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California's 20-pound invasive nutria problem could be worse than previously imagined
www.sfgate.com ^ | Updated 4:00 am PDT, Friday, August 17, 2018 | By Eric Ting

Posted on 08/17/2018 1:49:53 PM PDT by Red Badger

For the small six-person team tasked with combating California's nutria infestation, a typical day consists of working in 100-degree weather, wading through marshes and avoiding traps built to catch 20-pound rodents, targeting about 2 million acres.

Nutria, a destructive rat-like mammal, is currently burrowing into central California's wetlands. In the spring, the Department of Fish and Wildlife began to warn the public about the dangers of the animal, which devastate agricultural infrastructure by burrowing into levees, roadbeds and canal beds.

But in the past few months, only 200 nutria have been exterminated, 100 of which were found in a pond on a single private farm in central California.

As the agency prepares for an intensive survey of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, officials say they have no idea what the actual numbers of nutria will look like. In April, there were two confirmed sightings of nutria just outside the delta, a region critical to California's waterways.

"We can't guess, we have no idea what we're going to find in there," California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Peter Tira told SFGATE. "We need to survey and see to what extent they're in there, we haven't determined a complete range of nutria in the region."

"Our goal is to keep the nutria out of the delta as much as possible," Tira said. "That's the epicenter of our water control and flood control in California."

The Department of Fish and Wildlife isn't expected to get people on the ground in the delta until later this month, since they are still in the process of getting permission from farmers and other landowners to access private property. Most of the land in the delta is private.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Food; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: ca; california; nutria; rats; rodents
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To: Red Badger

Clearly a lot of Nutriaphobia around here


41 posted on 08/17/2018 2:19:48 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Sessions. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Red Badger

Rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding, or strawberry tart.
Well, I’ll have a slice without so much rat in it.


42 posted on 08/17/2018 2:20:23 PM PDT by jimmygrace
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To: Red Badger

Let people in CA (really) own guns and legalize all year hunting of them.


43 posted on 08/17/2018 2:20:28 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60's....You weren't really there)
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To: Red Badger

The 200+ pound Rat problem is the real threat.


44 posted on 08/17/2018 2:22:05 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day")
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To: cpdiii

Well if you use enough zatarains, maybe.


45 posted on 08/17/2018 2:24:15 PM PDT by rktman (Enlis ted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: jimmygrace

Nutria Tacos, Nutria tamales, Nutria quesadillas, Nutria burritos, Nutria Enchiladas, Nutria chili, Nutria Tostadas, Nutria Chalupas.............you get the picture..............


46 posted on 08/17/2018 2:24:43 PM PDT by Red Badger (July 2018 - the month the world learns the TRUTH......Q Anon)
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To: marktwain

In Mississippi they pay a $25 Bounty for Feral Hogs, or so I was told. I’m not sure who pays the $25 though.


47 posted on 08/17/2018 2:26:23 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (The way Liberals carry on about Deportation, you would think "Mexico" was Spanish for "Auschwitz".)
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To: Red Badger

The Venezuelans are hungry.

Catch them, butcher them, and add salt and pepper, and ship them off to Venezuela.


48 posted on 08/17/2018 2:26:38 PM PDT by adorno
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To: Red Badger

Sounds like a job for Billy The Exterminator


49 posted on 08/17/2018 2:26:51 PM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: Gen.Blather

ROTFL!


50 posted on 08/17/2018 2:27:34 PM PDT by dangus
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To: GSWarrior

They only come out at night....................


51 posted on 08/17/2018 2:28:04 PM PDT by Red Badger (July 2018 - the month the world learns the TRUTH......Q Anon)
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To: Zhang Fei

>> Store-bought, hunted or in a restaurant? <<

Probably more relevant:

Wild-caught, farmed, or plucked out of the polluted sewers of SoCal.


52 posted on 08/17/2018 2:28:51 PM PDT by dangus
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To: marktwain
Give a $50 bounty on each Nutria turned in.

My Canadian wife told me a story about how her uncle went out camping with another fellow years ago. The fellow built a campfire, and told him whenever you see two little yellow lights, shoot at them. The next morning, they were surrounded by wolf carcasses, and turned in the ears for a $25 bounty.
53 posted on 08/17/2018 2:28:58 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: Red Badger

Market dead nutria as the perfect fertilizer for cannibas plants.


54 posted on 08/17/2018 2:29:40 PM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: Kickass Conservative

Ignant Yankee here, but Isn’t the pork worth way more? Roadkill deer is a delicacy among some of my relatives.


55 posted on 08/17/2018 2:30:16 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Zhang Fei

Mind you, every time I see “nutria” I think hazelnut and chocolate...


56 posted on 08/17/2018 2:31:17 PM PDT by dangus
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To: Red Badger

Eat them.

They’re pretty tasty.

And it’s true that I Will eat about anything.

5.56mm


57 posted on 08/17/2018 2:31:42 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: M Kehoe

I will eat anything that doesn’t eat me first.................


58 posted on 08/17/2018 2:32:43 PM PDT by Red Badger (July 2018 - the month the world learns the TRUTH......Q Anon)
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To: Kickass Conservative
In Mississippi they pay a $25 Bounty for Feral Hogs

You'd have to pay me a lot more than twenty-five bucks. Those are wily, dangerous critters.


59 posted on 08/17/2018 2:33:23 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Red Badger

Why the heck would you name it Nutria? It sounds like a sugar substitute, not an animal.


60 posted on 08/17/2018 2:36:10 PM PDT by TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed (Yahuah Yahusha)
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