An Official Website of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
Most beaver damage is relatively easy to identify. Much of this damage is associated with or is a result of dam building, bank burrowing, tree cutting, or flooding. Spring and fall are the periods when landowners experience the most severe damage from beavers. Go to Managing Beaver Problems in Kentucky for detailed information.
Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators are individuals who are permitted by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Services to provide professional wildlife control assistance for a fee. Find a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator in your area now.
Landowners and farmers who have problems with furbearers (mink, muskrat, beaver, river otter, weasel, raccoon, opossum, gray fox, red fox, bobcat, coyote, or striped skunk) may request assistance from a fur trapper during the legal trapping season. Through this program, farmers and landowners benefit by solving nuisance problems at no cost and fur trappers benefit by gaining land access for trapping opportunities. Furbearer trapping season is open from mid-November to the end of February. Fur trappers are private individuals and are not employed by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Services.
Per KRS 150.170, landowners may deal with nuisance wildlife through scare tactics, repellents, fencing and exclusion, or removal via shooting or trapping. A landowner may request authorization to designate another person to shoot or trap wildlife causing damage by filling out a simple form provided by a local Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources wildlife biologist or conservation officer. Contact a KDFWR Law Enforcement Officer or Wildlife Biologist in your area for assistance. A hunting or trapping license is not required. Destruction of any wildlife must be reported to a conservation officer within 24 hours of the kill.