Challenge: River Otter Living in the Cockpit

[jrd22]

Geo- Welcome to our world!

[GeoPowers]

Thanks! Maybe I'll bring some otters from the Southeast with me to teach those renegade otters in WA and BC some laidback hospitality:



They still crap everywhere, but at least they bring beer! Now if we can just teach them to bring Redhook instead of Bud...

[GeoPowers]

Originally Posted by NW Craig

I hate otters, everyone thinks they're so cute..... AHHHHHH! I've been fighting these filthy creatures for several years now. You go to the boat and it's full of fish heads, s---, and other disgusting waste products. I tried building an otter fence out of PVC but it was too clumsy to use once the boat was in the water. I've tried the moth balls, laundry detergent, etc all to no avail.

I thought about shooting them but figured I'd miss them, sink the boat, and end up in jail.

I will conquer the pests, and will report but don't hold your breath -- you'll be very blue. If anyone finds the answer, there are many of us that will hail you as a hero and buy your beer everytime we meet.

craig in the rainy Puget Sound

Great post, made me laugh!!!

[Lancerbye]

Great posts. We have them in Victoria as well. They seem to have taken over a particular inflatable which they used as a floating eating deck and diving platform. So far they have stayed off my boat. If they come on I will report back as to the BBQ recipe I used. I used to shoot seals too. I commercial fished at the time. A Federal Fisheries officer approached myself and a few other commercial fishermen one day and asked us to keep the shooting of seals down because the tourists were complaining.

[NW Craig]

I love the Caddy Shack meets Capt Ron! There are several of us who keep our boats on buoys during the summer here and the otters always provide a great source of conversation, levity, and group hate!

craig

[David M]

Originally Posted by GeoPowers

Thanks! Maybe I'll bring some otters from the Southeast with me to teach those renegade otters in WA and BC some laidback hospitality:



They still crap everywhere, but at least they bring beer! Now if we can just teach them to bring Redhook instead of Bud...

Great pic, but are they not like any other rude boat guest who brings the cheapest beer they can find and leaves their crap everywhere?

[twisty]

Originally Posted by GeoPowers

Thanks! Maybe I'll bring some otters from the Southeast with me to teach those renegade otters in WA and BC some laidback hospitality:



They still crap everywhere, but at least they bring beer! Now if we can just teach them to bring Redhook instead of Bud...

I want to know where in the SE there are otters that small, I want to move there. The are the size of my jon boat around here! ok not quite but pretty damn close in length!

Plus I am out of beer!

[Solitude]

I'm going down to check tonight. If its been there I’m removing the tarp! Thanks for the ideas. It sounds like I better get it off fast before it really moves in.... I wouldn't want a family on there. I have a battery operated door chime with a motion sensor I’ll try along with some other ideas; fragrant soap bars the kind that make a shopping mall stink; some dried and ground hot pepper. Maybe even some urine to mark my space!!

I’ll take a pic if there is anything to see.

[bene505]

Go to the barbershop and get a huge wad of hair. Spread it around. It worked for geese in that one movie.

Petroleum jelly?

Magic markers with the cap off?

Electric fence?

I still like the dog idea the best.

[hugosalt]

Fox urine supposed to work for some criters...don't know for sure,
I hav'nt been able to get Fox to stand still to get specimen.

[jrd22]

Fragrant soap bars, they love em. Moth balls, they think they're toys. Peppers of all kinds, just right to season the fish. There's a family of five of them in the marina, they like to get on top of canvas covers and use them like trampolines.

[GeoPowers]

Originally Posted by Solitude

........... Maybe even some urine to mark my space!!

I’ll take a pic if there is anything to see.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

David M, I think you have this guy mistaken for the muskrat carrying the schlitz on board...!

[Solitude]

Ok I went down to the boat and it had been back. It crapped all over the cockpit floor!!! This is war. I found this on a Emerald Isle Sailing website ...

"People were always asking me how to get rid of otters," says Tim Ransom, a curator of the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor. River otters don't build dens instead use natural cavities or other animals' abandoned holes to curl up in. The lung area, where the kits stay for approximately three months, may be sited well away from the water. The prospective mother heads inland — up to 60 yards from shore — to give birth in a cozy protected spot, such as a crawlspace. It's common for islanders to find nests under their homes made snug and warm with the latest in ripped-off insulation.

"As long as you don't recognize the long term implication of breathing insulation” says Tim, "short-term is that it's a perfect place to have a den." In response to those homeowners unsympathetic to a mother otter's needs, he advises prevention. “Reducing access to the space is really the best thing. Close it up as much as you can, and put something like ammonia in there when she's looking for a den in the Spring.” Otters have extremely sensitive noses, and once they catch the first whiff of a bowl of ammonia, they won't stick around for a second.


I'll give it a try but from the stink it leaves ammonia would be a welcome change.

[Tempest245]

Originally Posted by Solitude

Ok I went down to the boat and it had been back. It crapped all over the cockpit floor!!! This is war. I found this on a Emerald Isle Sailing website ...

. “Reducing access to the space is really the best thing. .

\


How is it gaining access?

[dacust]

At my marina they use a sonic rodent repeller. When they have it at my end of the marina I can hear it inside my boat. Very annoying, but the otters stay away. When they don't run it, there is a family that hangs out, mainly around the racing clubs boats and in their dinghys.

The one they have is about $40 from Home Depot. I'd put one in the cockpit on low and see if that works. If not, try it on medium if it isn't too loud to annoy the neighbors. I would bother with the sonic stuff normally, but I've seen the results here. So, I bought one for the rats. Doesn't work. So, the rodent repeller doesn't work for mice and rats, but does for otters...

But, the ammonia is cheaper. Try that first.

-dan