Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Nutria, which have increasingly been brought into California to be ranched for fur within the past decade, have know to have escaped, with the first known wild population seen in 1948. Initial attempts at control by use of carrot or sweet potato baits using zinc phosphide or strychnine were unsatisfactory. A trapping program begun in 1951 by the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (USFWS) is now considered the most effective control method. Use of No. 3 steel traps is described, as are the merits of shooting either during nighttime on feeding grounds, or in daytime.