Pest Control Diary: Getting to Grip with Mink

I like to think I am a down to earth kind of guy and though I have quite a lot of ground to roam over doing my pest control, stalking and even fishing it’s not a case of see all shoot all! As you know I cover a lot of topics; such as ways to help improve the habitat, making an area more appealing to wild life which in turn helps when controlling pests, vermin and deer. After all how many times could I get away with writing about going out with a lamp and rifle to bring to book a troublesome fox? That would get boring very quickly for all of us. I like to cover as much if not more about why, what if, does and don’ts; and something I don’t see when reading other articles the mistakes that we all make! These are just as much a part of any sport so why not include them?

YOU’RE KIDDING

I like to think I’ve given someone a good laugh when reading some of my articles, just as much as hints, tips and advice have been beneficial to them knowing the needs and habits of your chosen quarry really helps to improve your success. One land owner was blaming rabbits for damaging the trees he was planting; he would plant out an area one day to find the following day all the tops had been nipped off. It turned out to be roe deer, which took some explaining as he never even knew there were any on his land! Since then he’s been fascinated by the prospect of actually seeing these beautiful animals. He later rang me several times while I was carrying out maintenance on one of my estates in the highlands of Scotland.

Something was taking carp from his pond and devouring them 200-yards away in the wood, the only clue was a few fish scales. Eventually over a period of two weeks the direction of travel was worked out by finding the odd fish scale from the pond to where they were being devoured. However, it was hard ground and no tracks could be found and as the fish on average weighed in at 15 to 30lbs, whatever it was that was carrying them off had to be strong. But that was only part of the puzzle the other was how did the carp make it to dry land?

LIKELY SUSPECTS

I’ve known herons and cormorants to damage fish and they stay in the shallows that could explain how something strong enough had managed to snatch one and pulled it to the bank. The odd one maybe, but this was two or three a week, which the owner knew it was too many for it to be luck. By the information obtained there’s only two likely candidates strong enough to do this; badger or fox! The badger could be ruled out as any food found is eaten on the spot and apart from squabbling over a food source between themselves any evidence would be within the immediate area. So it had to be a fox, their natural behaviour is to carry food off, whether found or caught to be eaten or buried to be returned to at a later date when food scarce. But how was it cashing in on this regular food source?

If the fish where spawning in the shallows it would be possible for a fox to snatch one but it was the wrong time of year for them to be spawning! This went on for another week before I returned home from Scotland and got down to the pond to take a look. Trouble was not only was the ground hard from pond to where the fish where being devoured, but the banks surrounding the pond where also hard making it impossible to find any clues by means of tracks. All I could do was to keep watch as much as time would allow and hopefully catch the culprit before it or they could cause any more damage.

THE WRONG MANS

The fox was quickly dealt with by means of a well placed cage trap baited with a fish; job done! Then within days I saw for myself when I found a 15 to 20lb mirror carp well up on the bank with the underside eaten away typical of mink or otter. The river Irwell which used to be the dirtiest river in England runs through the farm land and though it’s gone through a fantastic transformation and now holds a good stock of brown trout. Otters have not reached the Irwell yet (as far as I know) but there is a strong population of mink. I always say; never under estimate anything, but for a mink to kill a fish of that size, swim with it to the bank then drag it up hill some 5 to 7 ft it would have to be as big as a cat!

So keeping an open mind I set cage traps around the pond baiting some with rabbit, others with tinned sardines. Why, well something with a different smell and look might help arouse this predator’s natural curiosity. In general they will investigate everything which usually leads to their downfall as long as you keep any disturbance to a minimum and don’t put a cage trap right on a known run.

Traps set I continued with patrols whenever I could, watching the water and banks for movement from a distance. Mink are not shy animals, in fact quite bold and can be seen throughout the day travelling up and down the river banks. Often quick to approach anyone fishing if they think there’s chance of a feed. But I didn’t want to take any chances, so watching from a distance I could make my way down if I saw something, seemed the best way of going about things.

NO AVAIL

But to no avail, the only movement I saw could have been fish swimming along the surface, as I was not high enough so more looking along the top of the water rather than looking down and I could only see half of the bank my concentration was along the banks out to four feet into the water. I would not expect to find one swimming the length of the pond unless it was a short cut to a food source.

Remember; once latched onto a fish it will then head for dry land to eat it’s catch the further out from the bank it is then the less chance it has of achieving that, especially with fish of this size, something I couldn’t get my head around! But after four days and nights (on and off) at different times I had a mink of average size in a trap that had been baited with rabbit and then another later in the day, a very large male. I am hoping that will be the end of the problem I have had mink from the same location before but never had damage like this before. So only time will tell; but up till now a week later I’ve had no reports of fish being dragged out and left partly eaten. Unfortunately as I was in Scotland at the time most of the damage had been done there is one picture I would have liked and that was a picture of where the fox had been laying in the snow waiting for its dinner to arrive courtesy of the mink.