Badger (Taxidea taxus)

The Definitive Guide to Badger Control and Where to Find a
Wildlife Control Professional!

Are you frustrated and tired of dealing with the Damage caused by WILDLIFE. This site deals with WILDLIFE DAMAGE and steps the "Do it yourselfer" can take to protecting your property from the damage caused by Wildlife in your area.

Don't want to do it yourself? No Problem, we have Wildlife Professionals to help you solve all your wildlife control needs.

Identification

The Badger (Taxidea taxus) is a stocky, medium-sized mammal with a broad head, a short, thick neck, short legs, and a short, bushy tail. Its front legs are stout and muscular, and its front claws are long. It is silver-gray, had long guard hairs, a black patch on each cheek, black feet, and a characteristic white stripe extending from its nose over the top of its head. The length of this stripe down the back varies. Badgers may weigh up to 30 pounds, but average about 19 pounds for males and 14 pounds for females. Eye shine at night is green.

Range

The badger is widely distributed in the contiguous United States. Its range extends southward from the Great Lakes states to the Ohio Valley and westward through the Great Plains to the Pacific Coast, though not west of the Cascade mountain range in the Northwest. Badgers are found at elevations of up to 12,000 feet.

Damage Caused by Badgers

Most damage caused by badgers results from their digging in pursuit of prey. Open burrows create a hazard to livestock and horseback riders. Badger diggings in crop fields may slow harvesting or cause damage to machinery. Digging can also damage earthen dams or dikes and irrigation canals, resulting in flooding and the loss of irrigation water. Diggings on the shoulders of roads can lead to erosion and the collapse of road surfaces. In late summer and fall, watch for signs of digging that indicate that young badgers have moved into the area.

Badgers will occasionally prey on live-stock or poultry, gaining access to protected animals by digging under fences or through the floor of a poultry house. Tracks can indicate the presence of badgers, but to the novice, badger tracks may appear similar to coyote tracks. Claw marks are farther from the toe pad in badger tracks, however, and the front tracks have a pigeon-toed appearance.

Yard Damage

Control Methods

Mesh fencing buried to a depth of 12 to 18 inches can exclude most badgers. The cost and effort to construct such fences, however, preclude their use for large areas.

Control of rodents, particularly burrowing rodents, offers the greatest potential for alleviating problems resulting from badger diggings. For example, controlling ground squirrels or pocket gophers in alfalfa fields will likely result in badgers hunting elsewhere.

Badgers may be discouraged from a problem area by the use of bright lights at night. High-intensity lamps used to light up a farmyard may discourage badger predation on poultry.

Badgers can be removed by using cage traps and/or leg-hold traps set like those for coyotes. Snares have been used with mixed success (check your state regulations concerning the use of cable restraints). Badgers often return to old diggings. A good bait for badgers is a dead chicken placed within a recently dug burrow. Fur trapping may reduce badger populations locally, but badger pelts are generally of little value and most badgers are caught incidentally.

Badgers can be controlled by shooting. Spotlighting, if legal, can be effective. Incidental shooting has contributed to reducing their numbers in some areas. Be sure to check your local regulations before trapping or shooting any animal.

For best results contact a Wildlife Control Professional.