] secret lair and main most recently trafficked burrow
entrance among the dozen or more others on the steep ravine slope. I put a trap
(havahart) there heavily baited with fresh romaine and less than 24 hours
later, I got him, #15 since about year 2000, then immediately
'thirty-eighted' (code specific for Aplodontia catch & release, secret but harmless
location to all interests) miles and miles away off premises. But where
there's one, there's always two I always say, so keep trapping. This morning
and only 60 hours after this campaign began, #2 (#16 cumulative) was in the
same trap at the same burrow entrance. I'm really really good at this btw,
gloat, gloat!

Record time too, 60 hours total trap time, one trap, and ONLY one head of
romaine ($1.99 from Albertson's)for the whole operation, so this operation
was really on the cheap. Usually, these operations to capture both can take
two to three weeks, multiple traps, and several heads of romaine since the
bait always needs to be fresh and crisp, so just 60 hours on just one
head is pretty amazing. Once in the trap, they are hungry hungry beasts and
eat every piece of lettuce including the core leaving not a shred, and I was
checking the traps three times a day so none of the animals were ever in
there very long. With all the romaine in the trap all consumed this morning
and mountain beaver still in the havahart, I rounded up all the hosta
leaves still left strewn across the yard from a couple days ago and tossed
those in to 'tide it over' for the road trip ahead, and instantly it went to
chowing down on those, chomp chomp, crunch crunch, and upon reaching the
point of release, even those were all gone.

Despite the Mountain Beaver's oft times destructive behavior especially
for home owners, gardners, and landscapers in urban areas, and for foresters
and timber companies in areas of new forest growth, they're still adorable
little things and a uniquely Pacific Northwest endemic in addition to being
the most primitive still existing rodent on the evolutionary chart as well
as hosting the world's largest known flee. Well, the mountain beavers
themselves are not so "little" really, rather, about the size of a tailless
muskrat, tiny ears, quite stocky, and actually surprisingly heavy by weight
for their size, but still cute as a button IMHO. Tiny little beady black
eyes, they're fairly blind thus are usually quiet, calm, and oblivious in the
havahart until you maybe breathe or blow on one, and they jump in a brief
panic sometimes accompanied with an agitated sounding grunt since that's a
sensation they likely have little or no experience with.

Anyway, I'm all done now I'd like to think and that tunnel system and
territory should be vacant for awhile, maybe 2-3 years before it gets taken
over by the next set that will surely move in eventually. There's no shortage
of Aplodontia around here, nor will there ever be probably! And as for
the hostas and ferns, well, they're all hardy perennials and will sleep well
over winter, then renew again come spring.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA