Nutria

[sar]

Anyone ever shot these?  What head would you use?  Anyone eat these things???

[Snakeeater]

Shot at but never hit one.

Use your regular deer broadhead.

Cook them like groundhogs.

Nasty yellow incisors.

[Mdbowman]

Our club had Nitria hunts for years here. But the government has spent millions on getting rid of them in our state. But, Larry is right use regular broadheads. I like to boil them with a little sage, then pull the meat like pulled pork. Then I make Barbeque with it using Barbeque sauce and a liitle brown sugar. Your family and friends will think they are eating Pork barbeque.

[joel smith]

Yeah, they must be real bad up Maryland way, got a friend with a place up on DelMarVa and the nutria have literally eaten up his duck marsh

[Brian McIntyre]

Nutria?  Wasn't that the stuff George Costanza's cheap hat was made of on Seinfeld.  He thought he was buying sable, but it ended up being nutria.  Hello, Newman..........

MacGilla

[Shakes.602]

Looks like a Musk-Rat from the Pic I just looked up.

[yleecoyote23]

Originally posted by Brian McIntyre:
Nutria?  Wasn't that the stuff George Costanza's cheap hat was made of on Seinfeld.  He thought he was buying sable, but it ended up being nutria.  Hello, Newman..........

MacGilla

I think you are right! Big difference between sable and nutria!! Poor George!!!  :D  

We have a BIG nutria problem here as well! They are nothing more than GIANT RATS as far as I'm concerned, landowners encourage their demise!!

Never ate one but it sounds like they cook up pretty good, might have to try it sometime!!

[duck'n]

I had customers from Louisiana that swore they taste like pot roast if done right.  I never have drank enough to try one...LOL.  I would try it once.  They have a bounty on them in LA also.  Did anyone see that episode of Insomniac where Dave Attell was driving around shooting them with the NOPD sniper team?

[MikeW]

They were originaly brought into LA for meat(human consumption)...google it. I think the family that did it are still hated to this day.
 :D

I never been drunk enough to eat one either, they look like a cross between a beaver and a rat.
I heard they are good though.

I call em "Targets"

[fletcharrows]

Out here in Yew country - we call 'em rat-tailed-beavers. They graze on grass and I have waked up and kicked 'em. They may be good eaten but I've never met any body who ate one and lived LOL. I think I'd use a good small grame head.

fletch

[J.W.]

I've never ate one either...but, I did see the show where the sniper team was shootin' em'. Just driving around New Orleans; wearin' em' out with a 22 rifle. And I agree with the other guys...nothin' but a big rat!

[Tree man]

I've eaten Nutria several times-It was EXCELLENT.

[wislnwings]

Being from South Louisiana, I have hunted and eaten them.  Taste pretty good once you get past the fact that you're eatin an oversize rat. Some years ago there was a big push to create a market for them in restraunts.  I don't think it ever took off.  Best advice I can give is not to let your dog corner one in the marsh while duck hunting.  They can mess a dog up with their teeth.

[PAPALAPIN]

Nutria are very clean aquatic animals.  LOTS CLEANER THAN PIGS.  Once you get past the fact that you are eating a rodent, one that looks like  a huge rat, they are quite tasty.  Most nutria that people see in So. Louisiana are dead and rotting on the side of the road from being hit by cars.  This tends to make people feel that they are gross nasty animals and not fit for human consumption.  Nothiong could be further fronm the truth.  However, just like deer, a a lot has to do with how you handle the meat after the kill.  

The attempt to create a market for them was by Paul Prudhomme of New Orleans restruant fame.  The guy that made blackend red fish a choice dish to the point the they were almost fished out into extinction.  Unlike the red fish, the nutria never really caught on.  My X-Father-in-law was a trapper in So Louisiana.  Nutria was a prized fur that made a softer, prettier coat than mink did.  There was nothing cheap about nutria products.  With the decline of the fur industry, the trapping died off and the  only thing keeping the nutria in check in Louisiana are the gators, and they can only eat so much.  So. Louisuan is loosing hundreds of square miles a year of marshland because trhe nutria are eating up all the vegitation and there is nothing to keep the marsh from being washed away.  A real ecological nightmare.

So if you want to help save So. Louisiana, go down there and eat a nutria.  Every little bit helps.

[bayoulongbowman]

Well I have to disagree , Ive tasted it before and its not for me , I even ate some made into sausage...I didnt like it or the smell. LSU AG depth has tried to push this also...If i were stranded on Island , I might eat it...But not unless I ran out of fish! LOL...IM sure they might be ok , for some , not me...Paul Prudhomme could make a 2x4 tasty LOL...and if you ever ate Paul's Blacken Red Fish you would think ur in heaven!! as for the Rodent ...hell aligators wont eat em!!! Marco#78

[Frenchy]

French rule reconizes nutria as a destructive non-native animal.
They are very destructive to vegitation in the areas they live.
Streams and river banks are also dammaged by these large rodents
So, if you get permission to hunt on private property you can chase them all year round (but you need a valid license and you can't hunt them at night)
Some French bowhunters spend a lot of time chasing them.
            "Spot and stalk" method works well with nutrias.
They usually move primarily in early AM and evening and night; nevertheless you can see them in the daytime too.
Some pics of nutria bowhunting ...
     

[Frenchy]

...  

[Frenchy]

On a private pond...  

[Frenchy]

A cute baby.
Young nutrias are often heedless of danger.
Only 15-20 percent of them survive the first winter.  

[Frenchy]

Summer harvest with a Thunderstick III.