Kimball County Dealing Well With Prairie Dogs

Matt Anderson from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently met with the Kimball County Commissioners to provide a summary of the past year's predator control.

For the past 13 years, Anderson has targeted badgers, raccoons, red fox, coyotes, skunks, prairie dogs, and many raptor species in five Nebraska counties, including Kimball, Banner, Scotts Bluff, Morrill, and Cheyenne.

Although the USDA has a contract with the counties, a landowner must request Anderson. He said area farmers and ranchers are dealing well with the prairie dogs issue because "Kimball County is the cleanest of all the counties" regarding prairie dogs.

There is no disguising a prairie dog town, but those "cute" little things can cause a loss of grass for grazing. The prairie dogs, with their big teeth, clip off the grass, then keep it clipped down, and the pasture can't be grazed by cattle or horses because it is too short.

According to research, the grass is damaged for up to 16 years from the little varmints. In his most recent report, Anderson totaled the losses on pasture from the black-tailed prairie dogs as $81,063.

According to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the "black-tailed prairie dogs have tawny fur, large eyes, short legs, inconspicuous ears, and a characteristic black-tipped tail." Adults are about a foot long and weigh 2-3 pounds.

Prairie dog towns are composed of burrows that are 6 to 9 feet deep and extend up to 20 feet long. An acre of land can contain from 30 to 75 burrows.

“Once they get started you have to work like heck to get rid of them,” Anderson said.

Generally, the burrows have one or two entrances with the one of the entrances serving as a “sentinel” post for the outfit. The number of prairie dogs per acre can reach 50 or more.

When the prairie dogs move to another location, other animals more into their burrows.

Prairie dogs are known for being carriers of sylvatic plague and tularemia. These diseases are spread by fleas, ticks or biting flies. Sylvatic plague includes swollen lymph nodes, chills and fever, while tularemia causes fever, chills, and body aches.